I go
from your ken, but I shall return--good-by."
I was sorry to see him go. It was lonesome without him; and I was
troubled by my live stock. I soon saw that I was getting so many cattle
that without help in driving them I should be obliged to leave and come
back for some of them. I found a farmer named Westervelt who lived by
the roadside, and had come to Iowa from Herkimer County, in York State.
He even knew some of the relatives of Captain Sproule; so in view of the
fact that he seemed honest, I left my cattle with him, all but four
cows, and promised to return for them not later than the middle of July.
I made him give me a receipt for them, setting forth just what the
bargain was, and I paid him then and there for looking out for them--and
N.V. Creede said afterward that the thing was a perfectly good legal
document, though badly spelled.
"It calls," said he, "for an application of the doctrine of _idem
sonans_--but it will serve, it will serve."
I marveled that the Gowdy carriage still was astern of me after all this
time; and speculated as to whether there was not some other road between
Dyersville and Independence, by which they had passed me; but a few
miles east of Independence they came up behind me as I lay bogged down
in a slew, and drove by on the green tough sod by the roadside. I had
just hitched the cows to the end of the tongue, by means of the chain,
when they trotted by, and sweeping down near me halted.
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