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most the day, but I managed to dig two graves.
    As it was getting dark I got them buried, and the whole time I worked I cried like a little kid. I was sure ashamed for carrying on like that, but looking back now, I don’t blame myself.
    After that I just didn’t have the strength to do anything more.
    I was wearing one of Pa’s old coats. I took the coat off and wrapped it around me, and I settled down beside the tree that Pa had chopped down and drifted off to sleep. Never before had I been so alone, and that night I felt real low.
    I awoke early, and the first thing I did was to check on ol’ Slim.
    He was still tied to the tree branch where I had left him, and he wasn’t very happy about it. 
    I hurried back to the wagon and poured him some water from the water barrel. He drank eagerly, and then I unsaddled and picketed him so he could graze.
    After that I turned my attention to the wagon.
    Almost everything useful had been taken by the Injuns. But I did find a canteen, and I filled it with water from the barrel and looped it over my saddle-horn.
    The false bottom was also still intact, so I broke it open and took out the eight dollars that Pa had hid there. It wasn’t much, but at least I could buy some grub if I needed to.
    It was near noon, so I rested in the shade and chewed some shredded jerky that I had in my saddlebags.
    As I sat there I mulled over my current situation. 
    There wasn’t anything else I could do here. So, even though I hated to leave Pa and Elliot, it was time to go. I had enough grub to last a couple of days, and by then I planned on being back with the wagon train. 
    Catching that wagon train was the only thing on my mind. That, and seeing Tom Benson again. 
    Because of him, Pa and Elliot were dead.
    I didn’t know how, but I was going to see that Tom Benson paid for that, one way or the other.  
     

Chapter nine
     
     
    I took one last look at Pa and Elliot’s graves, and then I took out in a brisk trot, going west.
    Injuns were real fresh on my mind, and I kept a wary eye out for them. But to my relief I didn’t see any sign of them. 
    The afternoon passed by fast.
    Luckily the wind hadn’t blown much, and the wagon tracks were still real easy to follow. I had no idea how old the tracks were, for I hadn’t become a good tracker yet.
    Along towards sundown I saw a deer.
    I thought about shooting him for the meat, but then I decided against it. The sound of a shot might attract unwanted visitors.
    So instead, I found a little hidden gully to stop at for the night. 
    I unsaddled and picketed Slim, and then I made a dark camp.
    I didn’t want to risk the light of a fire. Besides, I couldn’t have started a fire anyway. Pa had always used matches, but I didn’t have any.
    It was then that I thought a frightening thought. Pa had taught me how to hunt and skin out a deer, and I had done it many a time. But that would do me no good, because I couldn’t cook the meat! 
    I had heard Pa talk before of starting a fire with flint and a knife, but I had neither.
    I suddenly realized that I still had a lot to learn. Pa had taught me a lot, and for a boy of fourteen I reckon I did know more than most my age. But, when it came down to survival skills, I was still real green.
    I was miserable as I shuddered under Pa’s old coat. The land around me seemed real big, and I felt real small in it. I cried a lot, and I was real sore at myself for still carrying on like that, but I just couldn’t help it. 
    The sun woke me the next morning, and I was aggravated for sleeping so late. I took a long swig from my canteen, and then I saddled up Slim and pulled out going west again. 
    The wind was blowing a little, and I was afraid that I would lose those wagon tracks. 
    I rode across a little stream near midday. 
    I let Slim water out, and I poured out the old water from my canteen and refilled it with fresh, cool water.
    I climbed back on Slim, and we pushed onward into the late