here is a God in
heaven, who made you, and of whom your mother expected to tell you.
Before Him we should bow down and pray every night before we go to
sleep."

"Does He hear all the words we say?" asked little John in an awed tone,
quite unable to comprehend his father's meaning, "and does He look at us
when we are asleep?"

"Yes," his father answered; "God sees and knows everything. Now, I will
tell you the short prayer that I used to say when I was a little boy
like you--the prayer that my mother taught me."

Thus it was that John, kneeling beside his little bed repeated the
prayer that has been lisped by thousands of other baby voices:

"Now I lay me down to sleep;
I pray thee, Lord, my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray thee, Lord, my soul to take."

As the days and weeks sped by, John thought often of his dear mama and
wished that he might see her; but he as often would recall his father's
words to be a little man, and with all his strength he endeavored to be
what he considered a man ought to be. But although he tried, in his
childish way, to be one, he was often very lonely; and had it not been
for frequent visits to his uncle's home, several miles distant, he would
have missed his precious mother even more than he did. While at his
uncle's, he could play with his two cousins, Will and Charley. At last
it was decided that it would be best for John and his father to go and
make their home with the uncle until John was older.

Now Charley was just about John's age; but as Charley was a cripple,
John had chosen Will, who was several years the oldest, to be his
closest friend and companion. Regardless of these facts, however, the
three boys generally played together. Their playground was the vast
dooryard extending far out over the prairie.

In time they were given the responsibility of herding the cows. To herd
the cows meant to see that the cattle did not wander about in the
neighborhood corn, wheat, and barley fields that were scattered about
here and there over the prairies and that were in but few instances
fenced, and to see that they were driven to some water-place at certain
intervals and were brought home at the milking hour.

The watering places were known as "buffalo-wallows," for they had been
made by the buffalos in wallowing. These basins were usually kept filled
with water by the rains. Some of the "wallows," or "ponds," were rather
deep, and were treacherous beca