wide stretch of undulating prairie, dotted with clusters

of trees and meandering streamlets, that lay before them.

"I had bin out about two months, an' was makin' a

good thing of it, for game wos plenty, when I began to

think somehow more than usual o' home. My mother

wos alive then."

Joe's voice sank to a deep, solemn tone as he said

this, and for a few minutes he rode on in silence.

"Well, it grew worse and worse. I dreamed o' home

all night an' thought of it all day, till I began to shoot