THE HOME RANCH 



35 



The gray turned to meet him, rearing on his hind legs and striking at 

 him with his fore feet ; but the jack slipped in, and in a minute grasped 

 his antagonist by the throat with his wide-open jaws, and then held on 

 like a bull-dog, all four feet planted stiffly in the soil. The stallion made 

 tremendous efforts to shake him off: he would try to whirl round and kick 

 him, but for that the jack was too short ; then he would rise up, lifting the 

 jack off the ground, and strike at him with his fore feet; but all that he 

 gained by this was to skin his foe's front legs without making him loose 

 his hold. Twice they fell, and twice the stallion rose, by main strength 

 dragging the jack with him ; but all in vain. Meanwhile the black horse 

 attacked both the combatants, with perfect impartiality, striking and kick- 

 ing them with his hoofs, while his teeth, as they slipped off the tough 

 hides, met with a snap like that of a bear-trap. Undoubtedly the jack 

 would have killed at least one of the horses had not the men come up, 

 and with no small difficulty separated the maddened brutes. 



If not breaking horses, mending saddles, or doing something else of 

 the sort, the cowboys will often while away their leisure moments by prac- 

 ticing with the rope. A man cannot practice too much with this if he 

 wishes to attain even moderate proficiency ; and as a matter of fact he 

 soon gets to wish to practice the whole time. A cowboy is always 

 roping something, and it especially delights him to try his skill at game. 

 A friend of mine, a young ranchman in the Judith basin, about four years 

 ago roped a buffalo, and by the exercise of the greatest skill, both on his 

 own part and on his steed's, actually succeeded, by alternate bullying and 

 coaxing, in getting the huge brute almost into camp. I have occasionally 

 known men on fast horses to rope deer, and even antelope, when circum- 

 stances all joined to favor them ; and last summer one of the cowboys on 

 a ranch about thirty miles off ran into and roped a wounded elk. A forty- 

 foot lariat is the one commonly used, for the ordinary range at which a 

 man can throw it is only about twenty-five feet. Few men can throw forty 

 feet ; and to do this, taking into account the coil, needs a sixty-foot rope. 



When the day's work is over we take supper, and bed-time comes soon 

 afterward, for the men who live on ranches sleep well and soundly. As a 

 rule, the nights are cool and bracing, even in midsummer ; except when 

 we occasionally have a spell of burning weather, with a steady, hot wind 

 that blows in our faces like a furnace blast, sending the thermometer far 

 up above a hundred and making us gasp for breath, even at night, in the 

 dry-baked heat of the air. But it is only rarely that we get a few days of 

 this sort ; generally, no matter how unbearable the heat of the day has 

 been, we can at least sleep pleasantly at night. 



