The Story of Ben 31 



the dangerous work ahead of us, both in fording the 

 river and in cHmbing the opposite mountain, we de- 

 termined to put Ben on a pony that could be led. We 

 were careful, however, to tie him up short enough to 

 prevent any repetition of his former antics. I then 

 mounted my riding horse, a good sure-footed one, and, 

 with the lead rope of Ben's horse in my hand, started 

 for the other shore. The first two-thirds of the ford 

 was not bad, but the last portion was deep and swift, the 

 footing bad, and the going dangerous. However, by 

 heading my horse diagonally down-stream, and thus 

 going with the current, we succeeded in making the 

 opposite bank in safety and waited for Spencer and 

 Jack to follow. They got along equally well until 

 near the bank on which I stood, when Spencer's horse 

 slipped on one of the smooth rocks and pitched his 

 rider over his head into the swirling water. With a 

 pole which I had cut in case it should be needed I man- 

 aged to pull the water-soaked fellow out of the current, 

 however, and when we had seen once more to the secur- 

 ity of the packs we started on the steep climb ahead of 

 us. There was not so much as an old game trail to 

 mark our way, and the hill was so steep that we could 

 only make headway by what are known as ^^switch- 

 backs." Our one desire now was to get up to where 

 we could find grass for the horses, and a place level 

 enough to pitch a tent and to unpack and give the 

 ponies a few days in which to rest up. 



