ope should be the plow; not the plow
of the Great Seal, but a plow buried to the top of the mold-board in the
soil, with the black furrow-slice falling away from it--and for heaven's
sake, let it fall to the right, as it does where they do real farming,
and not to the left as most artists depict it! I know some plows are so
made that the nigh horse walks in the furrow, but I have mighty little
respect for such plows or the farms on which they are used.

My cattle strayed off in the latter part of October; being tolled off in
this time between hay and grass by the green spears that grew up in the
wet places in the marsh and along the creek. I got uneasy about them on
the twentieth, and went hunting them on one of Magnus Thorkelson's
horses. Magnus was away from home working, and had left his team with
me. I made up my mind that I would scout along on my own side of the
marsh until I could cross below it, and then work west, looking from
every high place until I found the cattle, coming in away off toward the
Gowdy tract, and crossing the creek above the marsh on my way home. This
would take me east and west nearly twice across Vandemark Township as it
was finally established.

I expected to get back before night, but when I struck the trail of the
stock it took me away back into the region in the north part of the
township back of Vandemark's Folly, as we used to say, where it was not
settled, on account of the slew and the distance from town, until in the
'seventies. Foster Blake had it to himself all this time, and ran a herd
of the neighbors' stock there until about 1877, when the Germans came in
and hemmed him in with their improvements, making the second great
impulse in the settlement of the township.

2

There was a stiff, dry, west wind blowing, and a blue haze in the air.
As the afternoon advanced, the sun grew red as if looked at through
smoked glass, burning like a great coal of fire or a broad disk of
red-hot iron.

There was a scent of burning grass in the air when I found my herd over
on Section Eight, about where the cooperative creamery and store now
stand. The cattle seemed to be uneasy, and when I started them toward
home, they walked fast, snuffing the air, and giving once in a while an
uneasy, anxious falsetto bellow; and now and then they would break into
a trot as they drew nearer to the places they knew. The smell of smoke
grew stronger, and I knew there was a prairie fire burning to the
west