l the saddle animals and spare stock were
securely picketed within the line of wagons, thus leaving the smallest
possible chance for an Indian to get anywhere near them.

While the animals were being thus attended to, the men were hard at work
pitching tents, getting out blankets and such baggage as might be
needed, collecting fuel for the camp-fires, fetching water for the
cooks, and, if the location of the camp was considered especially
dangerous, in digging rifle-pits in which the guards for the night would
be posted. All this work was performed by regular details, changed each
day, and announced each morning at breakfast-time. Thus, one day Glen
would find himself on the detail for pitching headquarter tents, and the
next answering the cook's imperative demands for water. Or, provided
with a gunny-sack, he might be scouring the immediate neighborhood for a
supply of dry buffalo chips, with which to eke out the scanty stock of
fire-wood. He always performed these tasks cheerfully and faithfully;
not that he liked them, but because he realized their necessity, and saw
that all the others, below the rank of assistant engineer, were obliged
to do the same things.

Binney Gibbs, however, considered such duties irksome and demeaning. He
thought it very hard that the son of a wealthy man, a prize scholar, and
a rodman, such as he was, should be compelled to act as a cook's
assistant. To show his contempt for the work he performed it awkwardly
and with much grumbling. The cooks were not slow to discover this; and,
as a cook is a power in camp as well as elsewhere, they began to make
things as unpleasant as possible for him. It was wonderful how much more
water was needed when it was his turn to keep them supplied than it was
when any one else was on duty. Then, too, while Glen's willingness and
good-nature were rewarded by many a tidbit, slyly slipped into his tin
plate, it chanced that Binney always got the toughest pieces of meat,
the odds and ends of everything, and, whenever he asked for a second
helping, was told that there was none of that particular dish left. He
tried to retaliate by complaining of the cooks at headquarters; but, as
he could prove nothing against them, the only result of this unwise
measure was that he got less to eat than ever, and but for a hard-tack
barrel that was always open to everybody would have been on a fair way
to starvation.

Another thing Binney hated to do was to stand guard. This du