Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 94: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

86 A Dakota Blizzard. it would probably hold on by fits and starts until another day. The wind still blew, but had lost much of its pierc- ing vigor, though, when they went to the edge of the timber the vast expanse of prairie was just as thoroughly blotted out as when they struggled along with the chances of escape or death about evenly divided. | Gratitude surged through both their hearts as they realized what they had escaped, and they went back to the old cabin more thankful than they could find words to express. How cheerful it seemed there in contrast with what lay beyond! Karl wondered if any herders they knew would not be able to catch their cat- tle and find safety in the timber; for every winter more than a few herders were lost on the range, frozen sometimes within three hundred feet of a cabin, which could not be seen in the blinding, mad- dening, freezing whirl of fine snow. It was getting on well toward evening, and the two boys began to cast wistful glances in the direc- tion of the buffalo meat, for such healthy appetites require a tremendous amount of feeding. Cuthbert had stepped out to melt some snow in his mouth, feeling thirsty, when he came hastily back with a look on his face that told of new excitement. © “Ah! there, what’s up?” asked Karl, seeing him take his rifle and make for the door again. “A wolf hanging around—I heard him howl,” was the answer Cuthbert flung back. “Be careful—there are two-legged wolves in this section, you know,” laughed Karl. Then, struck by a sudden thought, he followed his companion to the edge of the prairie. “Hark!” said the tenderfoot, eagerly. Borne on the wind came a sound that was not un- COnnicloooks CO