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had just stolen a beef. It seems that the two hunters got quite close to the deer they were trailing when the deer suddenly turned straight off the mountain into the Hole in The Ground which is a huge canyon whose bottom is almost on a level with Roosevelt Lake. Just as the deer disappeared, a white faced yearling jumped up out of the bushes and I suppose you can guess the rest.

The players in this drama were Basil Cox, Nelson Turner, Otto Reasoner and yours truly, Sam Waldrip. I don't know if the yearling was branded. I don't know who shot it. I do know the meat tasted very good when we cooked it.

Meanwhile, it was still raining and we were almost out of everything except meat. We hoped the rain would stop but after nearly two weeks decided we were forced to go out for groceries. This meant a twenty mile ride over soft muddy trails and across flooded streams to Young. We first had to find our horses and that took a half day. Our trail led up over a mountain and down a flooded canyon to Buzzard Roost. The horses were weak from lack of good food and the going was slow in the mud. We finally reached Buzzard Roost, where there was a half shelter, at about ten p.m. Fortunately, there was food for our horses and for us. The next day we had to cross Spring Creek and it was in flood. The water was in the tops of the sycamore trees and was really rolling. We went upstream some two miles where we found a place we could get into the water on our side and a place about a quarter of a mile downstream where we could get out on the other side.

Now I knew Tony could swim and Dad had told me to always let the horse decide if he could make it. "Don't force him." Since Tony was the strongest horse in the group I elected to try it first. When Tony's feet left the solid ground we were swept down stream at a terrifying rate of speed. However, Tony knew his business and our crossing was uneventful. Otto Reasoner was the next to cross and he was riding a very small weak pony who turned his head upstream and began to fight the water. He was quickly turned over backward and down the stream came Otto and the horse. I threw a rope to Otto and pulled him out. The horse finally got out on our side just before going into a box canyon. Both Basil and Nelson made good crossings. We were all cold and wet so we built a fire and warmed up a bit before riding on to Young.

We replenished our food supplies and went back to camp where we stayed until sometime in March. When it came time to break camp we found all the horses except Hoggie. After searching for two days we located him. He was sitting under a large juniper tree and was dead. It seemed rather fitting that Hoggie's last move was his "reverse" one. At least he did not sit off a high bank.