How To Make A Cowboy Bed Roll

Knowing the old ways of the blanket-pack is important for bushcrafters and historians alike. Here is more well-nigh the lightweight knapsack alternative that Emigrants, Soldiers, and Frontier Travelers of America'southward early history ofttimes preferred.

Along the Santa Cruz River near Tucson, New Mexico Territory - Jan, 1854

The bronze glow of the tardily-twenty-four hour period sunday illuminated gold hills and green fields beneath the darkening awning of a winter pelting. The aroma of wet desert creosote and sand filled the air as the gathering storm rode in on a southern wind. William Johnston and his cousin 'Tsali' led their pack mules at a canter toward an old estancia to shelter for the nighttime. Trees swayed in the ascension breeze as a rumble of distant thunder announced the get-go drops of rain. The two-room adobe was in ruins with one wall and one-half of the roof fallen in. The 'open' room was also the largest. Information technology fabricated the perfect corral for both mounts and the pack-mules as just enough of the quondam roof remained. The other, smaller room was barren with a ceiling that creaked softly in the wind. An open doorway and empty window frame being the merely source of low-cal were also on the leeward side of the gale; this would brand a good campsite. Tsali cut grass for the horses as William tended to the animals, saddles, 'cargas', and tack.

In minutes the packs were bundled as bedding; blankets spread and pipes lit. In the center of the room, a burn down was kindled upon the earthen flooring and coffee set to eddy. In the following hour, the sky turned black every bit sheets of pelting cascaded downward upon the empty windowsill. A vivid wink turned night to day. Seconds after, a loud peal of thunder shook the small adobe. William took upwardly his heavy four-point blanket; a thick cotton sheet was sewn onto the inside for added warmth. The air grew colder as the burn bravely hissed and crackled confronting it. Wrapping himself against the cold, William settled into bed while watching the storm rage outside. Tsali was now fast asleep as pelting continued drumming downwardly upon the roof. He closed his optics listening to the air current rush past the doorway nearly in melody with nature's rumbling fury with the rattle of endless drops. Laying in a comfortable bed, he thought to himself "The greatest of pleasures at a moment like this, is warmth."

What is a Bedroll?

Confederate soldier's coating-curlicue with backpack and tin cup (ca. 1861-65)

Really, I have not seen much in the way of using the word 'Bedroll' until the latter-half of the 19th century. People of the 1800s more than normally referred to it every bit their 'blankets' or 'bedding' in addition to the means they preferred to 'pack' or 'roll' it. For the sake of this article, I'll say bedroll or blanket curlicue since it'southward easily identified today. Regardless of what you choose to call information technology, this is still something every bushcrafting outdoorsman and armchair historian should take involvement in. It's just one more small particular on how our forbears lived in the early days of a growing pioneer nation.

Coating & Specs.

The crucial ingredient to a blanket roll is the coating itself. The best of which are entirely of wool. Compared to cotton, wool is far more h2o resistant and can retain up to 80% estrus adequacy when moisture. Information technology is very durable and with proper care, will final generations. *Note: the writer has an case of a woolen 'homespun' blanket of the 'four-betoken' size that was manufactured sometime betwixt the mid-18th century to the early half of the 19th century, yet it is still durable enough for regular apply. The 'jean wool' or 'homespun' materials are typically wool and cotton woven together or "cotton fiber warp and woolen weft". 'Linsey-woolsey' is similar but with linen instead of cotton aka "linen warp and woolen weft". These mix materials trade the superior insulation and college cost of pure wool for a lighter-weight and cheaper alternative that is however good but not as warm or as water resistant.

*Tip: If at all possible, a pure wool weave coating of a 4-point size is arguably the all-time for primitive outdoorsmen and celebrated campaigners.

What does "Betoken-Blanket" mean?

Notation the half-lines stitched onto bespeak blankets to announce a half-point.

' Points' are the size categories of blankets in common employ during the days of the American Frontier. They are a series of horizontal stitched lines on the blanket's selvage to denominate if it is a i, 1½, 2, 2½, 3, three½, & 4 point size. This was done and so that a blanket's size tin can be seen without removing information technology from a stack and unfolding it. The method was developed by mid-18th century French manufacturing plant workers and would exist adopted past other firms such as Hudson Bay Company. Trade-blankets were beefy and were often transported to diverse merchandise outposts and rendezvous locations by canoe and portage or pack animals. This meant that the heavier blankets commanded significantly more in merchandise. Even despite this, they were well-worth the toll to the residents of the afar western lands. In a store, a skilful coating may sell for effectually $three to $8 dollars.

Common Fur Merchandise Blanket Sizes

Annotation: The typical coating used for Indian Fur-Trade was the 3-point size.

Why not just wearable a knapsack instead?

Prototype of Edge Ruffians past Felix Darley presents a good study of bedding rolls for both mounted individuals and footmen. Annotation the pack on the footman is more than suitable for carrying essentials than other methods.

Many did adopt a knapsack. You lot can comport more and a knapsack keeps things conveniently organized. First paw accounts from Civil War veterans bespeak they carried upwards of twenty to even twoscore pounds or more in their knapsacks. If I fully load up a blanket roll, information technology weighs nearly 10 pounds. Wearing a blanket roll while on foot is a adept way to travel lighter. A true curlicue of bedding is what y'all would carry in a railroad vehicle or on a pack animate being. Hither are some first-manus accounts from those with experience on the matter in the western states and territories.

Role 1:

Contents of the Traveler'due south Bed-roll or Blanket-coil & How to Properly Pack it

In his endorsement of a new "Tent Knapsack" Randolph Marcy (Captain, Us Ground forces) gave skilful insight as to what a solder of the 1840-50s carried when he stripped down his pack. This is a adept reference to apply when because what should exist carried when i shucks the pack to lighten the load.

On a sentry a soldier usually carries only a coating, overcoat, and at most a unmarried shirt, pair of drawers, and a pair of socks, all of which tin be packed in the tent knapsack in a modest bundle, perfectly protected from rain, and capable of beingness suspended from the shoulders and carried with condolement and ease during a march.

The Prairie Traveler, Randolph Marcy – 1859

How to Pack a Coating-Roll Like a Frontiersman

The complete contents of a fully loaded bedroll. At that place is a total gear up of underwear, campsite moccasins, mittens, work gloves, spare burn supplies, compass, medicine, rope, extra pulverization, shot, and tools. (Notation: Much of this is unnecessary for an Infantryman marching with a column only essential for a hunter who is heavily engaged.) I normally carry the hatchet on my knapsack or chugalug.

The Tent Knapsack as shown in Marcy's 1859 book forms what many modern bushcrafters phone call a 'short-whorl'. Four-panels unroll and bring together forming a shelter for 4-men.

The Author's Favorite Pack Method

The blanket shown in the photo above is an original four-signal wool homespun fabricated some time between 1750 and 1850. It is still durable enough for regular piece of work if needed. In the picture above, I accept a full modify of underclothing including work gloves, mittens, and moccasins. Ever acquit lightweight footwear around army camp. Living in your boots and difficult-soled shoes breeds infection and other foot problems. Harden your feet to get used to going well-nigh barefoot. Moccasins besides let the feet to 'breathe' and are much more comfortable to clothing while running a forest flooring. The pair I have here are Delaware blueprint which by the mid-1800s was a fairly common arts and crafts project that rural people such equally my family from Tennessee and Kentucky had learned at an early historic period.

The image here, is a proposed military tent design that resembles what many outdoorsmen at present call a short curlicue. It is merely a blanket that is rolled up by the width instead of length only equally it would be when riding on a knapsack. I accept institute this method to be a favorite with primitive outdoorsmen. Personally, I find it to be an easier way to bear small items and admission them conveniently. The method of rolling by the length and draping it over a shoulder was much more popular with soldiers in the American Civil War. I take included a full write-upward on that in the latter-half of this commodity.

My years of outdoor 'trekking', 'campaigning' and primitive outdoorsmanship have left me with many conclusions about packing. Two of those that stick out the virtually are:

If information technology's absolutely essential, carry a spare or alternative if you tin can beget to.
Y'all will get moisture...no matter what.

Past 'carrying a spare' I mean, dissever the load where you can. You have over a half-pound in your powder horn simply proceed a spare flask of powder with balls, caps, or flints in the pack but in case. Yous take a tinderbox or matchsafe in your pocket but bear a spare flintstone, steel, and punk or watertight matches in the pack. This has saved me and a few of my friends a lot of grief over the years. This rolled pack is adept for someone on foot hunting or checking trap lines for a few days, peculiarly on terrain where horses cannot go.

Even though I am showing a pretty loaded pack in the example here, it's more to give you ideas if y'all're up for seeing how the other guy does information technology. Withal, if you lot have an animal which was a far more likely the case on the frontier, try to offload as much superfluous weight into your saddle bags, possible-pack, or carga so that your hooved friend tin carry information technology for you. If y'all plan and are careful not overburden your animal, it will relieve you a lot of grief such as carrying a veritable portage of unnecessary junk as nearly who are new to the trail often do.

So, Hither Are The Basic Steps to Making the Pack

Don't put all your eggs in one basket! Extra armament should be carried in the pack. Here is an original ane-pound tin flask of gunpowder along with a pound of rifle balls, caps, flints, extra whetstone, gun tools and patches. In instance the bullet pouch (hunting bag) is lost or soaked, there is a 'programme-B'. Carrying actress 'powder and ball' is a skillful idea for the company you lot travel with and it is useful for trade with the Native People you practise business organisation with.

Sewing and hygiene kit, matchsafe, tinder box & spare compass

Personal maintenance - Items that are packed in the knapsack or blanket-roll should be articles to be used while in camp. This includes spare powder, shot, caps, and flintstone. A 'huswife' or sewing kit forth with hygiene kit should be kept here. Some may adopt to carry these items in their pockets or bullet pouch and that'due south fine too. I'm but a big fan of stowing information technology if I'm not commonly going to use information technology. Spare flints, steel and other items for fire-making volition find suitable protection from water and then long as the pack is properly wrapped in its water resistant cloth.

A small medicine kit has proven in the past to exist quite useful. The bandages are specially good for wrapping chafed extremities to prevent further agitation. Mutual medicines to bring would be treatment against headache, cough or gastric complaint. Information technology is as well a practiced idea to have salves to repel mosquitoes and other pests. Encounter my article on Hunting Bag Medicine to learn more about effective borderland medical treatments.

The ditty purse is centuries old and the all-time manner to keep modest items together if you insist on carrying small items in your blanket. Y'all can roll up your actress gun tools, sewing kits, account books, or other loose odds and ends. I really recommend this. If not, you're almost sure to lose something just almost every time you'll spread your blanket to make camp.

Here is the full complement of a heavy scroll pack. Included is a full change of underwear, heavy work gloves, camp moccasins, a pound of powder and a pound of atomic number 82, along with a ditty bag holding all of the smaller effects. The start step is to fold lengthwise in thirds and then that they meet and cover the items packed within. (Encounter next picture).

This is the proper way to roll a blanket pack. The coating is folded simply like the 1876 illustration from an outdoor guidebook.

In one case the lengthwise ends are folded over, fold the terminate up over the 'cargo' and commencement rolling into a pack. You can either go out out the painted textile and carry it separately for rain, or you tin can roll it up on the exterior of your blankets every bit shown in the illustration (corner-right) and it will proceed the contents dry even in the heaviest of rains. Don't business concern yourself with making the whorl 'rounded'. This only matters when rolling up a blanket and strapping it to a knapsack. Flattening is better than rounding and it carries easier. If y'all whorl upwards things with whatsoever pregnant bulk in your coating, it won't be a rounded roll.

Blanket scroll with painted fabric rolled seperately. Observe information technology is rolled inside out to forbid slippage on the shoulder.

Run a chugalug through the pack before cinching it with the blanket straps. Some mountaineers slung it low while others wore it high and snug. I observe the latter to exist the most comfortable and manageable. I rolled the painted coating so that its untreated 'underside' will not slide on my shoulders. Although packed pretty heavy, the load is pretty manageable still.

Weighing your pack is a proficient idea as you build your endurance to bear a load on a long trail. This pack weighs in at 10 pounds and I don't recommend going college on the weight for blanket rolls.

Get in the habit of weighing your pack. If you lot are unaccustomed to carrying a load for long distances, never carry anything more xx pounds in your pack and that goes double for a bedroll. According to the Steelyard scale that I am using hither, the entire burden weighs about 10-lbs.

Steelyard scales (photo to right) date back to biblical times and have been extremely useful in 18th-19th century shops and homes. This is a 45lb. measure out calibration which is platonic for the homestead or a store dealing in smaller items such as a grocery or apothecary. These are not just useful in measuring a knapsack or blanket-roll, it is also useful in measuring stock of foodstuffs and other essentials either for the pantry or the pack saddle.

Metis using a Tumpline as shown by 19th Century creative person David Krieghoff. Bodily Tump-line on the correct. (Leather tumplines were as well used as the sole support for heavy portage.

Extra Leverage for Heavier Loads

The Tumpline has been used by Native people, fur-traders, and mountaineers for generations. It is a strap that wraps round the forehead and so that your head/spine can share the load with your shoulders. When carrying heavy items such every bit a portage, this strap is a must. The woven sash you see hither is of wool and is very stiff. I detect it too elastic to be the only shoulder strap (a broad strip of leather hide is still best for that) but it is ideal for either girding a hunting frock or running through the pack to class a Tump-line.

What the Real Frontiersmen & Emigrants Said Nigh Packing Blankets and Bedding

For nigh people traveling the plains, there was typically a pack animal or wagon railroad train to carry many of the necessary effects. For that reason, the blankets and bedding are more extensive. According to Ware's 1849 publication, the individual's bedding would cost near $seven,fifty and weigh about xv pounds. Here are some period accounts of the bedding.

Blanket Roll When Mounted

In the shape of bedding, a couple of blankets carried under the saddle, a ' buffalo robe' rolled up in a piece of stout hide, and tied behind the saddle cantle, ought to suffice for a calendar week or ii, if roughing it; but when provided with mules or other means of transport, and then beingness provided with proper bedding will exist found a smashing comfort; 1 mule ought to carry the ' total kit' or outfit of 2 persons.

At Home in the Wilderness, John Keast Lord (1876)

Bedding in Wagons for Emigrants and Travelers

Do non encumber yourselves with anything non absolutely essential to your comfort; take blankets, sheets, quilts, coverlets and pillows, (omit beds,) with oil cloth, or Bharat rubber spread, to lay on the ground under you.

The Emigrant's Guide to California, Joseph E. Ware (1849)

The bedding for each person should consist of 2 blankets, a comforter, and a pillow, and a gutta percha or painted sail fabric to spread beneath the bed upon the ground, and to contain it when rolled upward for transportation.

The Prairie Traveler, Randolph Marcy (1859)

Laying Down the Bedding for the Night

With all the information on a traveler's bedding, here is a good written report on how people made their sleeping arrangements. Sometimes people did interruption out the tents for a prolonged finish merely more often (and contrary to common myth) emigrants did sometimes take infinite to sleep within the wagon. Hither are some other accounts of how to properly sleep on the footing or under the railroad vehicle too.

Sleeping in the Wagon

Your provisions should be all packed in sacks, and filled to an equal peak, that when arranged in the carriage, will nowadays a tolerably even surface, on which to spread blankets for sleeping.

The National Wagon Road Guide, Whitton, Towne & Co. (1858)

Sleeping Under the Wagon

And then, there were about thirty of us, divided into four messes, well provided with chow for the trip, as well with tents, but we seldom bothered to employ them. Having bought blankets for the trip only, as I supposed, just found that the average human was expected to furnish his own bed virtually anywhere on the Pacific coast, and that a hay mow or straw stack is considered fantabulous lodging. I made my "bed" under my wagon, as it was raining, and turned in with my clothes and boots on, equally though I had been used to camping all my life and liked it.

The struggles for life and abode in the North-West, Geo. W. French republic (1890)

Sleeping on the Footing

Note the miner'southward pack as he is facing downwardly "Erstwhile Ephraim"

Charles T. Dunningham was born in 1842 and devoted much of his life to being a hunter and outdoorsman. When he was 43, he published an extensive book on hunting and fishing methods equally well as life in the outdoors. This is a method that the author uses a lot.

In selecting a Camping ground ground, the conditions to be desired are, enough of wood, good water, with a user-friendly landing place, and a dry, level, sheltered spot for the tent. A bed of spruce boughs may be fabricated every bit follows: Cut off all large butts; lay the boughs in tiers, commencing at the top of the bed, placing the butts toward the bottom, and over this spread a rubber sheet or a blanket. The blankets used at night should not exist spread downwardly in the daytime.

The Hunters handbook, Charles T. Dunningham (1885)

Part 2:

Blanket-Rolls During the War of Secession (1861-1865)

Report of overcoat and blanket rolls on knapsacks and saddles every bit Shown on Hurlbut's Division at Corinth in 1862

The blanket curl of the American Civil State of war was simpler for a variety of reasons. If it is carried with a knapsack, the small-scale items rode in the pack with spare clothing and other truck. This left the blanket gyre to be simply a rolled-upwards blanket with shelter one-half and an oil cloth or India-prophylactic 'mucilage-blanket' secured by coating straps. Even if a soldier decides to shuck his knapsack to carry simply a 'bedroll', the logistical support of Army wagons conveying his infantry company's luggage volition ensure that the soldier'south bones needs are even so met. This is a far weep from a fur trapper or hunter operating out in the wild, many miles away from any assistance for days or weeks on terminate. Here is what was said by the actual people who carried blanket rolls during the American Civil War.

The Army Blanket- While the U.s.a. regular army maintained a reasonable amount of consistency in their issue, the Confederate states relied more upon a multitude of regional depots that either made their own products or obtained the goods through cottage manufacture and foreign import. There are other manufactures that detail the origins, materials and manufacturing methods so for now, permit's stick to just the basics and hear what the original sources said.

*Note for the living historians: These accounts are not the definitive answer to what y'all have to carry; it is more of a reference guideline. Always cheque your military unit of measurement's history and the campaign/scenario to determine what to have and what not to behave.

US/CS Specifications for the Soldier's Blanket

According to various US Regular army Quartermaster records and notations, the price of an army blanket was $three,60. A prophylactic ground cloth measured almost 84" x 48" and was $2,55. A painted ground fabric of similar dimensions was merely $1,65. For mounted troops, a 'poncho' was issued. This had a reinforced slot through the center and then that the wearer could stick his head through it in the same fashion of a traditional piece of Spanish clothing that bears the same name. A painted poncho was $two,10 while a safe poncho toll $ii,90.

US Federal Issue Coating (courtesy Rob Barnes)

US Army Coating Specs.

"Woolen, grayness, with letters U. Southward. in blackness, 4 inches long, in the center; to be 7 anxiety long, and five and a half feet wide, and to counterbalance 5 pounds."

-US Army Manual (1861)

*This is a rough equivalent to between a 3 ½ and a four point blanket.

CS Army Coating Specs.

"Each human should have ane heavy " four-point" coating, which will answer for two on a march."

-Volunteers Camp and Field Book (Richmond), John P. Curry (1862)

* Four-point blanket measures about 70 10 85 inches and weighs nearly 6 pounds.

Here is what the Veterans Said

Federal Soldiers inspecting the wreckage of the Orangish & Alexandria Railroad. Note the various rolled-packs used

John Billings of the tenth Massachusetts Volunteer Light Arms wrote extensively nigh army life. In his memoirs he spoke of how soldiers were provided with a "woollen and a condom blanket". In regards to the poncho, he said the following.

An army poncho, I may here say, is specified as made of unbleached muslin coated with vulcanized Bharat-prophylactic, lx inches wide and seventy-1 inches long, having an opening in the centre lengthwise of the poncho, through which the head passes, with a lap 3 inches wide and 16 inches long. This garment is derived from the woolen poncho worn by the Spanish-Americans, but is of different proportions, these being four anxiety past seven.

When the conditions turns, Billings explained from his own account on how a soldier donned his rubber blanket.

The army on the march in a rain-storm presented some aspects not seen in fair atmospheric condition. Equally soon equally it began to rain, or just earlier, each man would remove his rubber blanket from his roll or knapsack, and put information technology over his shoulders, tying information technology in front.

When a human being on the march finally tires of the knapsack in favor of a lighter load, Billings described the following ritual one made in lightening the load.

He tucks his little collection of photographs, which peradventure he has encased in rubber or leather, into an inside pocket, and disposes other small keepsakes nigh his person. If he intends to take his effects in a knapsack, he volition at the start have put past more than to conduct than if he simply takes his blankets (rubber and woollen) rolled and slung over his shoulder. Late in the war this latter was the nearly common plan, every bit the same weight could exist borne with less fatigue in that manner than in a knapsack, slung on the dorsum.

Hardtack & Coffee, Billings (1887)

Famous photo of the 3 Amalgamated Prisoners at Gettysburg - Note the use of knapsacks with the rolled bedding carried separately.

Carlton McCarthy of the Richmond Howitzers (CSA) seemed to mirror Billings by giving an account of life in the Confederate States Regular army. There are many similar themes and even so, many differences too

On the exterior of the knapsack, solidly folded, were two great blankets and a safe or oil-cloth. This knapsack, etc., weighed from fifteen to xx-five pounds, sometimes even more than. All seemed to recollect it was incommunicable to have on likewise many or as well heavy clothes, or to have too many conveniences, and each had an thought that to be a proficient soldier he must be provided against every possible emergency.

In regards to the painted or India-condom textile, McCarthy talks of campaigning nether more spartan atmospheric condition.

Tents were rarely seen. All the verse about the "tented field" died. Two men slept together, each having a blanket and an oil-textile; one oil-cloth went adjacent to the ground. The two laid on this, covered themselves with two blankets, protected from the rain with the 2d oil-cloth on top, and slept very comfortably through rain, snowfall or hail, as it might be.

Detailed Minutiae of Soldier Life in the Army of Northern Virginia, Carlton McCarthy (1882)

How to Make a Soldier's Bedroll

In his 1877 book, John Gould, a Maine infantry veteran of the American Ceremonious State of war, wrote of how many one-time soldiers were not partial to the knapsack. Personally, I love the convenience of a knapsack merely I also appreciate the practicality of doing it as the old soldiers did. Hither are Gould'due south exact words on how to whorl your blanket like a truthful campaigner.

Analogy from Gould's 1877 volume

Lay out the blanket flat, and curlicue it every bit tightly equally possible without folding information technology enclosing the other baggage as you curl; (In full general it is better to put the shelter-tent in the roll, and to keep out the rubber blanket, for y'all may demand the concluding earlier you lot military camp.)
So, necktie it in a number of places to foreclose unrolling, and the shifting nearly of the things within.
And finally, tie or strap together the 2 ends.
And throw the ring thus made over the shoulder, and wearable information technology as you do the strap of a haversack - diagonally across the body.

At that place are many benefits to this configuration. You tin can shift the roll to another shoulder if one grows tired; it's easy to conform and remove in addition to saving 2 1/2 pounds weight by removing the Knapsack from the mix.

Additional Coating-Roll Packing Tips

Special Tips for the Bedroll

Exercise not lay your blanket on the ground during the day – air it out so that it may be used at dark. Information technology gathers too much moisture from the globe during the 24-hour interval.
A wool blanket can retain 80% heat even while wet - acquit in mind that while it may save you lot from freezing, information technology is yet unhealthful. Spread it earlier the fire to dry.
(Bedding Health Tip) The states Sanitary Commission Rules for Preserving the Health of Soldiers (1861) Page 9. No. 20 – The men should never be immune to sleep in moisture clothing, or under a wet coating, if it tin can be possibly avoided; and, after beingness wetted, all articles of clothing and blankets should be and thoroughly dried and sunned before existence used.
Impractical CS communication – Co-ordinate to the Volunteers Camp and Field Book (CSA), "When required to come under close fire, the trunk may partially be protected in front from the chin to the thighs, past folding your blanket in v or six thicknesses, and fastening it under your cross-belts and waist-belts, leaving the end hanging over your stomach. If the blanket is wet, it affords more than resistance." (*Editor'southward annotation: Please don't try this one at home kids! Peradventure this made sense in 1862 when the culling was to come across how well your war machine trounce jacket can stop a bullet but a musket round can penetrate 18-inches of packed earth. So don't arraign me for your Darwin-award if you attempt to try this i. you've been warned.)
Proper way to acquit the safety-coating - Roll upwardly the rubber coating tightly around the bed-scroll with the fabric side out, as the safety side is likewise slippery.
The safety blanket may be carried as its own ringlet - You can as well scroll the rubber blanket separately, and link it to the large whorl subsequently the way of two links of a chain. Either manner

Flatten your load - Avoid packing bulbous, pokes and pouches in your kit. If you want it to fit, lay it flat.
Magnify your coating'due south rut capacity- Have a sheet of cotton fiber drill that is slightly smaller than your coating and sew it onto your blanket but only stitch one side on the outer edge. The extra layer amplifies warmth. When your spare wear is laid between the blanket and canvas to serve as a cushion against the common cold ground and the other half with added sheet wraps around the tiptop of y'all, it is quite warm and comfy.

In the pre-dawn light, William Johnston woke to the steady tap of a leaking roof. The rain was now falling softly and the desert washes would no longer exist flooded. Tsali was already up brewing a fresh pot of coffee. He sat wearing a warm turban and apron enjoying his cup while wreathed in a soft drapery of pipe fume. After breakfasting on salary and old corn cakes, the horses were saddled and bedding rolled. The morning air carried that familiar scent of wet creosote and a washed globe. William turned to his cousin and asked "How far is it to Maricopa Wells, now?" Tsali shrugged, "I thought you'd never go upwards. Let's run into if you can ride faster." Adjusting his oilcloth round his shoulders, William gave his horse a soft kicking; "Let's starting time this day." Beyond the mountains, thunder continued to scroll.

-DR

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