e dropping at an alarming rate, fully twenty of them were in
the wagon, their advent delaying the progress of the herd. By dint of
great exertion we managed to reach the ranch the next evening, where
we lay over a day and rigged up a second wagon, purposely for calves.
It was the intention to send the stock cattle to my new ranch on the
Clear Fork, and releasing all but four men, the idle help about the
home ranch were substituted. In moving cattle from one range to
another, it should always be done with the coming of grass, as it
gives them a full summer to locate and become attached to their new
range. When possible, the coming calf crop should be born where the
mothers are to be located, as it strengthens the ties between an
animal and its range by making sacred the birthplace of its young.
From instinctive warnings of maternity, cows will frequently return to
the same retreat annually to give birth to their calves.

It was about fifty miles between the home and the new ranch. As it was
important to get the cattle located as soon as possible, they were
accordingly started with but the loss of a single day. Two wagons
accompanied them, every calf was saved, and by nursing the herd early
and late we managed to average ten miles between sunrise and sunset.
The elder Edwards, anxious to see the new ranch, accompanied us, his
patience with a cow being something remarkable. When we lacked but a
day's drive of the Clear Fork it was considered advisable for me
to return. Once the cattle reached the new range, four men would
loose-herd them for a month, after which they would continue to ride
the range and turn back all stragglers. The veteran cowman assumed
control, and I returned to the home ranch, where a horse had been left
on which to overtake the trail herd. My wife caught several glimpses
of me that spring; with stocking a new ranch and starting a herd on
the trail I was as busy as the proverbial cranberry-merchant. Where
a year before I was moneyless, now my obligations were accepted for
nearly fourteen thousand dollars.

I overtook the herd within one day's drive of Red River. Everything
was moving nicely, the cattle were well trail-broken, not a run had
occurred, and all was serene and lovely. We crossed into the Nations
at the regular ford, nothing of importance occurring until we reached
the Washita River. The Indians had been bothering us more or less, but
we brushed them aside or appeased their begging with a s