One night there was a heavy storm, and all of us who were at the wagons were obliged to turn out hastily to help the night herders.  After a while there was a terrific peal of thunder, the lightning struck right by the herd, and away all the beasts went, heads and horns and tails in the air.  For a minute or two I could make out nothing except the dark forms of the beasts running on every side of me, and I should have been very sorry if my horse had stumbled, for those behind would have trodden me down.  Then the herd split, part going to one side, while the other part seemingly kept straight ahead, and I galloped as hard as ever beside them.  I was trying to reach the point—­the leading animals—­in order to turn them, when suddenly there was a tremendous splashing in front.  I could dimly make out that the cattle immediately ahead and to one side of me were disappearing, and the next moment the horse and I went off a cut bank into the Little Missouri.  I bent away back in the saddle, and though the horse almost went down he just recovered himself, and, plunging and struggling through water and quicksand, we made the other side.  Here I discovered that there was another cowboy with the same part of the herd that I was with; but almost immediately we separated.  I galloped hard through a bottom covered with big cottonwood trees, and stopped the part of the herd that I was with, but very soon they broke on me again, and repeated this twice.  Finally toward morning the few I had left came to a halt.

It had been raining hard for some time.  I got off my horse and leaned against a tree, but before long the infernal cattle started on again, and I had to ride after them.  Dawn came soon after this, and I was able to make out where I was and head the cattle back, collecting other little bunches as I went.  After a while I came on a cowboy on foot carrying his saddle on his head.  He was my companion of the previous night.  His horse had gone full speed into a tree and killed itself, the man, however, not being hurt.  I could not help him, as I had all I could do to handle the cattle.  When I got them to the wagon, most of the other men had already come in and the riders were just starting on the long circle.  One of the men changed my horse for me while I ate a hasty breakfast, and then we were off for the day’s work.

As only about half of the night herd had been brought back, the circle riding was particularly heavy, and it was ten hours before we were back at the wagon.  We then changed horses again and worked the whole herd until after sunset, finishing just as it grew too dark to do anything more.  By this time I had been nearly forty hours in the saddle, changing horses five times, and my clothes had thoroughly dried on me, and I fell asleep as soon as I touched the bedding.  Fortunately some men who had gotten in late in the morning had had their sleep during the daytime, so that the rest of us escaped night guard and were not called until four next morning.  Nobody ever gets enough sleep on a round-up.