120 A BOOK-LOVER'S HOLIDAYS 



some of them light, most of them dark. They 

 rode their horses with the utter ease found only 

 in those who are born to the saddle. Now and 

 then there were family parties, mother and 

 children, all, down to the smallest, riding their 

 own horses or perhaps all going in a wagon. 

 Once or twice we passed horsemen who were 

 coming out of the yards of their tumble-down 

 houses, women and children crowding round. 

 Generally the women had something in the 

 dress that reminded one more or less of our 

 Southwestern semicivilized Indians, and the 

 strain of Indian blood in both men and women 

 was evident. Some of the men were poorly 

 clad, others had paid much attention to their 

 get-up and looked like very efficient dandies; 

 but in its essentials the dress was always the 

 same. 



When we reached the ranch we first drove 

 to a mass of buildings, which included the 

 barns, branding-pens, corrals, and the like. 

 It was here that the horsemen had gathered, 

 and one of the pens was filled with an uneasy 

 mass of cattle. Not far from this pen was a 

 big hitching rail or bar, very stout, consisting 

 of tree trunks at least a foot in diameter, the 

 total length of the rail being forty or fifty feet. 

 Beside it was a very large and stout corral. 



