s selection at the county seat.
The scrip was bandied about, no one caring for it, and on the
termination of my second month I was offered four sections for my
services up to date, provided I would remain longer in the company's
employ. I knew the value of land in the older States, in fact, already
had my eye on some splendid valleys on the Clear Fork, and accepted
the offered certificates. The idea found a firm lodgment in my mind,
and I traded one of my six-shooters even for a section of scrip, and
won several more in card games. I had learned to play poker in the
army,--knew the rudiments of the game at least,--and before the middle
of March I was the possessor of certificates calling for thirty
sections of land. As the time was drawing near for my return to Palo
Pinto County, I severed my connection with the dredging company and
returned to the home of my old comrade. I had left my horse with him,
and under the pretense of paying for feeding the animal well for the
return trip, had slipped my crony a small gold piece several times
during the winter. He ridiculed me over my land scrip, but I was
satisfied, and after spending a day with the couple I started on my
return.

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 carrie