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16. 
this time and several of the boys came near drowning. One of them was E.B. Harrold. He has a big ranch in this part of the country. He was also buying beef cattle. He tried to cross the Briar fork of Salt Creek and went under in the attempt. We had to haul him out with a rope one of the colored cowboys threw over his head.
Some time after this I went with Rummels and Fitzgerald. After their early spring and summer work was done I rode lines and done odd things for them. They sold a herd of 200 head to Kimblin Strauss who drove them through the country and on to Houston. He was a lucky man in buying cattle and made some fine money out of the business. He would be out sometimes from 60 to 90 days and get up a fine lot of cattle. He asked me to go with him and I did so on several occassions. That man gave me more pointers about the cow business than I ever got before or may ever get again. He was a master at the business. He was straight and right. In telling me how to handle cattle in a stampede he told me to keep cool, look back, act quick and get the leaders back in the herd and then you had the game finished. A stampede in those days was something fierce. Cattle would run for miles and run like fury itself. It would take the cowboys weeks at a time to get them back should a real stampede occur. The cattle were wild and it did not take much to have them make a start. A man was always on guard at night. He would sleep around the cook wagon in the day time and then watch the herd at night. Sometimes he had nothing to do and at other times he had more than he could attend. Then we would all have to get up and lend a hand. The man who could keep a herd from stampedeing at night was a very valuable man. The man line-riding usually had a dog with him. This was a Sheperd or a coolie and they were faitful animals. The dogs were cared for by the men like there were human beings. Every attention was given them that was possible. Sometimes when it was real cold they were taken up on horses and petted and fondled to keep them warm.   The dogs knew that they were the friends of the men. 
I had a dog and I called him "Shep". He was a little black fellow