dear mother hustled us to the other side. She forgot her own danger in her effort to save the children, giving her orders like a sea captain in a storm. Each of us grabbed a baby,—Susannah's coon fell to my lot,—and we clung like death to the upper edge of the wagon-bed till the danger was over, and the great lopsided thing settled back to its place.
"But I must go now. Daddie's calling me to write up that pestilent old journal!"
On the evening of the 4th of June, the train had its first encounter with a blizzard.
Captain Ranger, seeing the approach of the storm, as did the cattle and horses, ordered a sudden halt a little way from the banks of the Platte. The day, like a number of its predecessors, had been oppressively hot; but about five o'clock a sudden squall came up, though not without premonitory warning in the way of a calm so dead that not a blade of grass was quivering. The wagon-hoods flapped idly, like sails becalmed in the tropics. Suddenly the air grew icy cold, bringing at first a moment oif relief to suffocating man and beast.
"Gather your buffalo chips in a hurry," exclaimed the Captain, addressing the girls. "Get 'em under cover in the tents, under the wagon-beds; anywhere so they'll keep dry. Turn out the stock in a jiffy, boys. Head 'em away from the river. Drive 'em up yonder gulch. Be on the alert, everybody!"
