r any ponds or anything along the trail, and they had to be
careful of the water and save it, and he and Dulcie were not asked
to wash their faces. I think that miracle helped to fix the incident
indelibly in Buddy's mind; that, and the bellowing of the cattle. It
seemed a month to Buddy, but as he grew older he learned that it was
three days they went without water.

The first day he did not remember especially, except that mother had
talked about clean aprons that night, and failed to produce any. The
second he recalled quite clearly. Father came to the wagons sometime in
the night to see if mother was asleep. Their murmured talk wakened Buddy
and he heard father say:

"We'll hold 'em, all right, Lassie. And there's water ahead. It's marked
on the trail map. Don't you worry--I'll stay up and help the boys. The
cattle are uneasy--but we'll hold 'em."

The third day Buddy never forgot. That was the day when mother forgot
that Q stands for Quagga, and permitted Buddy to call it P, just for
fun, because it looked so much like P. And when he said "W is water ",
mother made a funny sound and said right out loud, "Oh God, please!" and
told Buddy to creep back and play with Sister--when Sister was asleep,
and there were still x, y and z to say, let alone that mysterious
And-so-forth which seemed to mean so much and so little and never was
called upon to help spell a word. Never since he began to have lessons
had mother omitted a single letter or cut the study hour down the
teeniest little bit.

Buddy was afraid of something, but he could not think what it was that
frightened him. He began to think seriously about water, and to listen
uneasily to the constant lowing of the herd. The increased shouting
of the niggers driving the lagging ones held a sudden significance. It
occurred to him that the niggers had their hands full, and that they had
never driven so big a "Drag." It was hotter than ever, too, and they had
twice stopped to yoke in fresh oxen. Ezra had boasted all along that
ole Bawley would keep his end up till they got clah to Wyoming. But ole
Bawley had stopped, and stopped, and at last had to be taken out of the
yoke. Buddy began to wish they would hurry up and find a river.

None of the cowboys would take him on the saddle and let him ride, that
day. They looked harassed--Buddy called it cross--when they rode up to
the wagon to give their horses a few mouthfuls of water from the barrel.
Step-and-a-Half couldn'