OUR CAMP ON WALNUT CREEK 



After breakfast next morning Tom shouldered 

 the scythe and his rifle and set out for the hay- 

 field. 



When we had cleared away the breakfast 

 dishes Jack chose the pick-and-shovel work and 

 was soon making the dirt fly out of the hole on 

 the other side of the ravine, while I set to making 

 a hay frame of crossed poles on top of the wagon- 

 box, notched and lashed together and held in 

 place by strips of rawhide cut from the skin on 

 the yearhng buffalo quarters. Now and then 

 on the still morning air, although about a mile 

 away, we could hear the **whick-whack" as Tom 

 whetted his scythe. 



At nine o'clock Jack went to the hay-field to 

 help Tom, while I put on the dinner, to which I 

 called them by flag at noon. In the afternoon 

 they returned to their haymaking, and by eve- 

 ning they had a nice lot of hay in cocks which 

 would do to haul and stack next day. After fin- 

 ishing the hay frame I worked at digging in the 

 dugout. 



Buffalo were to be seen on the prairie all about 

 us, and now and then a few antelope made their 

 appearance, but we were too busy to spare the 

 time to go out and kill any. Flocks of water- 

 fowl — wild geese, brants, ducks, and sand-hill 

 cranes — were seen and heard flying over and 

 sometimes alighted in the pond formed by the 

 beaver dam, and also seemed to come down at a 



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