“Aren’t the mules as good as bulls?” queried Davy.
“No. They used to have mules and mule skinners instead of bull whackers down on the Santa Fe Trail, and I reckon they’ve used ’em on the Overland Trail, too. Bulls are better all ’round. They can walk as fast as a mule if they’re pushed; they can live on grazing that a mule can’t; and they’re not so liable to be stampeded. If Injuns run off any cattle we can overtake ’em by mule or horse and fetch ’em back. No, for freight hauling the bulls are the best. Those used down on the southern trails are Texas cattle largely; small-bodied kind, with flaring big horns. These we use in the north, on the Overland Trail, are some Durhams, some Herefords, and so on. I reckon I’ve got about the best team in the outfit; they’re black Galloways, with a yoke of red Devons.”
“Line out, men! Hep!” called Wagon Boss Charley.
Joel launched his whip with a tremendous crack above the backs of his team.
“Haw, Buck! Muley! Spot! Yip! Yip!”
“Haw! Whoa—gee! Yip! Yip! Hep!” The air was full of dust and shouts and cracking of whips; and one after another out for the trail rolled the huge wagons, until the circle of the corral had straightened into the day’s line.
The teamsters walked at the left side of their teams until, when the wind began to blow the dust into their faces, they changed about to the clear side. They sang, they joked, occasionally they cracked their long whips, and now and then one perched sideways on the wagon-pole behind the wheel yoke, and swinging his legs rode a short distance. But nobody entered a wagon; the men either walked or sat on the pole for a brief rest.
Charley, the wagon boss, kept position near the head of the column; Yank, the assistant wagon boss, usually was found at the rear. Davy sometimes was sent back with word from Charley; and once he was dispatched five miles ahead to take a message to another wagon train. He enjoyed these gallops over the prairie on official business, and he enjoyed riding with Charley.
“I suppose you know the make-up of a team,” proffered Charley, who seemed disposed to teach Dave as much as he could. “The first yoke next to the wagon are the wheel yoke; sometimes we call them the pole yoke. The other yokes are the swing yokes, until you come to the leaders, and these are the lead yoke. In a mule team the middle or swing spans are the pointers. Fact is, a four-span mule team is divided into wheelers, swing team, pointers and lead team. You didn’t time us this morning, did you?”