Instead of their valise—for which the landlord had generously allowed them a dollar on their bill—the boys carried, strapped behind their saddles, two small meal-bags, which contained their clothing.
The saddle-bags were filled with provisions that the hunter had selected for them, and they were each provided with a lariat and picket-pin for staking out their horses at night.
Eben had protested earnestly against the expenditure of money for blankets, declaring that the boys' heavy overcoats would afford them all the protection they needed at night; but Frank declared that he had never read of a hunter lying before his fire wrapped in an overcoat, and so the blankets were purchased.
The first few days passed without the occurrence of any incident that is worthy of note. They travelled rapidly; for Eben declared that haste was necessary. It would not be many days, he said, before the cold winter storms would begin to sweep over the prairie—in fact, he had never known them to hold off so long before—and if they were caught out in a "blizzard," nothing but certain death awaited them.
So he had the boys up every morning before daylight, allowed them but a very short rest at noon, and kept them in the saddle long after dark.
It is needless to say that, not being accustomed to riding on horseback, they suffered severely; but the tireless mustangs on which they were mounted did not seem to mind it in the least. They were as willing to go at nine o'clock at night as they were in the morning.
During the first week the boys saw absolutely nothing along their line of travel, for their time was fully occupied in trying to find an easy position in the saddle; but their aches and pains gradually left them as they became "hardened to it," and then Leon began to take some interest in the new and strange sights that met his gaze on every side.
He was very jubilant, Eben was talkative, and Frank was frightened and homesick. And the fact was, he saw a good deal to frighten him.
Every mile of the road was marked by the bleaching bones of horses and cattle, telling of disasters that had befallen some unfortunate emigrant, and now and then the sight of a human grave or the ruins of a "dug-out" would make the cold chills creep all over him.