Crossing the Plains, Days of '57

NIGHT-GUARDS.

WILDERNESS.

, but many may not know what it is to encounter a fierce electrical distu

a black, ominous cloud, revolving swiftly and threateningly, as might the vapors from some gi

d was vibrant with electric tension. Flocks of buzzards flew low to the earth about us, as if to be ready for the carrion of the impending

an to "spat! spat!" on the ground, here and there, as the storm-cloud opened its batteries of liquid balls. The

d the wagon-tongue to which I was hitching a team, and called to a boy who was hooking up the next wagon, tell

each with a vicious thud-a subdued "whack"; growing more frequent and presently mingled with lesser ones; until, in the

left my wagon and ran to that. As the oxen, in trying to shield themselves from the hail, were forcing the front wheels around under the wagon-box, I was fortunate enough to get a shoulder under one corner of the box and exert sufficient force to prevent the wagon upsetting. All this took little more than a minute. The storm passed away as suddenly as it had come. Then I saw the wagon which was my special charge lying on its side, a

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the storm-cloud pursuing its course over the plain to the

stock had stampeded and were far away, with some of the mounted men in desperate pursuit. They eventually brou

th only enough oxen to carry them in case all should remain serviceable; and carried provisions for no more than the shortest limit of time estimated; so that the mishap of losing an ox or two, or any delay, worked a calamity. Some trains started so late, or were so much delayed, that they were compelled to negotiate passage

s wife, with a young baby, and the wife's brother, Danny Worley, were the only persons with Darby. The wife was a weak, inexperienced girl; the child sickly. Mrs. Darby's brother was a large, fat youth of nineteen, whose distinguishing and inconvenient characteristic was an abnormal appetite. Their provisions we

ied in one night. Then the cow was yoked with the remaining ox, two steers were loaned th

ng at meal time he was overheard by some of our boys, saying, "I want milk in my gravy." Though reminded there was only enough milk for the baby, he of the p

earance, he was always in good humor, and often useful, having a willingness to do as many of the chores as others would trust him to perform. He was notable as a physical curiosity, though not actually deformed. Low of stature, he came to be known as "Shorty," the only name we ever had for him. As he stood, his abnormally long arms enabled him to take his hat from the ground without stooping. His legs were not mates in length, causing h

ept on one occasion, when their friendship was temporarily ruptured by a dispute over the ownership of a fishing hook. Anger grew hot, but when they were about to come to blows, "Shorty" suddenly dro

urprise by Indians. Later, for awhile, these precautions were deemed unnecessary, though still later they had to be resumed. The stock became accustomed to the daily routine, and after the all-day travel, were quite willing, when they had finished their evening grazing, to assemble near th

at and boundless contiguity of empty silence which works the senses up to a feeling that is somewhat alike in man and beast-that there is most comfort and protection near the center of the settlement or camp.

cket all their own. It was the habit of these night prowlers of the desert to come as near to the camp as their acute sense of safety permitted, and there, sitting on their haunches, their noses pointed to the moon, render a serenade that was

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erves, may explain the stampede of cattle, often not otherwise accounted for; which

ssed, the whole band of cattle, teams as well as loose stock, made a sudden, wild, furious dash, in a compact mass; seeming instinctively to follow in whatever direction the leader's impu

rses and mules were all animals that had been raised o

ls stampeded on the unpeopled plains because they heard the "call of the wild." There were, howeve

en, taking the stampede temper, they ran five or six miles before the man, mounted on one o

of the drove the rider made his horse the leader; and as each loose animal always followed whatever was in front, the hor

gain control of these animals, so necessary to us in continuing the westward journey. A stampede when some of the oxen were yoked to

he hope of starting a sage grouse or rabbit from some sheltering clump of brush. During a specially quiet routine like this; the cattle lolling behind the wagons, mostly unattended, keeping the snail pace set by the patient teams; a steer now and again turning aside to appropriate a tuft of bunch-grass; their white horns rising and falling in the brilliant sunlight, with the swaying motion of their bodies as they walked, shimmered like waves of a lake at noonday before a gentle breeze: quickly as a clap of the hands, every loose beast in the band, in the wildest fashion of terror, started, straight in the course of the moving line

bably asleep in a wagon, and being aroused by the unusual commotion, may have attempted to look out, when a jolt of the wagon threw him to the

e, mostly barren and uninviting, it was difficult to conceive of that territory ever becoming the permanent homes of men. Yet it is possible, and proba