THE OL' COWBOY Part 41

The Old Cowboy
Author James H. Wilson
August 5, 2003
© Copyright 2003

THE OLD COWBOY Part Forty One
(continued)

Ya know Grandboy, we was headin' towards the stockyards there at Amarillo. Drivin' them ol' cows right down beside the railroad track and along came a train.

It was worse than a gunshot from bandits. That train came up from behind where Harold, the new guy, was 'bout half asleep. By the time he came around, he'd been cut off by the passing train. Three quarters of the herd had gone across the tracks in confusion."

"Grandpa didn't Harold hear the train coming? We all know how noisy them trains are!"

"Well sir, I don't think so. Harold himself was ridin' a trail next to the tracks, fifteen or twenty feet away. They tell me when you're standin' in front of a train you can't hear it 'till it's right there on ya. Anyhow, it was wide open range over where we started from, but when them cows took out across them tracks and left all us drovers on the other side, we knew we had a 'roundup' on our hands.

We counted the cars as slowly went by, and if a I remember rightly they had forty seven empty cattle cars comin' to take this herd or one like it to the east. To the slaughter house in Kansas City most likely.
They'd scattered 'bout 10:00 a.m., and we' left the boss and Harold with the remains.

I'd been down twenty miles of mean ground and brought fifty head or so back to the herd. There was one more ravine I hadn't scoured and I told the boss..."

To Be Continued. . .

THE OLD COWBOY Part Forty One, Copyright © 2003

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