hen the country had settled up, these
old pioneers naturally hung together and visited and chummed with one
another in preference to the new settlers. One spring when I was about
fifteen years old, one of those old pioneer neighbors of ours died,
and my father decided that he would go to the funeral or burst a hame
string. If any of you know anything about that black-waxy, hog-wallow
land in Ellis County, you know that when it gets muddy in the spring a
wagon wheel will fill solid with waxy mud. So at the time of this
funeral it was impossible to go on the road with any kind of a
vehicle, and my father had to go on horseback. He was an old man at
the time and didn't like the idea, but it was either go on horseback
or stay at home, and go he would.

"They raise good horses in Ellis County, and my father had raised some
of the best of them--brought the stock from Tennessee. He liked good
blood in a horse, and was always opposed to racing, but he raised some
boys who weren't. I had a number of brothers older than myself, and
they took a special pride in trying every colt we raised, to see what
he amounted to in speed. Of course this had to be done away from home;
but that was easy, for these older brothers thought nothing of riding
twenty miles to a tournament, barbecue, or round-up, and when away
from home they always tried their horses with the best in the country.
At the time of this funeral, we had a crackerjack five year old
chestnut sorrel gelding that could show his heels to any horse in the
country. He was a peach,--you could turn him on a saddle blanket and
jump him fifteen feet, and that cow never lived that he couldn't cut.

"So the day of the funeral my father was in a quandary as to which
horse to ride, but when he appealed to his boys, they recommended the
best on the ranch, which was the chestnut gelding. My old man had some
doubts as to his ability to ride the horse, for he hadn't been on a
horse's back for years; but my brothers assured him that the chestnut
was as obedient as a kitten, and that before he had been on the road
an hour the mud would take all the frisk and frolic out of him. There
was nearly fifteen miles to go, and they assured him that he would
never get there if he rode any other horse. Well, at last he consented
to ride the gelding, and the horse was made ready, properly groomed,
his tail tied up, and saddled and led up to the block. It took every
member of the family to get my father ri