horses
quickened their pace of their own accord--sure sign that they had
scented water from afar. Shortly after, they came in sight of a stream.
The excitement of all increased as they pushed forward. They broke
into a wild run on nearing the stream; and then followed a scene which
is almost indescribable. The oxen were cast loose, the riders leaped to
the ground, and the whole party, men, oxen, and horses, ran in a
promiscuous heap into the water.

"Wow, man, Jerry, hae a care; ee'll be squizzen atween the beasts," said
Sandy Black, as the active Jerry passed him in the race.

The Scot's warning was not without reason, for next moment Jerry was up
to the knees in the stream between two oxen, who, closing on each other,
almost burst him. Easing off, they let him drop on hands and knees, and
he remained in that position drinking thankfully. The whole place was
quickly stirred up into a muddy compound like pea-soup, but neither man
nor beast was particular. They struggled forward and fell on their
knees--not inappropriately--to drink. One man was pushed down by an ox,
but seemed pleased with the refreshing coolness of his position, and
remained where he was drinking. Another in his haste tumbled over the
edge of the bank and rolled down, preceded by an impatient horse, which
had tripped over him. Both gathered themselves up, somehow, with their
lips in the water,--and drank! Young Rivers, happening to gain the
stream at a point where oxen and horses were wedged together tightly,
tried to force in between them, but, failing in this, he stooped to
crawl in below them. At that moment Slinger the "Tottie" gave a yell in
Dutch, and said that a horse was trampling on him; whom Dikkop consoled
by saying that _he_ was fast in the mud--and so he was, but not too fast
to prevent drinking. Meanwhile the Dutchmen and the knowing ones of the
party restrained themselves, and sought for better positions where the
water was clearer. There they, likewise, bent their tall heads and
suggested--though they did not sing--the couplet:

"Oh that a Dutchman's draught might be
As deep as the ro-o-olling Zuyder-Zee!"

The limit of drinking was capacity. Each man and beast drank as much as
he, or it, could hold, and then unwillingly left the stream, covered
with mud and dripping wet! Oh, it was a delicious refreshment, which
some thought fully repaid them for the toil and suffering they had
previously undergone. The aspect o