fiction, Action, Adventure, children, AMERICA, Texas, Ohio FOREWORD The author of this series of stories for children has endeavored simply to show why and how the descendants of the early colonists fought their way through the wilderness in search of new homes. The several narratives deal with the struggles of those adventurous people who forced their way westward, ever westward, whether in hope of gain or in answer to "the call of the wild," and who, in so doing, wrote their names with their blood across this country of ours from the Ohio to the Columbia. To excite in the hearts of the young people of this land a desire to know more regarding the building up of this great nation, and at the same time to entertain in such a manner as may stimulate to noble deeds, is the real aim of these stories. In them there is nothing of romance, but only a careful, truthful record of the part played by children in the great battles with those forces, human as well as natural, which, for so long a time, held a vast portion of this broad land against the advance of home seekers. With the knowledge of what has been done by our own people in our own land, surely there is no reason why one should resort to fiction in order to depict scenes of heroism, daring, and sublime disregard of suffering in nearly every form. JAMES OTIS. MY DREAMS OF A SHEEP RANCH The day I was twelve years old, father gave me twelve ewes out of his flock of seventy-two, counting these sheep as payment for the work I had done in tending them. Even at that time I thought myself a good shepherd, for I was able to keep a small flock well together. With Gyp, our dog, I could have herded five hundred as readily as I did seventy-two, because on our plantation in Mississippi the pastures were fenced. Therefore when father began to talk of moving to Texas and there making a venture in the cattle business, I decided at once that if he did so, it should be my aim to raise sheep. With this idea I gathered from the neighbors roundabout, who had larger flocks than ours, all the possible information about the business in our own state. CONTENTS My Dreams of a Sheep Ranch Sheep Raising Herding Sheep Something about Texas Land Grants The "Texas Fever" Why I Wanted to Go into Texas Hunting in Texas Father Goes to Spy Out the Land Our Plantation in Mississippi Father Comes Home The Bigness of Texas Where We Were Going What I Hoped to Do Cattle Driving How We Set Out A Laborious Journey Comanche Indians Father Comes to My Rescue The Arrival at Fort Towson Preparing for a Storm A Dry "Norther" Two Kinds of "Northers" How Turkeys Kill Rattlesnakes Deer and Rattlesnakes Making a Corral of Wagons On the Trail Once More Mesquite A Texas Sheep Ranch The Profits from Sheep Raising Father's Land Claim Spanish Measurements The Chaparral Cock Our First Night on the Trinity Standing Guard A Turkey Buzzard Plans for Building a House The Cook Shanty A Storm of Rain A Day of Discomfort Thinking of the Old Home Waiting for the Sun Too Much Water The Stream Rising Trying to Save the Stock The Animals Stampeded Saving Our Own Lives A Raging Torrent A Time of Disaster The Flood Subsiding A Jack Rabbit Repairing Damages Rounding up the Live Stock The First Meal after the Flood Waiting for Father Recovering Our Goods Se