noon
Their cattle were thrown well away from the ford , and Scholar assured us that his outfit would be on hand whenever we were ready to cross , and even invited all hands of us to come to his wagon for dinner . When returning to our herd , Flood told me that Scholar was considered one of the best foremen on the trail , and why he should refuse to swim his cattle was unexplainable . He must have time to burn , but that did n't seem reasonable , for the earlier through cattle were turned loose on their winter range the better . We were in no hurry to cross , as our wagon would be gone all day , and it was nearly high noon when we trailed up to the ford . With the addition to our force of Scholar and nine or ten of his men , we had an abundance of help , and put the cattle into the water opposite two islands , our saddle horses in the lead as usual . There was no swimming water between the south shore and the first island , though it wet our saddle skirts for some considerable distance , this channel being nearly two hundred yards wide . Most of our outfit took the water , while Scholar 's men fed our herd in from the south bank , a number of their men coming over as far as the first island .