After we got out and across this mad river we took a north-west course into Oklahoma. One morning Pa said he was going to turn south and try to find a warmer climate. After a day or two of travel we lodged in another wagon yard. The next morning we were about ready to take off when a man came around to Pa and said he would be traveling the same way as we were and asked if his oldest boy could drive his wagon behind Pa's, and that he had a good hunting dog and would hunt enough game for all of us for the next hundred miles. Every night we feasted on quail, squirrel and prairie hens. Pa was glad he had consented to me driving his wagon for him. He sure made good his word and at the end of the hundred miles he turned west. We continued on south through Oklahoma, which had not yet become a state. In all our traveling we did not see one paved road or even a gravel road. It was just a trail. We finally came to a small town called Caddo. We found a wagon yard and spent the night. The next day Pa said we would head west. We traveled until we came to a big river. It was about noon at that time. I again begged Pa to wait and see if any other wagon was going to ford this river before we drove off into it. I took the team down to the river to water them. One wouldn't drink and when I went to feed them, the same one wouldn't eat. I told Pa about the horse. He looked the horse over and said it was pretty sick. We turned and went back to Caddo. We had to give the sick horse a lot of time. By the time we had a little cotton crop, Pa thought his health would let him stay long enough to harvest it. I made the crop alright, but the cotton worms and the drought got it. 

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