On one occasion, I was coming through the Wildcat Range on my way to Gering, and stopped at a settler's place near Rifle Gap, for the night. The man of the place and I were talking when a roly poly boy came to his father's knee. The father fondly patted his round form, and said : "My son, what makes you so fat?" The little imp looked up and grinned as he answered: "Bay State Beef." The father laughed, and I joined, being quite sure the boy had told the truth.

In the winter of 1887-88, and also the winter following, small herds drifted across the state line of Wyoming, in the storms when the "line riders" could not carefully guard the entire distance. These cattle seldom returned. The men who were sent after them would see hanging to ridge logs, or on the corners of houses, nice fresh quarters of beef, and in hidden places they might find the waste materials of slaughtered cattle.

In the winter of 1885-86, I was working for Hall & Evans, whose ranch was established in 1871 on White Horse Creek, about two miles northeast of North Platte. They had about two hundred and fifty head of cattle, and forty or fifty horses. They put up several hundred tons of hay along the river bottoms, and they milked from thirty to fifty cows.

Mr. Evans was in the County Clerk's office at North Platte, and Mr. and Mrs. Hall, whose only daughter was Mrs. Evans, lived upon the ranch. They made butter, and kept several hundred hens, and had private customers for the product.