nd his arguments, wasted the day before, they blamed him for
going on without them, and nursed a grudge against him and his officers
that showed itself at times until the end of the long journey. They
would not let themselves believe that he would have refused really to
desert them.

The caravan made only fifteen miles and camped on a rise of the open
prairie, where practice was obtained in forming a circular corral, with
the two cannons on the crest of the rise. The evolution was performed
with snap and precision, the sun having appeared in mid-forenoon and
restored the sullen spirits to natural buoyancy. The first squad of the
watch went on duty with military promptness, much to the surprise of the
more experienced travelers. Here for the first time was adopted a system
of grazing which was a hobby with the captain, who believed that hobbled
animals wasted too much time in picking and choosing the best grass and
in wandering around. He maintained that picketed animals would eat more
in the same time, and so each wagoner was given a stretch of prairie as
wide as the space occupied by his wagon and reaching out about one
hundred yards, fan-wise, from the corral. Picket ropes of from twenty to
thirty feet in length let each animal of his team graze over a circle of
that radius, the center being a stake of hardwood two inches thick and
about two feet long. Some of the pickets were pointed with iron and had
a band of the same metal shrunk around the upper and near the top to
keep them from splitting under repeated axe blows. Many of the others
had their points hardened by fire, and a pointed hickory or ash picket
so treated will stand a lot of abuse. Before dark the pickets were
shifted to new places and the animals left to graze all night, for
Indian visits still were a matter of the future.

After they had finished their supper and washed and put away the few
utensils, Tom as usual drifted off to spend an hour or two with Uncle
Joe and Patience. He had not been gone long before Hank got up to loosen
a pack to get a fresh plug of smoking tobacco, and caught sight of
Pedro, the Mexican, sauntering toward him. The visitor grinned
cheerfully and sat down by the dying fire, acting as though he had every
reason to be accorded a cordial welcome.

"Hah!" exclaimed the self-invited guest in rare good humor. "Eet ess
good to get out on thee gr-reat pr-rairie; but eet would haf been better
eef we had went weeth thee fir-rst tr-ra