Desperate for Water!

Rick stared down at the parched ground as he plodded along. The soil was crying out for water as revealed by the deep, jagged cracks in the earth. He ran his tongue around his own dry lips and wondered how much longer he could go on without a drop to quench his thirst.   His poor old horse plodded at his side almost too weary to put one foot in front of the another, and certainly too lame to be straddled. There was not a trace of the errant cattle he had been searching for. Should he go back or should he go forward. Either way seemed a dismal prospect.