t fall.

During the summer a deputation of Cheyennes and Arapahoes visited me
at ranch headquarters. On the last lease taken, and now inclosed
in our pasture, there were a number of wild plum groves, covering
thousands of acres, and the Indians wanted permission to gather the
ripening fruit. Taking advantage of the opportunity, in granting the
request I made it a point to fortify the friendly relations, not only
with ourselves, but with all other cattlemen on the reservation.
Ten days' permission was given to gather the wild plums, camps were
allotted to the Indians, and when the fruit was all gathered, I
barbecued five stray beeves in parting with my guests. The Indian
agent and every cowman on the reservation were invited, and at the
conclusion of the festival the Quaker agent made the assembled chiefs
a fatherly talk. Torpid from feasting, the bucks grunted approval of
the new order of things, and an Arapahoe chief, responding in behalf
of his tribe, said that the rent from the grass now fed his people
better than under the old buffalo days. Pledging anew the fraternal
bond, and appointing the gathering of the plums as an annual festival
thereafter, the tribes took up their march in returning to their
encampment.

I was called to Dodge but once during the summer of 1884. My steers
had gone to Ogalalla and were sold, the cows remaining at the lower
market, all of which had changed owners with the exception of one
thousand head. The demand had fallen off, and a dull close of the
season was predicted, but I shaded prices and closed up my personal
holdings before returning. Several of the firm's steer herds were
unsold at Dodge, but on the approach of the shipping season I returned
to my task, and we began to move out our beeves with seven outfits
in the saddle. Four round trips were made to the crew, shipping out
twenty thousand double and half that number of single wintered cattle.
The grass had been fine that summer, and the beeves came up in prime
condition, always topping the market as range cattle at the markets to
which they were consigned. That branch of the work over, every energy
was centred in making the ranch snug for the winter. Extra fire-guards
were plowed, and the middles burned out, cutting the range into a
dozen parcels, and thus, as far as possible, the winter forage was
secured for our holdings of eighty thousand cattle. Hay and grain
contracts had been previously let, the latter to be freighted in