In 1884 there was also a bad loss of cattle, incident to a storm, but strong or well fed cattle survived it. The storm of March 22, 1886, was tremendously destructive. It continued for about ten or eleven days, "sometimes letting loose a little to get a better hold," as the people said. It occurred after an extended period of fine weather. The grass had started and cattle having been out grazing on the soft spring grass were unfitted to sustain the long period of the storm. In the end, thousands of dead cattle littered every range. The wrecks of cow corporations affecting this territory were the Scottish companies, the Bostonians, and the Texas, and Nebraska combinations. The genius of the Coads, the Creightons, the McShanes ; of W. A. Paxton, James E. Boyd, John Clay, and others, were tested to their uttermost.

That spring was my initiation into the storms of the west. On the Hall & Evans ranch, near North Platte City, A. B. Hall and I had the care of about 250 head of stock, and were milking thirty cows. On the third day, Mr. Hall had a chill, and from then on the duty was mine, assisted by Mrs. Hall. It was a day and night undertaking, snatching a bit of sleep whenever one could. I milked the cows, fed the horses and cattle, pumped water with an ordinary pitcher pump for them all, churned the butter, and looked after several hundred hens. Early cows were dropping their calves in snow drifts, where I would find them and take them by the wheelbarrow route to the kitchen. Here I would rub them dry with a gunny sack, feed them some hot diluted milk, and return them to their mothers. We did not have a loss.