The weather being so warm and the air so dry, our horses required _much water_; and though we could somewhat gauge _ourselves_, we were compelled to give them what they wanted. We were just as saving, however, as we _dared_ be, and upon the morning of the fifth day out we tapped the last skin and the last water. This was just like mother’s bread. When the flour is all gone and the horses have the epizooty so that no one can go to the mill, and the _boys_ once find out the _facts_ in the case, the last loaf is saturated with _honey_, and every one can make a meal upon _bread_ and _coffee_. We stretched this out until noon on the _sixth day_, when there was but one gallon left, and that almost warm enough to cook eggs. Morning dawned, and the sun rolling from the horizon in all its grandeur had to us little attraction. Things began to look badly. Six days upon a plain level as a floor and dry as the internal regions, and not an object yet in sight, I tell you is a bad report. We had long been out of _corn_; and the grass being so scarce our horses were pretty well gaunted, and now no water. How long would they hold out? Just before we hooked up I took the field-glass and from the wagon surveyed the surroundings. Looking carefully to the west I saw broken country. Oh, joy! And when I spoke the boys shouted aloud. We knew that we were now safe, and we would sleep that night by the purple stream. The hills were a great way off, and if the horses could have known, as we did, that just ahead gurgled the life-giving stream, we would have spanned the journey in half the time. However, when within about a mile of the hills they appeared to smell water, and pointing their ears they sped hastily along. But in spite of our eagerness we came among the hills by the moonbeam’s misty light. There was the stream, rippling clear and cool; and it is needless to say that was to us a merry night. We sat up all night talking of the dangers of the country, and contrasting the might of the _roaring lion_ with the power of the _quiet monster_, _thirst_.