On this first morning, just as it was becoming light in the east, Old Blacky began to make his toilet by rubbing his shoulder against one corner of the wagon.  As he was large and heavy, and rubbed as hard as he could, he soon had the wagon tossing about like a boat; and as the easiest way out of it, we decided to get up.  It was cool and dewy, with the larger stars still shining faintly.  We found Jack under the wagon.  Ollie stirred him up, and said: 

[Illustration:  Plan for Rousing a Sound Sleeper]

“See any varmints in the night, Uncle Jack?”

“Yes,” answered Jack, as he unrolled himself from his blanket.  “Or at least I felt one.  That disgraceful Old Blacky nibbled at my ear twice.  The first time I thought it was nothing less than a bear.”

“Did he disturb Snoozer?”

“I guess nothing ever disturbs Snoozer.  He never moved all night.  How’s the firewood department, Ollie?”

“All right,” replied Ollie.  “Got up enough last night.”

“Then build the fire while I get breakfast.”

This pleased Ollie, and he soon had a good fire going.  I caught Old Blacky, who had started off to walk around the lake, woke up Old Browny, who was sleeping peacefully with his nose resting on the ground, quieted the pony, who was still suspicious, with a few pats on the neck, and gave them all their oats.  Soon the rest of us also had our breakfast, including Snoozer, who seemed to wake up by instinct, and after waiting a little for somebody to come and stretch him, stretched himself, and began waving his tail to attract our attention to his urgent need of food.

“Before we get back home that dog will want us to feed him with a spoon,” said Jack.

It was only a little while after sunrise when we were off for another day’s voyage.  We were headed almost due south, and all that day and the three or four following (including Sunday, when we stayed in camp), we did not change our general direction.  We were aiming to reach the town of Yankton, where we intended to cross the Missouri River and turn to the west in Nebraska.  The country through which we travelled was much of it prairie, but more was under cultivation, and the houses of settlers were numerous.  The land on which wheat or other small grains had been grown was bare, but as we got farther south we passed great fields of corn, some of it standing almost as high as the top of our wagon-cover.

For much of the way we were far from railroads and towns, and got most of our supplies of food from the settlers whose houses we passed or, indeed, sighted, since the pony proved as convenient for making landings as Jack had predicted she would.  Ollie usually went on these excursions after milk and eggs and such like foods.  The different languages which he encountered among the settlers somewhat bewildered him, and he often had hard work in making the people he found at the houses understand what he wanted.  There Were many Norwegians, and the third day we passed through a large colony of Russians, saw a few Finns, and heard of some Icelanders who lived around on the other side of a lake.