The great caravan therefore was scantily less than a rabble for the first three or four days out.

The four columns were abandoned the first half day.

The loosely knit organization rolled on in a broken-crested wave, ten, fifteen, twenty miles a day, the horse-and-mule men now at the front.
Far to the rear, heading only the cow column, came the lank men of Liberty, trudging alongside their swaying ox teams, with many a monotonous "Gee-whoa-haw! Git along thar, ye Buck an' Star!" So soon they passed the fork where the road to Oregon left the trail to Santa Fe; topped the divide that held them back from the greater valley of the Kaw.
[Illustration: _A Paramount Picture._ _The Covered Wagon._ MOLLY COAXES SAM WOODHULL TO LET HER RIDE BANION'S HORSE.] Noon of the fifth day brought them to the swollen flood of the latter stream, at the crossing known as Papin's Ferry.

Here the semicivilized Indians and traders had a single rude ferryboat, a scow operated in part by setting poles, in part by the power of the stream against a cable.
The noncommittal Indians would give no counsel as to fording.

They had ferry hire to gain.