RUSTLINGS IN THE ROCKIES. 21 



strength from the good feed there so much better than he 

 had been used to at home so that he could have stood the 

 rest of the trip all right ; but now that we must push on for 

 four or five days up to the mountains before finding game in 

 paying quantities, we felt sure that plug at least would never 

 be able to make it, and we decided to turn back to Forest's 

 ranch, hoping that by the time we should reach there Ed 

 would have found his horses and would be prepared to take 

 us out. 



So we loaded up ; " Doc " managed with our help to get 

 his team hooked up, and while we were putting the finishing 

 touches to the load, Sawyer having concluded to ride the 

 bay-complexioned cayuse that morning, climbed onto the 

 hurricane deck and put his feet in the stirrups just as if he 

 felt perfectly at home there. The pony was browsing on the 

 rose bushes which Sawyer thought entirely unnecessary, inas- 

 much as he had been in good grass all night. He pulled his 

 head up several times, and said "Ho" to him, but this 

 didn't last long. Presently the pony put his head down to 

 take another bite, and Sawyer kicked him on the nose and 

 said " Ho." Well, you should have seen the storm that 

 arose then ! That hurricane deck became the roughest place 

 that ever poor Sawyer was stranded on. The patient cayuse 

 reared up behind and plunged down before ; then he reared 

 up before and plunged down behind ; and all this time his 

 legs were as stiff as hop poles. Sawyer said he thought in his 

 soul that all his upper teeth would come out when the cayuse 

 came down. He said " Ho " again, but the pony wouldn't 

 " ho." He made one more leap into the air and humped his 

 back up. This time Sawyer concluded, like Sir Joseph Porter, 

 to go below, but he couldn't even have his own way about 

 that. At first he shot up into the air like a flaming meteor or 

 something of that sort. He clawed out in every direction 



