d out sometime long 'fore daylight.
Didn't see them when they passed,
But from all the indications
They was trav'ling pretty fast.

11

"Crossed right here where we are settin',
Saw their trail that very day;
Struck plumb north, and by my reck'nin'
Towards the north they'll likely stay.
North of here, by my experience,
He'll find grass that's mighty fine.
Chances are that he'll keep goin'
Till he strikes Nebraska's line.
It was just the next day after
That my cattle scattered so;
Some strayed off 'way south to Jimson's,
One bunch in the bend below.
That's the day I met that feller
(Eyes so black he couldn't see)
Who kept pumpin' me with questions
Like you've just been askin' me.

12

"Asked about that prairie schooner,
Said that they was friends of hisn,
Like to wore me plumb to frazzles
With his everlasting quiz'n.
Rode a piebald, knock-kneed broncho;
Coat was battered, ripped, and torn;
He was yaller, long, and g'anted
Like a steer with holler horn.
An' you oughter seen his breeches!
He must sure be shy on sense;
Why, they looked like he'd been riding
On a bucking barb wire fence.
You won't meet him, 'cause I saw him
Coming back across this way,
Going eastward where he come from;
Took the back trail yesterday.

13

"Said he'd found the old man's outfit
Moving westward on North Fork.
Can't remember all he told me,
For he runs a heap to talk.
Said he'd found out what he wanted;
Said he 'had a plan or two,
And the folks that knowed Jim Johnson,
Knowed that he would put 'em through.'
Then there's others took the west trail;
They got that way huntin' range--
Funny how folks when they come here
Get to itchin' for a change!
I've been stayin' too confinin';
Never left this herd but once.
I'm the oldest puncher round here,--
Been here over fourteen months."

14

Long before the sun had risen,
While the night mist's ghostly veil
Hid from view the sloughs and hollows,
Billy took the northern trail.
Through the sunflowers in the low land,
Plodding over sandstone knolls,
Winding through the level stretches
Dotted thick with treacherous holes
Where the prairie dogs sat chattering,
Bolt upright upon their mounds,
While the ground owls sought their burrows,
Startled by the warning sounds;
Stumbling into buffalo wallows,
Dug out in an earlier day
By the halting herds that rested,
Rolled and bellowed in their play.