66 The Wilderness Hunter 



they are little persecuted they feed long after sun- 

 rise and before sunset, and drink when the sun is 

 high in the heavens, sometimes even at midday; 

 they then show but little fear of man, and speedily 

 become indifferent to the presence of deserted dwell- 

 ings. 



In the cattle country the ranch houses are often 

 shut during the months of warm weather, when the 

 round-ups succeed one another without intermission, 

 as the calves must be branded, the beeves gathered 

 and shipped, long trips made to collect strayed ani- 

 mals, and the trail stock driven from the breeding 

 to the fattening grounds. At that time all the men- 

 folk may have to be away in the white-topped wag- 

 ons, working among the horned herds, whether 

 plodding along the trail, or wandering to and fro 

 on the range. Late one summer, when my own 

 house had been thus closed for many months, I 

 rode thither with a friend to pass a week. The place 

 already wore the look of having slipped away from 

 the domain of man. The wild forces, barely thrust 

 back beyond the threshold of our habitation, were 

 prompt to spring across it to renewed possession 

 the moment we withdrew. The rank grass grew 

 tall in the yard, and on the sodded roofs of the 

 stable and sheds; the weather-beaten log walls of 

 the house itself were one in tint with the trunks of 

 the gnarled cottonwoods by which it was shaded. 

 Evidently the woodland creatures had come to re- 



