BY HAYDEN CARRUTH. VII. "Come, stir out of that and get the camels ready for the desert!" This was Jack's cheery way of warning Ollie and I that it was time to get up on the morning of our start into the sand hills. "Any simooms in sight?" asked Ollie, by way of reply to Jack's remark. "Well, I think Old Browny scents one; he has got his nose buried in the sand like a camel," answered Jack. It was only just coming daylight, but we were agreed that an early start was best. It was another Monday morning, and we knew that it would take three good days' driving to carry us through the sand country. We had learned that, notwithstanding what our visitor of the first night had said, there were several places on the road where we could get water and feed for the horses. We should have to carry some water along, however, and had got two large kegs from Valentine, and filled them and all of our jugs and pails the night before. We also had a good stock of oats and corn, and a big bundle of hay, which we put in the cabin on the bed. "Just as soon as Old Blacky finds that there is no water along the road he will insist on having about a barrel a day," said Jack. "And if he can't get it he will balk and kick the dashboard into kindling-wood." A little before sunrise we started. It was agreed, owing to the increase in the load and the deep sand, that no one, not even Snoozer, should be allowed to ride in the wagon. If Ollie got tired he was to ride the pony. So we started off, walking beside the wagon, with the pony just behind, as usual, dangling her stirrups, and the abused Snoozer, looking very much hurt at the insult put upon him in being asked to walk, following behind her. For three or four miles the road was much like that to which we had been accustomed. Then it gradually began to grow sandier. We were following an old trail which ran near the railroad, sometimes on one side and sometimes on the other; and this was the case all the way through the hills. The railroad was new, having been built only a year or two before. There were stations on it every fifteen or twenty miles, with a side track, and a water-tank for the engines, but not much else. There was no well-marked boundary to the sand hills, but gradually, and almost before we realized it, we found ourselves surrounded by them. We came to a crossing of the railroad, and in a little cut a few rods away we saw the sand drifted over the rails three or four inches deep, precisely like snow. "Well," said Jack, "I guess we're in the sand hills at last if we've got where it drifts." "I wonder if they have to have sand-ploughs on their engines?" said Ollie. "I've heard that they frequently have to stop and shovel it off," answered Jack.