THE PRAIRIE-DOG TOWN 



As the settlers were few and far from one 

 another, the prairie-dogs were not a nuisance in 

 those days to the western farmer. Nature, as 

 usual in natural conditions, balanced herself and 

 the prairie dog was kept in check while acting 

 as a manufacturing establishment to turn vege- 

 table matter into flesh for the benefit of his 

 carnivorous neighbors. 



During the second summer of Sam's frontier 

 life the crops were a failure, as they often were 

 in those days before the planting of trees, which 

 has done so much for the plains in changing the 

 climate, breaking the winds, retaining the snow 

 and ridding the country of the grasshopper pest. 



Many a plains settler felt the pangs of hunger 

 more than once during the dry fall and long 

 winter that followed. Early one morning Sam 

 noticed the sky was not clear and the sun was 

 not as bright as usual. There was a hazy at- 

 mosphere through which the sky looked gray 

 and the sun appeared as a dull red ball. This 

 continued for two days, the air growing hotter 

 and more dense with smoke ; not the least breeze 

 stirred. Sam learned from the stage-driver at 

 the Crossroads that a great western prairie fire 

 [59] 



