too, though none of us knew him, as
Pierce always drove from the east coast country. There was nothing
different about this grave from the hundreds of others which made
landmarks on the Old Western Trail, except it was the latest.

That night around the camp-fire some of the boys were moved to tell
their experiences. This accident might happen to any of us, and it
seemed rather short notice to a man enjoying life, even though his
calling was rough.

"As for myself," said Rod Wheat, "I'm not going to fret. You can't
avoid it when it comes, and every now and then you miss it by a hair.
I had an uncle who served four years in the Confederate army, went
through thirty engagements, was wounded half a dozen times, and came
home well and sound. Within a month after his return, a plough handle
kicked him in the side and we buried him within a week."

"Oh, well," said Fox, commenting on the sudden call of the man whose
grave we had seen, "it won't make much difference to this fellow back
here when the horn toots and the graves give up their dead. He might
just as well start from there as anywhere. I don't envy him none,
though; but if I had any pity to offer now, it would be for a mother
or sister who might wish that he slept nearer home."

This last remark carried our minds far away from their present
surroundings to other graves which were not on the trail. There was a
long silence. We lay around the camp-fire and gazed into its depths,
while its flickering light threw our shadows out beyond the circle.
Our reverie was finally broken by Ash Borrowstone, who was by all odds
the most impressionable and emotional one in the outfit, a man who
always argued the moral side of every question, yet could not be
credited with possessing an iota of moral stamina. Gloomy as we were,
he added to our depression by relating a pathetic incident which
occurred at a child's funeral, when Flood reproved him, saying,--

"Well, neither that one you mention, nor this one of Pierce's man is
any of our funeral. We're on the trail with Lovell's cattle. You
should keep nearer the earth."

There was a long silence after this reproof of the foreman. It was
evident there was a gloom settling over the outfit. Our thoughts were
ranging wide. At last Rod Wheat spoke up and said that in order to get
the benefit of all the variations, the blues were not a bad thing to
have.

But the depression of our spirits was not so easily dismissed. In
order to av