In The Meantime Some Of The Train Men Had Come Up, And, As Soon As The
Stage Driver Was Ready,
They proceeded to lift the stage - trunks and
all - over and on some rocks and tree tops, and then the
Four horses
were led around in between other rocks, where it seemed impossible for
them to stand one second. There were three teams to come up, each
consisting of about eight yoke of oxen and three or four wagons. It
made me almost ill to see the poor patient oxen straining and pulling
up the grade those huge wagons so heavily loaded. The crunching and
groaning of the wagons, rattling of the enormous cable chains, and the
creaking of the heavy yokes of the oxen were awful sounds, but above
all came the yells of the drivers, and the sharp, pistol-like reports
of the long whips that they mercilessly cracked over the backs of the
poor beasts. It was most distressing.
After the wagons had all passed, men came back and set the stage on
the road in the same indifferent way and with very few words. Each man
seemed to know just what to do, as though he had been training for
years for the moving of that particular stage. The horses had not
stirred and had paid no attention to the yelling and cracking of
whips. While coming through the canons we must have met six or seven
of those trains, every one of which necessitated the setting in
mid-air of the stage coach.
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Words from 58775 to 59032
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