Wherever Cowboy Bill was, there was usually a group of children at either side, full of eagerness and questions. He liked children, and his good humor and quiet wit never seemed to disappoint them.
“Did you used to wear cowboy boots and hat all the time?" Sam asked. "Well, yes, I guess that's what just about everybody wore when I was your size. I had a pair of angora goat chaps too, that I thought were pretty great. They were made over from my dad's when he got a new pair. So I felt real growed up when I got them and so proud of 'em, I hardly wanted to take them off at night when I went to bed.”
“One time when I was eleven years old, I was helping a neighbor of ours take a herd of about one hundred head of cattle to Hepner to ship out. It was about sixty miles away and we had to swim those cows across the John Day River. There weren't many bridges those days, you see, though there was a ferry crossing down by Arlington across the Columbia.”
“I was riding my little pony that I had first broke on my ninth birthday. He was a good little cow pony too, and knew just how to keep cattle together in a bunch. Anyway, when we came to the river, he followed the herd right into the river, and we crossed over on a riffle. It was in the fall and the water was quite low, except toward the middle where it was always deep.”
“It was late afternoon and school in that little town of Spray had just let out. The kids were on their way home, and somehow word traveled fast that there was a herd of cattle swimming the river. They collected along the far shore to watch. It kind of scared the cattle and they were afraid to keep a'going across.”
“They bawled and milled around in the deep water, and my pony was swimming along on the far side of them. The boss came out on the other side of the shore and kept hollering at me, "Hold them up, Billie, Hold them up!" I was doing my best to get them to go on out, but they kept crowding me down, and all of a sudden my pony went right down under me, and I fell off. I couldn't swim, and even if I could have, I wouldn't have been able to with my heavy coat and those angora chaps all water soaked. I don't know how it happened, but somehow when I came up, I had a hold of that pony's tail, and I hung on with a life and death grip while it swam to shore. I could have never gotten out of there alive if it hadn't been for the mercy of God.”
The Bible tells us that "PRIDE GOETH BEFORE DESTRUCTION." Prov. 16:1818Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18). "Those beautiful angora chaps I was so proud of, pulled me down and almost spelled doom for me," Cowboy Bill finished.