12 Ranching in the Bad Lands. 



elk antlers which jut out from over the fireplace. From 

 the deer horns ranged along the walls and thrust into the 

 beams and 1 rafters hang heavy overcoats of wolf-skin or 

 coon-skin, and otter-fur or beaver-fur caps and gauntlets. 

 Rough board shelves hold a number of books, without 

 which some of the evenings would be long indeed. No 

 ranchman who loves sport can afford to be without Van 

 Dyke's "Still Hunter," Dodge's "Plains of the Great West," 

 or Caton's " Deer and Antelope of America" ; and Coues' 

 " Birds of the Northwest" will be valued if he cares at all 

 for natural history. A western plainsman is reminded every 

 day, by the names of the prominent landmarks among 

 which he rides, that the country was known to men who 

 spoke French long before any of his own kinsfolk came 

 to it, and hence he reads with a double interest Parkman's 

 histories of the early Canadians. As for Irving, Haw- 

 thorne, Cooper, Lowell, and the other standbys, I sup- 

 pose no man, east or west, would willingly be long with- 

 out them ; while for lighter reading there are dreamy 

 Ike Marvel, Burroughs' breezy pages, and the quaint, 

 pathetic character-sketches of the Southern writers Cable, 

 Cradock, Macon, Joel Chandler Harris, and sweet Sher- 

 wood Bonner. And when one is in the Bad Lands he feels 

 as if they somehow look just exactly as Poe's tales and 

 poems sound. 



By the way, my books have some rather unexpected 

 foes, in the shape of the pack rats. These are larger than our 

 house rats, with soft gray fur, big eyes, and bushy tails, like 

 a squirrel's ; they are rather pretty beasts and very tame, 

 often coming into the shacks and log-cabins of the settlers. 



