IN COWBOY LAND. 



225 



me hot, calling that a runaway team. Why, 

 there was one of them horses never could have 

 run away before ; it had n't never been druv 

 but twice ! and the other horse maybe had run 

 away a few times, but there was lots of times 

 he had n't run away. I esteemed that team 

 full as liable not to run away as it was to run 

 away," concluded my foreman, evidently deem- 

 ing this as good a warranty of gentleness as 

 the most exacting could require. 



The definition of good behavior on the 

 frontier is even more elastic for a saddle-horse 

 than for a team. Last spring one of the 

 Three-Seven riders, a magnificent horseman 

 was killed on the round-up near Belfield, his 

 horse bucking and falling on him. u It was 

 accounted a plumb gentle horse too," said my 

 informant, " only it sometimes sulked and 

 acted a little mean when it was cinched up 

 behind." The unfortunate rider did not know 

 of this failing of the " plumb gentle horse," 

 and as soon as he was in the saddle it threw 

 itself over sideways with a great bound, and 

 he fell on his head, and never spoke again. 



Such accidents are too common in the wild 

 country to attract very much attention ; the men 

 accept them with grim quiet, as inevitable in 

 such lives as theirs lives that are harsh and 

 narrow in their toil and their pleasure alike, 

 and that are ever-bounded by an iron horizon 

 of hazard and hardship. During the last year 

 and a half three other men from the ranches 

 in my immediate neighborhood have met 

 their deaths in the course of their work. One, 



