The Old Cowboys We Go North

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The cowboys head north to the rails With their friends. And some not so friendly visitors---
I looked right at Big Jim and said,
“I couldn’t find a bill of sale. And anyway you know that was a fake I.O.U, Jim. You get no horses here, but we got plenty of lead if you want some”.
He sat there on his horse, for a few moments; I knew he was figuring the odds on what to do. The five men, he had with him had been easing their horses into position; It was very plain what they had in mind. Jim finally got the action started.
“Well OK sonny, we will just be going”, said big Jim.
But he didn’t go.
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And these were wild cattle we went after, they were mean too. After scores of years, the descendants of the Spanish cattle were numbered in the millions. And they were plenty spooky; they could hear you coming for two miles. Some of the things they did to hide, was almost human, in its planning. The sly and cunning, hiding tricks made it look, as if they had been schooled. The wild Cattle executed the hide and seek tactics with military smoothness. And they would hide in places that a rabbit couldn’t fit in. How, they did that is a mystery. But it did them no good to hide, we needed them. We were going north, and they were going north too. There was one old trick we used a lot; fence off some waterholes, and don’t let them drink. After a few days, there were, quite a few, waiting in line for water. It was necessary, in part, to let them get used to seeing us. So we kept them from water until their tongue was hanging out, then we let them drink. While they were getting a drink we closed the pole and brush fence around them. Now, a few more days of seeing us ride around them, and it was, much easier to herd them. After this treatment we corralled them in a central location. Adding more each week or so. They had plenty of water and feed where we held them, and would stay put better.
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Trading Horses is a lot like getting married. A lot of promises are made but not everything said, is exactly true. Well yes there are some, needed Promises and compromises; and it is easy to get those two words mixed up. A lot has to do with what a person is willing to accept, on an as is basis. If you are trying to sell an animal the prospective buyer will find many faults, with it. If he, was trying to sell you the same animal, it would be gilded in gold and have no faults.
One ole horse trading guy came by, and tried a trick on us. He saw we were young, and thought we were green.
He had a blooded horse to sell, a bargain at the price he wanted. That alone was a clue that he was up to something. Even swearing on his mother’s grave, he claimed he needed money to get back east to, his poor sick wife. We did buy the horse and he went on his way. The next day the horse was limping some. A real close look, at its hoof revealed the trick. He had put an extra long nail in one of the front shoes. The trader knew it would take a day or two, to show up. Sure enough he came back wanting to know if everything was all right. And did we want to sell the horse back. He thought we would be glad to accept fifty percent, of what we had bought the animal for.
We had hid the horse out, and told the trader, we sold the nag to the Indians for food. We said we didn’t expect to see no traveling horse trader again, so we just got 10 dollars for the lame horse. The ole horse trader was sent to a known hostile tribe to find his pony. We hopped he liked the medicine we gave him; it was what he was trying to give us.