d, with no less confidence, "Well, then, you'll be back right
after dinner. And say, bring all the men you can spare; and if you've
got any gunny sacks or old tarpaulins, bring them; and by all means
don't forget your spade."

Pete Slaughter was a harsh master, considering he was working
volunteer labor; but then we all felt a common interest in the bridge,
for if Slaughter's beeves could cross, ours could, and so could
Millet's. All the men dragging brush changed horses during dinner, for
there was to be no pause in piling in a good foundation as long as the
material was at hand. Jacklin and his outfit returned, ten strong, and
with thirty men at work, the bridge grew. They began laying the logs
on the brush after dinner, and the work of sodding the bridge went
forward at the same time. The bridge stood about two feet above the
water in the creek, but when near the middle of the stream was
reached, the foundation gave way, and for an hour ten horses were kept
busy dragging brush to fill that sink hole until it would bear the
weight of the logs. We had used all the acceptable timber on our side
of the stream for half a mile either way, and yet there were not
enough logs to complete the bridge. When we lacked only some ten or
twelve logs, Slaughter had the boys sod a narrow strip across the
remaining brush, and the horsemen led their mounts across to the
farther side. Then the axemen crossed, felled the nearest trees, and
the last logs were dragged up from the pommels of our saddles.

It now only remained to sod over and dirt the bridge thoroughly. With
only three spades the work was slow, but we cut sod with axes, and
after several hours' work had it finished. The two yoke of oxen were
driven across and back for a test, and the bridge stood it nobly.
Slaughter then brought up his _remuda_, and while the work of dirting
the bridge was still going on, crossed and recrossed his band of
saddle horses twenty times. When the bridge looked completed to every
one else, young Pete advised laying stringers across on either side;
so a number of small trees were felled and guard rails strung across
the ends of the logs and staked. Then more dirt was carried in on
tarpaulins and in gunny sacks, and every chink and crevice filled with
sod and dirt. It was now getting rather late in the afternoon, but
during the finishing touches, young Slaughter had dispatched his
outfit to bring up his herd; and at the same time Flood had sent a
n