was easily effected on the twenty-four oxen, yokes, and chains, I paying what money I could spare and leaving the certificates for security on the balance.  As I look back over an eventful life, I remember no special time in which I felt quite as rich as the evening that I drove into the Edwards ranch with twelve yoke of oxen chained together in one team.  The darkies and Mexicans gathered about, even the family, to admire the big fellows, and I remember a thrill which shivered through me as Miss Gertrude passed down the column, kindly patting each near ox as though she felt a personal interest in my possessions.

We waited for good grass before beginning the gathering.  Half a dozen round-ups on the home range would be all that was necessary in completing the numbers allotted to the Edwards ranch.  Three other cowmen were going to turn in a thousand head and furnish and mount a man each, there being no occasion to road-brand, as every one knew the ranch, brands which would go to make up the herd.  An outfit of twelve men was considered sufficient, as it was an open prairie country and through civilized tribes between Texas and Kansas.  All the darkies and Mexicans from the home ranch who could be spared were to be taken along, making it necessary to hire only three outside men.  The drive was looked upon as an experiment, there being no outlay of money, even the meal and bacon which went into the commissary being supplied from the Edwards household.  The country contributed the horses and cattle, and if the project paid out, well and good; if not there was small loss, as they were worth nothing at home.  The 20th of April was set for starting.  Three days’ work on the home range and we had two thousand cattle under herd, consisting of dry or barren cows and steers three years old or over, fully half the latter being heavy beeves.  We culled back and trimmed our allotment down to sixteen hundred, and when the outside contingents were thrown in we had a few over twenty-eight hundred cattle in the herd.  A Mexican was placed in charge of the remuda, a darky, with three yoke of oxen, looked after the commissary, and with ten mounted men around the herd we started.

Five and six horses were allotted to the man, each one had one or two six-shooters, while half a dozen rifles of different makes were carried in the wagon.  The herd moved northward by easy marches, open country being followed until we reached Red River, where we had the misfortune to lose George Edwards from sickness.  He was the foreman from whom all took orders.  While crossing into the Chickasaw Nation it was necessary to swim the cattle.  We cut them into small bunches, and in fording and refording a whole afternoon was spent in the water.  Towards evening our foreman was rendered useless from a chill, followed by fever during the night.  The next morning he was worse, and as it was necessary to move the herd out to open country, Edwards took an old negro with him and went