and it was a trying ordeal for mother, so recently bereaved of husband.
Will sought to soothe her, but the younger sisters had better success,
for with tears in our eyes we crowded about him, imploring him to "run
if he saw any Indians."

'Tis but a step from tears to smiles; the situation was relieved, and
Will launched his life bark amid adieus of hope and confidence and love.
His fortitude lasted only till he was out of sight of the house; but
youth is elastic, the plains lay before him, and mother and sisters were
to be helped; so he presented a cheerful face to his employers.

That night the bed of the "boy extra" was a blanket under a wagon; but
he slept soundly, and was ready when the train started with the dawn.

The "bull-train" took its name from the fact that each of the
thirty-five wagons making up a full train was hauled by several yoke of
oxen, driven by one man, known as a bullwhacker. This functionary's
whip cracked like a rifle, and could be heard about as far. The wagons
resembled the ordinary prairie-schooner, but were larger and more
strongly built; they were protected from the weather by a double
covering of heavy canvas, and had a freight capacity of seven thousand
pounds.

Besides the bullwhackers there were cavallard drivers (who cared for
the loose cattle), night herders, and sundry extra hands, all under the
charge of a chief wagon-master, termed the wagon-boss, his lieutenants
being the boss of the cattle train and the assistant wagon-master. The
men were disposed in messes, each providing its own wood and water,
doing its own cooking, and washing up its own tin dinner service, while
one man in each division stood guard. Special duties were assigned to
the "extras," and Will's was to ride up and down the train delivering
orders. This suited his fancy to a dot, for the oxen were snail-gaited,
and to plod at their heels was dull work. Kipling tells us it is quite
impossible to "hustle the East"; it were as easy, as Will discovered, to
hustle a bull-train.

From the outset the "boy extra" was a favorite with the men. They liked
his pluck in undertaking such work, and when it was seen that he took
pride in executing orders promptly, he became a favorite with the bosses
as well. In part his work was play to him; he welcomed an order as a
break in the monotony of the daily march, and hailed the opportunity of
a gallop on a good horse.

The world of Will's fancy was bounded by the hazy rim whe