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ditch was trampled into soft mud by the buffalo, however bad and disgusting as it was we were glad enough get it at that time I took up a pint cup full and swallowed it mighty quick. we could not let our horses near it they would kill themselves but we gave them a few pailsfull for the present. However we were glad to get it. we pitched our the tent and camped for the night. we had a hard struggle of it that night preparing something to eat. our supply of buffalo chips was very scarce, and we could not half boil the thick dirty water. a little tea thrown into that and some half cooked corn dodger formed out evening meal. The next morning one of our horses showed signs of giving out, one of his legs was greatly swelled we though it was from the bite of a snake and that it would soon wear away. But he continued to fail rapidly and the next day he was so swelled that he could not travel any more and we had to leave him behind. I felt the greatest regret as we abandoned the poor creature on the prairie. he seemed to be conscious that we were deserting him he made the most desperate exertions and followed us about a mile then he grew intirely exhausted and gave up the chase, but we heard him whining most pitiously for a long time afterwards, it was the hardest thing that occurred to us on that long journey, abandoning that poor faithful creature, after traveling so many hundred miles and now so near our journeys end. In about four days more we crossed the Little Blue River, there was plenty of buffalo in this locality. we stopped on this stream two days to recruit one horse for we now had only one and the poor thing was almost exhausted from pulling a two horse wagon and about six hundred pounds of equipage. We had quite a hard job to rig up ? for a single horse an axe was out only tool, with that we chopped down two small cotton woods, and with ropes we soon made a temporary ?