rtion without discomfort. At one time I became very nearly
discouraged with him.

Yet this was the ox that made the round trip. He bore his end of the
yoke from the tidewaters of the Pacific to the tidewaters of the
Atlantic, at the Battery, New York City, and on to Washington City to
meet the President. He finally became subdued, though not conquered. At
times he became threatening with his horns, and I never did trust his
heels.

[Illustration: Taking off the wagon box.]

The other ox, Twist, died suddenly on August 9, 1906, and was buried
within a few rods of the trail. It was two months to a day after his
death before I could find a mate for the Dave ox, and then I had to take
another five-year-old steer off the cattle range of Nebraska. This
steer, Dandy, evidently had never been handled; but he came of good
stock and, with the exception of awkwardness, gave me no serious
trouble. Dandy was purchased out of the stockyard at Omaha. He then
weighed 1,470 pounds, and the day before he went to see the President he
tipped the scales at the 1,760-pound notch. Dandy proved to be a
faithful, serviceable ox.

On the journey Dave had to be shod fourteen times, I think, and he
always struggled to get away. Once, on the summit of the Rocky
Mountains, we had to throw Dave and tie him hard and fast before we
could shoe him. It takes two shoes to one foot for an ox, instead of one
as for a horse, though the fastening is the same; that is, by nailing
into the hoof. At one time Dandy's hoofs became so worn that I could not
fasten a shoe on him, and so I had what we called leather boots put on,
that left a track like an elephant's; but he could not pull well with
them on.

[Illustration: Calking the wagon box to turn it into a boat.]

Besides the oxen we had a dog, Jim. More will be told of him later.

An authentic prairie schooner, a true veteran of the Plains, was out of
the question. In building the new one, use was made of parts of three
old wagons. The woodwork of the wagon had to be new throughout except
for one hub, which had done service across the Plains in 1853. This hub
and the bands, boxes, and other iron parts were from two old-time wagons
that had crossed the Plains in 1853. They differed somewhat in size and
shape; hence the hubs of the fore and hind wheels did not match.

[Illustration: Launching the schooner to cross the river.]

The axles were of wood, with the old-time linchpins and steel skeins,
which