Old Blacky finds that there is no water
along the road he will insist on having about a barrel a day,"
said Jack. "And if he can't get it he will balk, and kick the
dash-board into kindling-wood."

A little before sunrise we started. It was agreed, owing to
the increase in the load and the deep sand, that no one, not even
Snoozer, should be allowed to ride in the wagon. If Ollie got
tired he was to ride the pony. So we started off, walking beside
the wagon, with the pony lust behind, as usual, dangling her
stirrups, and the abused Snoozer, looking very much hurt at the
insult put upon him, following behind her.

For three or four miles the road was much like that to which
we had been accustomed. Then it gradually began to grow sandier.
We were following an old trail which ran near the railroad,
sometimes on one side and sometimes on the other; and this was
the case all the way through the hills. The railroad was new,
having been built only a year or two before. There was a station
on it every fifteen or twenty miles, with a side-track, and a
water-tank for the engines, but not much else.

There was no well-marked boundary to the Sand Hills, but
gradually, and almost before we realized it, we found ourselves
surrounded by them. We came to a crossing of the railroad, and in
a little cut a few rods away we saw the sand drifted over the
rails three or four inches deep, precisely like snow.

"Well," said Jack, "I guess we're in the Sand Hills at last
if we've got where it drifts."

"I wonder if they have to have sand-ploughs on their
engines?" said Ollie.

"I've heard that they frequently have to stop and shovel it
off," answered Jack.

As we got farther among the sand dunes we found them all
sizes and shapes, though usually circular, and from fifteen to
forty feet high. Of course the surface of the county was very
irregular, and there would be places here and there where the
grass had obtained a little footing and the sand had not drifted
up. There were also some hills which seemed to be independent of
the sand piles.

We stopped for noon on a little flat where there was some
struggling grass, This flat ran off to the north, and narrowed
into a small valley through which in the spring probably a little
water flowed. We had finished dinner when we noticed a flock of
big birds circling about the little valley, and, on looking
closer, saw that some of them were on the ground.

"They are sand-hill cra