DEATH OF THE MOOSE COW 85 



you love its sweetness quite as much as if you 

 were an emperor, and maybe you love it a good 

 deal more." 



He had no branding-pen, but among the flotsam 

 and jetsam left over from many occupations he 

 retained an iron, the usual longish rod with two 

 rusty fire- worn letters at its end — N. R., which 

 stood for Nanoose Ranche. 



How many head of cattle he had branded with 

 the long disused sign, far down the coast-line of 

 Vancouver Island I 



Cretney, with nothing to do but kill the time 

 between drinks — Cretney, strong as a bull and 

 elastic as a snake, was called in to assist, and 

 together the two men, with shouts of laughter 

 loud enough to have warned Sadie had she been in 

 the shack instead of at the Indian camp tending a 

 sick child, roped the terrified young moose in all 

 directions, and threw him down, securely tied up 

 and practically imable to move. Cretney in a 

 spasm of feeling suggested the hoof as a branding 

 place, and was reminded in vigorous language that 

 the letters on the iron stood seven inches tall. The 

 moose was to be marked on his quarter, the only 

 reliable branding-place. Marks on a hoof wore 



