Railway to carry these people to heaven. Which will you do?"

"I'll tell the law to go to hell," said I.

Dunlap and Thatcher looked at each other as if relieved. I have always
suspected that I was taken into their secret without their ordinary
precautions; and that for a while they were a little dubious for fear
that they had spilt the milk of secrecy. But all my life people have
told me their secrets.

They urged me hard to go with them; and talked so favorably about the
soil of the prairies that I began to think well again of my Iowa farm.
When I had made it plain that I had to have a longer time to think it
over, they began urging me to let them have my horses on some sort of a
trade; and I began to see that a part of what they had wanted all the
time was a faster team as well as a free-state recruit. They urged on me
the desirability of having cattle instead of horses when I reached
my farm.

"Cows, yes," said I, "but not steers."

So I slept over It until morning. Then I made them the proposition that
if they would arrange with Preston to trade me four cows, which I would
select from his herd, and would provide for my board with Preston until
I could break them to drive, and would furnish yokes and chains in
place of my harness, I would let them have the team for a hundred
dollars boot-money. Preston said he'd like to have me make my selection
first, and when I picked out three-year-old heifers, two of which were
giving milk, he said it was a whack, if it didn't take me more than a
week to break them. Dunlap and Thatcher hitched up, and started off the
next morning. I had become Cow Vandemark overnight, and am still Cow
Vandemark in the minds of the old settlers of Vandemark Township and
some who have just picked the name up.

But I did not take on my new name without a struggle, for Flora and
Fanny had become dear to me since leaving Madison--my first horses. How
I got my second team of horses is connected with one of the most
important incidents in my life; it was a long time before I got them and
it will be some time before I can tell about it. In the meantime, there
were Flora and Fanny, hitched to Dunlap and Thatcher's light wagon,
disappearing among the burr oaks toward the Dubuque highway. I thought
of my pride as I drove away from Madison with these two steeds, and of
the pretty figure I cut the morning when red-haired Alice climbed up,
offered to go with me, and kissed me before she climbed down.