CHUCKWAGON'S DREAM.
He said he dreamed he was in a deep narrow canyon, and it seemed to be a
very hot day, and he thought he walked in the broiling hot sun for miles
and miles, his mouth and throat parched with thirst and his eyes almost
bursting from their sockets with the heat, when all at once he heard the
low mutterings of thunder and he knew there was a storm approaching. The
thunder kept growing louder and louder, and he looked around for some
shelter and discovered a narrow crevice in the rocks, and just as the
storm broke he entered this crevice. He hadn't no more than got inside
when he saw a wild animal approaching the same place of refuge. It was
bigger than any two grizzly bears he ever saw in his life, but was black
with white stripes down its back, had a large bushy tail, and he knew he
was up against the biggest skunk the world had ever known, and trembling
with horror he crept farther and farther back into the crevice till he
was stopped by a stream of red molten fire that seemed to be flowing
across his path in the mountain. He was about to retreat, but as he
turned to retrace his steps the immense Jumbo skunk was coming in the
crevice backwards, with its enormous tail reared over its back, and
while the crevice seemed only just large enough for him, yet this great
animal had a way of flattening himself out that, while he was a great
deal taller than before, yet did he keep forcing himself gradually back
towards poor Chuck. Chuckwagon said he knew that if the skunk was
disturbed he would discharge that terrible effluvia that is known the
world over, yet the heat from the molten stream of fire was so great
that it burned his face and he was obliged to keep it turned towards the
skunk. Finally the animal had backed so far that the top of Chuckwagon's
head was just under the root of the skunk's tail. Then something
commenced to annoy the animal in front, and it started to back a little
farther. It was then he gave that despairing, blood-curdling,
soul-freezing yell that woke us up, and he said he could still smell
that awful effluvia even now that he was awake; but we told him it was
just the heat of the car and the perfume that Jackdo and the two
sheepmen had.
We now discovered that the train was in motion. We were in doubt a long
time, but after marking fence posts, setting up a line of sticks and
testing it by all the known devices, we became convinced that it was
really a fact, and when there was no longer any doubt left in our minds
we fell on each other's necks and sobbed for joy. We tapped four fresh
bottles in succession to celebrate the event and shook one another's
hands repeatedly. But, alas! in the midst of our rejoicing we came to a
sidetrack.
It seems to be one of the rules of railroading to never pass a sidetrack
with a stock train till they find out whether that particular train will
fit that sidetrack. This sidetrack was 2,125 feet and 223 inches long
and our train just fit it like it had been made a purpose. If our train
had been three feet longer it would have been too long for this
sidetrack, and we had a long heated argument whether the train had been
made for this sidetrack or the sidetrack designed for this special
train; but, anyway, I never saw a better fit, and it shows what
mechanical heads railroad men have got. We became attached to this
sidetrack, and for a long time had the sole use of it. We held it
against all comers, trains of empty cars going west, gravel cars and
even handcars, but finally had to leave it, and it was with feelings of
sadness and regret that we at last had to bid it good-bye. Although we
had many sidetracks afterwards, yet as this one was the first we had
entirely to ourselves we hated to give it up and our eyelashes were wet
with unshed tears as we blew the last kisses from our finger tips when
it slowly faded from our sight around a narrow bend in the roadbed. How
long it remained true to us we never knew, probably not long, as it was
a lonely spot and undoubtedly was occupied by another stock train as
soon as we were out of sight.
While at this sidetrack we took a stroll over the hills one day and
found a sage hen's nest with the old hen setting. Dillbery Ike slipped
up, grasped her by the tail and in her struggle to free herself she lost
all her tail feathers and got away. Dillbery tied a string around the
tail feathers and took them along. This, as it turned out afterwards,
was very fortunate, as we were able by the feathers to settle a dispute
that might have led to serious consequences, which happened in this way:
Some time after the sage hen episode, while we were waiting on a
sidetrack one day for a gravel train going west, and having had nothing
to eat for a long time but mustard on ice, we had become very much
discouraged and had even tried to buy Cottswool Canvasback's coat to
make soup of, when Jackdo discovered a flock of half-grown young sage
chickens feeding along past the train, and immediately we were all out,
filled our hats with rocks and commenced to knock them over. We managed
to kill the most of them along with the old mother bird, and made the
startling discovery that she had lost her tail feathers. We showed her
to the division superintendent, who came along in his private car just
then and stopped to explain some of the delays on our run, and told him
the story of Dillbery pulling out her tail when she was setting. The
superintendent argued it couldn't be the same hen, but when Dillbery got
the bunch of tail feathers they just fitted in the holes in the poor old
bird's rump and that settled the dispute. There was another little
incident occurred afterwards that shows the world isn't so large after
all. One day while we were waiting on a sidetrack a mud turtle came
strolling by, and as Jackdo had suggested turtle soup for old
Chuckwagon, who, by the way, had been feeling bad ever since the night
he had the skunk dream, not being able to keep anything on his stomach,
we captured the turtle and on examining a peculiar mark on the back of
its shell discovered it was Dillbery Ike's brand that he had playfully
burnt into the animal the day before we left the ranch with the cattle.
[Illustration: _Rambolet Bill, Cottswool Canvasback and Jackdo Watching
the Sheep Graze._]