Charley, the wagon master, rode well up with the leading team, and Davy, his assistant, as his aide or orderly, rode at his elbow ready for orders. Yank, assistant wagon master, was down the line. At the rear, behind the few loose cattle taken along for use in case of accidents, rode on a mule the “cavvy” herder――a young Eastern chap who was Mr. Waddell’s nephew and wanted to learn plains life. “Cavvy” of course was the short for “cavvy-yard,” and “cavvy-yard” was the slang for “caballada,” Spanish of “horse-herd.” There were twenty-six wagons in the train: twenty-five loaded with freight and one mess-wagon carrying the supplies. They were enormous wagons, some of them seventeen feet long, the broad boxes five or six feet deep, the great wheels wide tired; and over all a flaring hood of canvas labelled “Osnaburg” (the trademark of the famous mills which furnished most of the duck and sheeting used on the plains), stretched upon bows, nailed fast at the edges to the wagon-box, but at either end puckered tight by draw ropes, leaving an oblong hole. As Davy knew, the wheels, axles and other running gear were the very best of wood. Even the ends of the axles, on which fitted the wheels, were wood. The wheels were held on by an iron linch-pin thrust through the axle outside the hub. These wooden axles on the sandy, dusty plains required much greasing, and from the rear axle of each wagon hung a pot of tar for greasing. On the reach-pole, which was the pole projecting from underneath the box, out behind the wagon, was slung a ten-gallon keg of water. Each wagon was drawn by twelve oxen, yoked together in six pairs. This was the regular fashion; twenty-five freight wagons to a train, and six yoke of bulls to a wagon. There were thirty-one men in the outfit: a teamster for each of the twenty-six wagons, the wagon master and the assistant wagon master, Davy the “extra” another “extra” (who was a regular teamster), and the cavvy herder. The teamsters trudged beside their teams; the only persons who rode were Charley and Yank and Davy and the cavvy herder, on their mules. The freight train was called a “bull train”; the wagons were “bull wagons”; the oxen were “bull teams”; the teamsters were “bull whackers”; the wagon master was the “bull wagon boss”; and the whole array was a “bull outfit.” Stretched out in a line a quarter of a mile long, the train made a handsome sight to Davy, proudly looking back from his post at the flank of Charley’s mule. The oxen, fresh for the start, with heads low and necks fitted into great wooden yoke and bow, pulled stanchly, at a dignified, steady plod, keeping the heavy ox-chains tight. The majority of the “bulls” were spotted white and red or black; there were a number of roans and reds and a few black. The head team were black, except the pair next to the wagon, which were red. Several had been dehorned because they were fighters.