drank sparingly,
kneeling against the soft river's bank, cutting it with his horns, and
matting his forehead with red mud. It was a momentous day in his life.
He distinctly remembered the physical pain he had suffered once in a
branding-pen, but that was nothing compared to this. Surely his years
had been few and full of trouble. He hardly knew which way to turn.
Finally he concluded to lie down on a knoll and rest until nightfall,
when he would start on his journey to the Frio. Just how he was to
reach that country troubled him. He was a cautious fellow; he knew he
must have water on the way, and the rains had not yet fallen.

Near the middle of the afternoon an incident occurred which changed
the whole course of his after-life. From his position on the knoll he
witnessed the approach of four horsemen who apparently were bent on
driving all the cattle in that vicinity out of their way. To get a
better view he arose, for it was evident they had no intention of
disturbing him. When they had drifted away all the cattle for a mile
on both sides of the river, one of the horsemen rode back and signaled
to some one in the distance. Then the line-back steer saw something
new, for coming over the brow of the hill was a great column of
cattle. He had never witnessed such a procession of his kind before.
When the leaders had reached the river, the rear was just coming over
the brow of the hill, for the column was fully a mile in length. The
line-back steer classed them as strangers, probably bound for the
Frio, for that was the remotest country in his knowledge. As he
slowly approached the herd, which was then crowding into the river, he
noticed that they were nearly all two-year-olds like himself. Why not
accompany them? His resolution to leave the Nueces valley was
still uppermost in his mind. But when he attempted to join in, a
dark-skinned man on a horse chased him away, cursing him in Spanish
as he ran. Then he thought they must be exclusive, and wondered where
they came from.

But when the line-back steer once resolved to do anything, the
determination became a consuming desire. He threw the very intensity
of his existence into his resolution of the morning. He would leave
the Nueces valley with those cattle--or alone, it mattered not. So
after they had watered and grazed out from the river, he followed at
a respectful distance. Once again he tried to enter the herd, but an
outrider cut him off. The man was well mounted,