noon
In a little valley about ten o'clock Ollie shot his first grouse . We saw more antelope , and met a man with his wife and six children and five dogs and two cows and twelve chickens going east . He said he was tired of Nebraska , and was on his way to Illinois . At noon we stopped at Merriman , another railroad station . Jack got up and made a pretence of getting dinner , but he ate nothing himself , and really began to look ill . We made but a short stop , as we were anxious to get out of the worst of the sand that afternoon . We asked about feed and water for the horses , and were told that we could get both at Irwin , another station fifteen miles ahead .