of Texas, but
with the present outlet for cattle, it's bad policy to harass the herds.
Water is about the best crop some of those settlers along the trail have
to sell, and they ought to treat us right."

After the conference was over, we scattered about the city, on various
errands, expecting to take the night train home. It was then the middle
of February, and five of the six herds were already purchased. In spite
of the large numbers of cattle which the trail had absorbed in previous
years, there was still an abundance of all ages, anxious for a market.
The demand in the North had constantly been for young cattle, leaving
the matured steers at home. Had Mr. Lovell's contracts that year called
for forty thousand five and six year old beeves, instead of twenty,
there would have been the same inexhaustible supply from which to pick
and choose. But with only one herd yet to secure, and ample offerings on
every hand, there was no necessity for a hurry. Many of the herds driven
the year before found no sale, and were compelled to winter in the North
at the drover's risk. In the early spring of '84, there was a decided
lull over the enthusiasm of the two previous years, during the former
of which the trail afforded an outlet for nearly seven hundred thousand
Texas cattle.

In regard to horses we were well outfitted. During the summer of '83,
Don Lovell had driven four herds, two on Indian contract and two of
younger cattle on speculation. Of the latter, one was sold in Dodge for
delivery on the Purgatory River in southern Colorado, while the other
went to Ogalalla, and was disposed of and received at that point. In
both cases there was no chance to sell the saddle horses, and they
returned to Dodge and were sent to pasture down the river in the
settlements. My brother, Bob Quirk, had driven one of the other herds to
an agency in the Indian Territory. After making the delivery, early in
August, on his employer's orders, he had brought his remuda and outfit
into Dodge, the horses being also sent to pasture and the men home to
Texas. I had made the trip that year to the Pine Ridge Agency in Dakota
with thirty-five hundred beeves, under Flood as foreman. Don Lovell was
present at the delivery, and as there was no hope of effecting a sale of
the saddle stock among the Indians, after delivering the outfit at the
nearest railroad, I was given two men and the cook, and started back
over the trail for Dodge with the remuda. The wa