yself well repaid for the time and labor of preparing this
history.

To my playmates of my boyhood, who may chance to read this I send
greetings and wish them well. To the few friends, who assisted myself
and widowed mother in our early struggles, I tender my sincerest thanks,
and hope they have prospered as they deserve. For those who proved our
enemies, I have no word of censure. They have reaped their reward.

To that noble but ever decreasing band of men under whose blue and
buckskin shirts there lives a soul as great and beats a heart as true as
ever human breast contained--to the cowboys, rangers, scouts, hunters
and trappers and cattle-men of the "GREAT WESTERN PLAINS," I extend the
hand of greeting acknowledging the FATHER-HOOD of GOD and the
BROTHERHOOD of men; and to my mother's Sainted name this book is
reverently dedicated.

THE AUTHOR.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

Slavery Days; the Old Plantation; My Early Foraging; the Stolen
Demijohn; My First Drunk. 7

CHAPTER II.

The War; the Rebels and the Yankees; I Raise a Regiment; Difficulty
in Finding an Enemy; Ash Cake; Freedom. 14

CHAPTER III.

Raising Tobacco; Our First Year of Freedom; More Privations;
Father Dies; "It Never Rains but It Pours;" I Become the
Head of the Family; I Start to Work at One Dollar and Fifty
Cents a Month. 19

CHAPTER IV.

Boyhood Sports; More Devilment; the Rock Battles; I Hunt
Rabbits in My Shirt Tail; My First Experience in Rough Riding;
a Question of Breaking the Horse or Breaking My Neck. 29

CHAPTER V.

Home Life; Picking Berries; the Pigs Commit Larceny; Nutting;
We Go to Market; My First Desire to See the World; I win a
Horse in a Raffle; the Last of Home. 36

CHAPTER VI.

The World is Before Me; I Join the Texas Cowboys; Red River
Dick; My First Outfit; My First Indian Fight; I Learn to
Use My Gun. 40

CHAPTER VII.

I Learn to Speak Spanish; I Am Made Chief Brand Reader; the
Big Round-up; the 7-Y-L Steer; Long Rides; Hunting Strays. 46

CHAPTER VIII.

On the Trail; a Texas Storm; Battle with the Elements; After
Business Comes Pleasure.