were enabled to effect sales where other drovers dared not
venture.

Business opened early with us. I sold fifteen hundred of my heaviest
beeves to an army contractor from Wyoming. My active partner sold the
straight three-year-old herd from Erath County to an ex-governor from
Nebraska, and we delivered it on the Republican River in that State.
Small bunches of from three to five hundred were sold to farmers, and
by the first of August we had our holdings reduced to two herds in
charge of one outfit. When the hipping season began with our customers
at The Grove, trade became active with us at Wichita. Scarcely a week
passed but Major Hunter sold a thousand or more to his neighbors,
while I skirmished around in the general market. When the outfit
returned from the Republican River, I took it in charge, went down
on the Medicine, and cut out a thousand beeves, bringing them to the
railroad and shipping them to St. Louis. I never saw fatter cattle
in my life. When we got the returns from the first consignment, we
shipped two trainloads every fortnight until our holding's on the
Medicine were reduced to a remnant. A competent bookkeeper was
employed early in the year, and in keeping our accounts at Wichita,
looking after our shipments, keeping individual interests, by brands,
separate from the firm's, he was about the busiest man connected with
the summer's business. Aside from our drive of over thirteen thousand
head, we bought three whole herds, retailing them in small quantities
to our customers, all of which was profitable. I bought four whole
remudas on personal account, culled out one hundred and fifty head
and sold them at a sacrifice, sending home the remaining two hundred
saddle horses. I found it much cheaper and more convenient to buy my
supply of saddle stock at trail terminals than at home. Once railroad
connections were in operation direct between Kansas and Texas, every
outfit preferred to go home by rail, but I adhered to former methods
for many years.

In summing up the year's business, never were three partners more
surprised. With a remnant of nearly one hundred beeves unfit for
shipment, the Medicine River venture had cleared us over two hundred
per cent, while the horses on hand were worth ten dollars a head more
than what they had cost, owing to their having wintered in the North.
The ten thousand trail cattle paid splendidly, while my individual
herd had sold out in a manner, leaving the stock cattl