The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1906-01-04

gan to be serious one. The preceding
winter had been unusually mild, the
snowfall on the mountains averaging
less than in the recollection Of the old
est plainsman. Summer had begun
early and waxed hot and dry The
earth began to wrinkle and cracked
into trenches, like gaping mouths,
thirsty for the water that came not.
Such streams as had not dried shrank
and crawled among the willows like
Shiny things, that the herd, thirsty
though it was from the long drives.
had to be coaxed to drink from.
Discomfort grew. The acting fore
man, who was XIX man and
comparative stranger to that part of
the country, refused to consult with
! the W-square men in the outfit, who
knew every inch of the ground The
acting foreman thought the Wetmore
men looked down on him, put on dog"
and, to haunt his authority, he ordered
the herd driven due west instead of
skirting to the north by the longer
route, where they would have had the
advantage of drinking at several creeks
before crossing Green river. More
over, the acting foreman was drinking
hard and he insisted upon his order iii
spite of the Wetmore mems protesta-
tons.
The character of the country began
to change; the soil took on the color Of
blood; even the omnipresent sagebrush
began to fail the landscape; sun bleach
ed bones glistened on the red soil,
white as ulcers; all the animal trails
led back from the country into which
they We're proceeding; the sky, vivid,
cloudless blue, paled as it dipped earth
ward; there was no sign Of life in all
the land; even the grasshoppers had
left it to the sun, the silence and the
deso1ation. Above the angry below of
the thirsty herd the men strained their
ears again and again for this familiar
sound of life, but there was nothing
but the believing of the cattle, the
trampling of their hoofs and sometimes
the long, squealing whinny of a horse
as he threw back his head in seeming
demand to know the justice Of this
thing.
|
like many jointed prehistoric rep
tile wandering over the limitless spaces
of some primeval world A cloud of
red dust hung over them in a dense
haze, trailed after them a weary length,
then all was featureless monotony
What We're a thousand steers, hand
full of men and horses, in the land OF
the red silence? 1t had seen the COM
ings and goings Of many peoples, and
once 1t had flowed with streams, but
that was before the curse of God came
upon 1t, and in it's harsh, dry barren
ness it grew to be a menace to living
things.
The saddle stock had been watered
at some fetid alkali holes that had
scarce given enough to Stake their
thirst. The effect Of the water had
weakened them, and the steers that
had been without water for thirty-six
hours were being pushed on a course
slightly northwest as rapidly as the
enfeebled condition Of the saddle horses
would permit. Greek after creek that
they had made for proved to be but
dry bed. -
The glare of the red earth under the
scourge of the flaming sun tormented
the eyes of the men into strange illu-
sions. The naked red plain stretched
fat like the colossal background of
! screen, over which Writhed a huge
dragon spined With many horns, head
less, trailing it's tortuous way over the
red world. Sometimes it was as I'M
real as fever haunted dream, a drug
inspired nightmare, when a Chinese
screen, perchance, has stood at the foot
Of the sleeper's bed. Sometimes the
dragon curled itself into a ball, and the
| foreman sung out that they We're mill
ing, and the men turned and rode away
! from it, then dashed back at it, after
getting the necessary momentum, en-
! tered like flying wedge, fought their
way into the rocking sea Of surging
bodies, shouted from their thirst parch-
ed threats imprecations that were lost
in the dull, sullen roar. Then the
dragon would uncoil and again trail it's
| way over the red waste lands.
A red sun had begun to set over
| red earth, and the men who had been
out since noon securing the country for
water returned to say that none had
been found. and they began to look IL
to each others face for the answer
that none could give. At sunset they
made dry camp. There was but
enough water left to cook with. Each
man received as a thirst quenching ra-
ton a can of tomatoes. After supper
they consulted, and it was agreed to
trail the herd till midnight, taking ad-
vantage of the GOODNESS to hurry them
on as fast as possible to Green river.
The grave nature of their plight was
indicated by the fact that no one
smoked sitter supper. Silent, sullen,
they sat round, waiting for the fore
man to give the order to advance He
waited for the moon to come up. Slow
| ly it rose over the Bad Land hills and
hung round and full like gigantic Ian