fter breakfast, the two foremen rode off
down the creek together, and within half an hour Slaughter's wagon and
_remuda_ pulled up within sight of the regular crossing, and shortly
afterwards our foreman returned, and ordered our wagon to pull down to
a clump of cotton woods which grew about half a mile below our camp.
Two men were detailed to look after our herd during the day, and the
remainder of us returned with our foreman to the site selected for the
bridge. On our arrival three axes were swinging against as many
cottonwoods, and there was no doubt in any one's mind that we were
going to be under a new foreman for that day at least. Slaughter had a
big negro cook who swung an axe in a manner which bespoke him a job
for the day, and McCann was instructed to provide dinner for the extra
outfit.

The site chosen for the bridge was a miry bottom over which oozed
three or four inches of water, where the width of the stream was about
sixty feet, with solid banks on either side. To get a good foundation
was the most important matter, but the brush from the trees would
supply the material for that; and within an hour, brush began to
arrive, dragged from the pommels of saddles, and was piled into the
stream. About this time a call went out for a volunteer who could
drive oxen, for the darky was too good an axeman to be recalled. As I
had driven oxen as a boy, I was going to offer my services, when Joe
Stallings eagerly volunteered in order to avoid using an axe.
Slaughter had some extra chain, and our four mules were pressed into
service as an extra team in snaking logs. As McCann was to provide for
the inner man, the mule team fell to me; and putting my saddle on the
nigh wheeler, I rode jauntily past Mr. Stallings as he trudged
alongside his two yoke of oxen.

About ten o'clock in the morning, George Jacklin, the foreman of the
Millet herd, rode up with several of his men, and seeing the bridge
taking shape, turned in and assisted in dragging brush for the
foundation. By the time all hands knocked off for dinner, we had a
foundation of brush twenty feet wide and four feet high, to say
nothing about what had sunk in the mire. The logs were cut about
fourteen feet long, and old Joe and I had snaked them up as fast as
the axemen could get them ready. Jacklin returned to his wagon for
dinner and a change of horses, though Slaughter, with plenty of
assurance, had invited him to eat with us, and when he declined had
remarke