"My special errand out here," said Bill as he unhitched his horse and prepared to mount, "was to tell you that when you get ready to lay in your supplies for the trip I think you can do better to buy 'em of Tom Carney[C] than anywhere else in town. There's where I bought the truck for our trip, an' I found his prices reasonable, an' everything was satisfactory an' packed in good shape. Tom's accommodatin', an' reliable, and an all-round good fellow to trade with." While standing by his horse Bill's dog had taken post in front of him and by wagging his tail and looking up at his master was trying to attract his notice, seeing which the scout stooped down and began talking to his canine friend and patting him affectionately, which seemed to put the dog in an ecstasy of delight. "Bill," said Tom, "I've been wondering ef we couldn't manage some way to beat you out of that dog. Don't you want to git rid of him?" "No, Tom," replied the scout, "money wouldn't buy that dog. But there's been two or three attempts made to steal him from me since I've been here in town--I come pretty nigh having to kill a feller about him just the other day--an', seeing as he's taken such a shine to you fellers, I was thinkin' of gettin' you to take him along with you out to Larned an' leave him with somebody there to keep for me till I come out; or maybe you'd keep him with your outfit." "Just the thing!" exclaimed Jack. "We'll take him along, all right, an' we won't leave him at Fort Larned, either--we'll keep him till you call for him." "Well, boys, I b'lieve he'll be useful to you, for he's a shepherd an' takes to minding stock naturally, an' he's a good all-round watch-dog--one of the smartest I ever saw. I call him 'Found,' 'cause I found him when he seemed to be lost. You'll have to keep him tied up for a few days when you leave here; after that, I think, he'll stick to you, 'cause he's been used to lookin' after them mules an' ponies all summer. But, mind you, now, I ain't a-givin' him to you--only lendin' him." "All right, Bill; he's your dog," said Tom, "an' we'll take good care of him till you want him." Thus Found became one of us. That afternoon Tom began the work of estimating the supplies that we would need for our winter's trip, endeavoring to calculate the quantity of each item of the provisions and from that the weight that we would have to haul in our wagon. As an old soldier, he made his figures on the basis of rations--one man's allowance of each article of food for one day. He said: "We'll make our estimate at about the rate of government rations, but, as we don't have to restrict ourselves exactly to Uncle Sam's allowance we'll allow a margin in some things to suit our own notions."