| OCR Text |
Show IOO FORTY YEARS AMONG THE INDIANS. It was daylight before we got thawed out. We walked until we got well warmed up the trail following right on the road. About ten o'clock a. m. we found the cattle. They had finally turned off the road to feed. We were now about forty- five miles from home. The first thing I pro-posed after finding the cattle was to cut their tails off, tie a string around the stubs to keep them from bleed-ing, roast the tails and eat them, for I felt wolfish. Ben objected, saying it might weaken the cattle and that he believed we could stand it back home ; that the cattle were good travelers and may be we could reach the fort by midnight. Our horses ( or rather, horse and mule. As I will soon have to deal a little with a mule it will not do to call him a horse now) were all right, having been on good feed the night before. The cattle, on being turned back, took the road in good shape, starting on a trot. We were anxious to get back and cross the snow-drift before it softened up. This we succeeded in doing, and continued traveling until after noon before " bating." We had more sympathy for ourselves than for our ani-mals, for we were getting a little hungry and dreaded the thought of having to " go to ground " again. So we kept up our speed. Finally Ben's mule began to weaken. We had considerable trouble to get it along, but by one leading and the other walking and whipping we got to Independence Rock, where there were three or four men camped in some old houses. This was about six miles from our fort. Here we had a trial I think few men would have stood. As we rode up they had a good fire burning, a nice supper cooked and were just ready to commence eating. They had stayed the night before at our camp where |
