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squaw. That night three of our horses disappeared. We hunted for them a couple of days and not finding them we were satisfied they were stolen. Lew Allen, owner of the cattle, reported our loss at the nearest fort and soldiers came down and arrested the squawman, burnt his shack, and made him tell where the horses were. He had the Indians steal them and take them across the Missouri river. They were found where he said they were.
We moved on back towards home, and one night something stampeded our horses, all getting away except one little Spanish pony. We hunted for them two days and located them where somebody had penned them, and we had to give a horse for trouble and damages claimed.
Lew Allen persuaded me to bring an Indian boy back with me. He was about fifteen years old, and lived with Allen in Lavaca county until grown. This Indian killed a man there and in trying to escape was killed himself.
I stopped at Wichita, Kansas, and hired to Read & O'Connor as boss, and took charge of their cattle until the following November. When the cattle were disposed of I came back through Indian Territory and reached home all right. For nine months I had not slept in a house.
On my fourth trip up the trail I took 1,000 beeves for Read & O'Connor, and was paid $100 per month and all expenses. This was in March, 1872. We left Goliad and went up the same route as before. We held these cattle at Wichita, Kansas, out of the settlements, and herded them on one bed ground for five and a half months. As I was boss I didn't have to herd. I looked after three herds until December when they were fat and we put them on the market. I didn't sleep in a house for nine months and kept well all the time. After the cattle were sold I took a bunch of ten men and the chuck wagon and struck out over the back trail for home, and got back in time to be married to Miss Fannie M. Crossley, on Christmas Day, 1872.