EARLY DAY STORIES. 49 



CHAPTER VII. 



Incidents of the Journey — Out on the Trail Over Night — 

 The Dogs and the Wolves. 



I have omitted to state that somewhere along near the 

 western line of the present state of Nebraska, but I have 

 forgotten at just what point, Mr. Knapp, became dissatisfied 

 with the method of travel of Capt. Well's train, and he de- 

 termined to pull out and leave it. He thought a train of 

 twenty-one wagons too large — that it took too much time 

 to pitch camp in the evening, and to break camp in the 

 morning, and that there were too many cattle in one herd 

 to do well when turned loose to feed. He therefore deter- 

 mined to travel alone for a time, until we could pick up a 

 few wagons with people who would be congenial and 

 agreeable to us, and thus form a new and much smaller 

 train that would be more easily handled. His position upon 

 this question was well taken, and the reasons therefor were 

 good and sound. We therefore traveled by ourselves for a 

 week or ten days, my cousin Wesley and myself taking the 

 whole charge of the cattle, one or the other of us always, 

 and some of the time both of us staying out with them all 

 night. We got along all right, only that Wesley and I did 

 not have our full amount of sleep, because when out with 

 the cattle we had to be up and stirring whenever the cattle 

 got up to feed. When the cattle were driven out to pas- 

 ture after making camp, they would usually feed until about 

 ten o'clock, when they would lie down and be quiet until 

 about one or two o'clock, and then get up and feed for an 

 hour or so and lie down again. If they did not get up and 

 go to feeding at the first streak of daylight, it was our busi- 

 ness to rout them out, which we did if we were awake our- 

 selves, which generally was not the case, and then at about 



