OF A RANCHMAN 



roughing it in the West we have to put up 

 with any kind of mongrel makeshift, and 

 the best dog gets pretty well battered after 

 a season or two. I never had a better duck 

 retriever than a little yellow cur, with 

 hardly a trace of hunting blood in his 

 veins. On this occasion we had a stiff- 

 jointed old pointer with a stub tail, and a 

 wild young setter pup, tireless and rang- 

 ing very free (a Western dog on the 

 prairies should cover five times the ground 

 necessary for an Eastern one to get over), 

 but very imperfectly trained. 



Half of the secret of success on a shoot- 

 ing trip lies in getting up early and work- 

 ing all day; and this at least we had 

 learned, for we were off as soon as there 

 was light enough by which to drive. The 

 ground, of course, was absolutely fenceless, 

 houses being many miles apart. Through 

 the prairie, with its tall grass, in which the 

 sharp-tails lay at night and during the day, 

 were scattered great grain fields, their feed- 

 ing-grounds in the morning and evening. 



