THE T UP AND DOWN The next day Cal Smith said that a joke was all very well, but twenty-five miles was far enough to carry it, and he staked Whitey to a horse to make the rest of the trip with, Whitey to return the horse on his way back.

When they reached Zumbro Creek it hadn't gone down a bit, except to go down stream, and it was doing that like the dickens.

It certainly was a very bad-tempered-looking creek, but Cal Smith wasn't afraid of it.
He had brought along all his sons, and a couple of ranch hands, and instructed them to stand by with ropes, while he took Whitey about a quarter of a mile up the creek, and the two of them plunged in.

Cal Smith was not going to let any kid try to swim a horse across that creek by himself.
It was quite a sight to see all those Smith boys standing in a line on the bank.

With the biggest one, Abe, at one end, and the smallest one, Cal, at the other, and the rest of them standing according to their sizes, they looked like a flight of steps.