“When my folks first came to Texas,” said Joe, “they settled in Ellis County, near Waxahachie.  My father was one of the pioneers in that county at a time when his nearest neighbor lived ten miles from his front gate.  But after the war, when the country had settled up, these old pioneers naturally hung together and visited and chummed with one another in preference to the new settlers.  One spring when I was about fifteen years old, one of those old pioneer neighbors of ours died, and my father decided that he would go to the funeral or burst a hame string.  If any of you know anything about that black-waxy, hog-wallow land in Ellis County, you know that when it gets muddy in the spring a wagon wheel will fill solid with waxy mud.  So at the time of this funeral it was impossible to go on the road with any kind of a vehicle, and my father had to go on horseback.  He was an old man at the time and didn’t like the idea, but it was either go on horseback or stay at home, and go he would.

“They raise good horses in Ellis County, and my father had raised some of the best of them—­brought the stock from Tennessee.  He liked good blood in a horse, and was always opposed to racing, but he raised some boys who weren’t.  I had a number of brothers older than myself, and they took a special pride in trying every colt we raised, to see what he amounted to in speed.  Of course this had to be done away from home; but that was easy, for these older brothers thought nothing of riding twenty miles to a tournament, barbecue, or round-up, and when away from home they always tried their horses with the best in the country.  At the time of this funeral, we had a crackerjack five year old chestnut sorrel gelding that could show his heels to any horse in the country.  He was a peach,—­you could turn him on a saddle blanket and jump him fifteen feet, and that cow never lived that he couldn’t cut.

“So the day of the funeral my father was in a quandary as to which horse to ride, but when he appealed to his boys, they recommended the best on the ranch, which was the chestnut gelding.  My old man had some doubts as to his ability to ride the horse, for he hadn’t been on a horse’s back for years; but my brothers assured him that the chestnut was as obedient as a kitten, and that before he had been on the road an hour the mud would take all the frisk and frolic out of him.  There was nearly fifteen miles to go, and they assured him that he would never get there if he rode any other horse.  Well, at last he consented to ride the gelding, and the horse was made ready, properly groomed, his tail tied up, and saddled and led up to the block.  It took every member of the family to get my father rigged to start, but at last he announced himself as ready.  Two of my brothers held the horse until he found the off stirrup, and then they turned him loose.  The chestnut danced off a few rods, and settled down into a steady clip that was good for five or six miles an hour.