Evidences of spring were to be seen on every hand.  My ride northward was a race with the season, but I outrode the coming grass, the budding trees, the first flowers, and the mating birds, and reached the Edwards ranch on the last day of March.  Any number of cattle had already been tendered in making up the herd, over half the saddle horses necessary were in hand or promised, and they were only awaiting my return.  I had no idea what the requirements of the Kansas market were, and no one else seemed to know, but it was finally decided to drive a mixed herd of twenty-five hundred by way of experiment.  The promoters of the Abilene market had flooded Texas with advertising matter during the winter, urging that only choice cattle should be driven, yet the information was of little value where local customs classified all live stock.  A beef was a beef, whether he weighed eight or twelve hundred pounds, a cow was a cow when over three years old, and so on to the end of the chapter.  From a purely selfish motive of wanting strong cattle for the trip, I suggested that nothing under three-year-olds should be used in making up the herd, a preference to be given matured beeves.  George Edwards also favored the idea, and as our experience in trailing cattle carried some little weight, orders were given to gather nothing that had not age, flesh, and strength for the journey.

I was to have fifty dollars a month and furnish my own mount.  Horses were cheap, but I wanted good ones, and after skirmishing about I secured four to my liking in return for one hundred dollars in gold.  I still had some money left from my wages in driving cattle to Fort Sumner, and I began looking about for oxen in which to invest the remainder.  Having little, I must be very careful and make my investment in something staple; and remembering the fine prices current in Colorado the spring before for work cattle, I offered to supply the oxen for the commissary.  My proposal was accepted, and accordingly I began making inquiry for wagon stock.  Finally I heard of a freight outfit in the adjoining county east, the owner of which had died the winter before, the administrator offering his effects for sale.  I lost no time in seeing the oxen and hunting up their custodian, who proved to be a frontier surveyor at the county seat.  There were two teams of six yoke each, fine cattle, and I had hopes of being able to buy six or eight oxen.  But the surveyor insisted on selling both teams, offering to credit me on any balance if I could give him security.  I had never mentioned my land scrip to any one, and wishing to see if it had any value, I produced and tendered the certificates to the surveyor.  He looked them over, made a computation, and informed me that they were worth in his county about five cents an acre, or nearly one thousand dollars.  He also offered to accept them as security, assuring me that he could use some of them in locating lands for settlers.  But it was not my idea to sell the land scrip, and a trade