midnight
Fifteen dollars a head was agreed on as the price , and we earned it a second time in delivering that herd at Fort Worth . Many of the animals were ten years old , surly when irritated , and ready for a fight when their day-dreams were disturbed . There was no treating them humanely , for every effort in that direction was resented by the old rascals , individually and collectively . The first day we gathered two hundred , and the attempt to hold them under herd was a constant fight , resulting in every hoof arising on the bed-ground at midnight and escaping to their old haunts . I worked as good a ranch outfit of men as the State ever bred , I was right there in the saddle with them , yet , in spite of every effort , to say nothing of the profanity wasted , we lost the herd . The next morning every lad armed himself with a prod-pole long as a lance and tipped with a sharp steel brad , and we commenced regathering . Thereafter we corralled them at night , which always called for a free use of ropes , as a number usually broke away on approaching the pens .