About ten o'clock in the morning
As I had driven oxen as a boy , I was going to offer my services , when Joe Stallings eagerly volunteered in order to avoid using an axe . Slaughter had some extra chain , and our four mules were pressed into service as an extra team in snaking logs . As McCann was to provide for the inner man , the mule team fell to me ; and putting my saddle on the nigh wheeler , I rode jauntily past Mr. Stallings as he trudged alongside his two yoke of oxen . About ten o'clock in the morning , George Jacklin , the foreman of the Millet herd , rode up with several of his men , and seeing the bridge taking shape , turned in and assisted in dragging brush for the foundation . By the time all hands knocked off for dinner , we had a foundation of brush twenty feet wide and four feet high , to say nothing about what had sunk in the mire . The logs were cut about fourteen feet long , and old Joe and I had snaked them up as fast as the axemen could get them ready . Jacklin returned to his wagon for dinner and a change of horses , though Slaughter , with plenty of assurance , had invited him to eat with us , and when he declined had remarked , with no less confidence , `` Well , then , you 'll be back right after dinner .