into the wild recesses of those uncanny 

 Bad Land hills, assembled in full force 

 for the evening meal, and announced, 

 between mouthfuls, that the morrow 

 was to be branding day for the several 

 outfits, about two thousand head of 

 cattle in all, the ' WB' included, which 

 were rounded up on the Big Flat two 

 miles distant from the ranch. 



This was the chance for me to be re- 

 lieved of my crass ignorance concern- 

 ing round-ups, really to have a definite 

 conception of the term instead of the 

 sea of vagueness and conjecture into 

 which I was plunged by the usual de- 

 scription — "Oh, just a whole lot of cattle 

 driven to one place, and those that need 

 it are cut out and frescoed." How many 

 was a whole lot, how were they driven, 

 where were they driven from, what 

 were they cut out with, how were 



