CHAPTER XIV. 



GRAY'S LAKE. MY FIRST AND LAST EXPERIENCE IN 

 RANCHING. 



Once I became so enamored of a ranchman's life that 

 I took up a quarter section of land in Cowlitz County, 

 Washington, and commenced to ranch. After getting 

 a large log house built and comfortably settled, I 

 turned my attention to getting stock. When I state 

 that my sole knowledge of farming had been derived 

 from a previous Winter's evening deep study of the 

 American Farmer, it will be at once understood how 

 fitted I was for the occupation I had chosen. 



My first purchase was a hornless cow, a muley they 

 called her. I bought her in a small town at eight 

 o'clock in the morning, nine miles away from home; 

 and, owing to the fact that I was unable to remove 

 or silence the cow bell that she wore, I arrived home 

 at nine in the evening, after literally dragging and pull- 

 ing my unwilling purchase the whole of the way with 

 an admiring and curious crowd of about five hundred 

 other people's cows following. 



Three cows that happened to be there at the time I 

 made my start manifested such an intense interest 

 in the probable fate of my newly bought cow that they 

 persisted in following her. I stopped and attempted 

 to shoo them off, but beyond showing an air of mild 

 surprise they refused to leave us. About half a mile 

 further down the road we came across a herd of about 

 a dozen more cows, and these animals apparently 

 quite as a matter of course waited patiently until I 

 had dragged my muley sufficiently far ahead, and then 

 placidly dropped in our wake and duly followed on. 

 At a turn in the road three young bulls joined our 

 party, and within the next two miles the everlasting 

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