and gave them all their
oats. Soon the rest of us also had our breakfast, including
Snoozer, who seemed to wake up by instinct, and after waiting a
little for somebody to come and stretch him, stretched himself,
and began waving his tail to attract our attention to his urgent
need of food.

"Before we get back home that dog will want us to feed him
with a spoon," said Jack.

It was only a little while after sunrise when we were off for
another day's voyage. We were headed almost due south, and all
that day and the three or four following (including Sunday, when
we stayed in camp), we did not change our general direction. We
were aiming to reach the town of Yankton, where we intended to
cross the Missouri River and turn to the west in Nebraska. The
country through which we travelled was much of it prairie, but
more was under cultivation, and the houses of settlers were
numerous. The land on which wheat or other small grains had been
grown was bare, but as we got farther south we passed great
fields of corn, some of it standing almost as high as the top of
our wagon-cover.

For much of the way we were far from railroads and towns, and
got most of our supplies of food from the settlers whose houses
we passed or, indeed, sighted, since the pony proved as
convenient for making landings as Jack had predicted she would.
Ollie usually went on these excursions after milk and eggs and
such like foods. The different languages which he encountered
among the settlers somewhat bewildered him, and he often had hard
work in making the people he found at the houses understand what
he wanted. There Were many Norwegians, and the third day we
passed through a large colony of Russians, saw a few Finns, and
heard of some Icelanders who lived around on the other side of a
lake.

"It wouldn't surprise me," said Ollie one day, "to find the
man in the moon living here in a sod house."

Perhaps a majority--certainly a great many--of all these
people lived in houses of this kind. Ollie had never seen
anything of the sort before, and he became greatly interested in
them. The second day we camped near one for dinner.

"You see," said Jack, "a man gets a farm, takes half his
front yard and builds a house with it. He gains space, though,
because the place he peels in the yard will do for flowerbeds,
and the roof and sides of his house are excellent places to grow
radishes, beets, and similar vegetables."

"Why not other things b