delightful slumber I had ever experienced since infancy. From that day
until the present time I have never had another chill. I gained 40
pounds of flesh in the next three months. I have known consumption to be
cured with the same "ague cure" on the plains.

The distance from Kansas City to Fort Larned, Kansas, is three hundred
miles. The distance from Fort Larned to Fort Lyon, New Mexico, is two
hundred and forty miles, and from Fort Lyon to Fort Union it is one
hundred and eighty miles, from Fort Union to Santa Fe it is one hundred
and eighty miles, making nine hundred miles for the entire trip.

The drive from Fort Larned, Kansas, to Fort Lyon, Colorado, was known as
the Long Route, being 240 miles, with no stations between; but across
that treacherous plain of the Santa Fe Trail I made the trip sixty-five
times in four years, driving one set of mules the entire distance,
camping out and sleeping on the ground.

The trips were made with five mules to each coach, and we took two mules
with us to supply the place of any mule that happened to get sick.
Sometimes, strange to note, going on the down grade from Fort Lyon to
Fort Larned we would have a sick mule, but this never occurred on the
up-grade to Fort Lyon. When a mule was sick we left it at Little Coon or
Big Coon Creek. Little Coon Creek is forty miles from Fort Larned. When
Fort Larned was my headquarters I always went after my sick mules, if I
had any, the next day and brought them in. Fort Larned was the regular
built fort with a thousand soldiers, a settlers' store, and the Stage
Company's station with its large corral of mules and horses; it was the
headquarters of the Long Route to furnish the whole route to Santa Fe.
If the sick mules happened to be at Little Coon Creek, the round trip
would be eighty miles, and it would sometimes take me and my little race