They speedily resolved themselves into three large brown birds, which circled over the heads of the two wanderers, and then settled upon some rocks which overlooked them.

They were buzzards, the vultures of the west, whose coming is the forerunner of death.
"Cocks and hens," cried the little girl gleefully, pointing at their ill-omened forms, and clapping her hands to make them rise.

"Say, did God make this country ?" "In course He did," said her companion, rather startled by this unexpected question.
"He made the country down in Illinois, and He made the Missouri," the little girl continued.

"I guess somebody else made the country in these parts.

It's not nearly so well done.