30G 



rilE AMERICAN li H H KHHI'HU. 



<)('1oher 



some lik3 mules with ears aud tails cut 

 off. What do you do with them?" 



"Double our mouey on them every I'lJ 

 mouths," was the reply. 



Ko exteuded description of sheep 

 farming would have impressed the 

 fr-Mcy of the veteran mule skinner, but 

 "double your money" was his own fa- 

 miliar phrase for describing any hope- 

 ful venture, and on that evening he 

 smoked many pipes of black plug over 

 it. A brute that can thrive on a brush 

 diet and double your money every year 

 is au interesting creature. 



At daybreak Whalen was in the sheep 

 camp negotiating a trade of sheep for 

 mules on a basis of 50 to 1 aud pre- 

 pared to accept much less. Three days 

 later be sat in the door of the shack 

 which had long done duty as mess 

 house on section 3 of the canal, as 

 many an evening before he had sat 

 watching t..e mules come in from 

 water. Toni{.ht there was never a mule 

 in sight. Down the breeze came a 

 pungent odor aud a tinkling of little 

 bells. Over the crest of an adjacent hill 

 appeared the flock, browsing on the 

 rank sage. 



"They do look some like mules," he 

 soliloquized, "and I'll bet I'm the only 

 Irishman in America ever owned a 

 herd of sheep. " 



Winter came and passed, and the only 

 Irishman prospered. By roofing in a cut 

 with brush he had commodious sheds, 

 and cross sections of poles divided the 

 broad ditcn into as many corrals as he 

 chose. The sheep were fat aud carried 

 heavy fleeces. 



Whalen had for help two boys who 

 hud wandered there and asked forworn. 

 He had proposed to hire one of them, 

 but the boys protested tliat they had 

 never been sfparated, aud that if t! ry 

 got jobs at different ranches "the othf r 

 cue wouldn't know where the othtr 

 one was, "a contiuceucy which they 

 could not abide. So Whalen offered to 

 take the two at the price of one, aud on 

 that basis they shared with him the 

 shack, herdfd the flock aud cooked 'the 

 grub. They soon knew as much or as 

 little about sheep as Brick himself, 

 and the proprietor found opportunity 

 ^o break the n:onotony of camp life by 

 occasirnal trips to the railroad aud 

 once to Saw Francisco. 



•■j '. i ■ " to ste my ineud Mar- 

 tin.'" 1( If v< tie leys "Now, tend to 

 busiijiscaLfi don't ht any pet awaj'." 

 And the beys gave their word that not 

 one sIk lid escape. 



During Whalen's absence in the city 

 he went cut of the sheep business even 

 more abruptly than he went into it the 

 previous autumn. The instruction to the 

 bovs was fulfilled to the letter. Not any 

 got away. 



It happened on a hot day in June 

 when, cf utrary to the usual custom, the 

 boys brougLt the flock to camp aud the 

 shade of 5 beds at noontime. It never 

 rains in that arid region, but sometimes 

 pours. This was one of those times. 

 Charged with ice and water, a great 

 black cloud came drifting down the 

 wind and emptied out its load upon rhe 

 camp and the hillside above it. The, 

 canal, curving around its base, formed 

 an eave trough for the whole mountain 

 and poured several thousand inches of 

 water into Whalen's improvised sheep 

 sheds. The flood very soon subsided, 

 but when the cloud had passed aud the 

 5nn again s-hone forth there were no 

 living sheep. Not many minutes are 

 required to drown a rat in a hole. 



Meanwhile the boys, greatly fright- 

 ened by the sudden storm and with no 

 thought for the safety of the flock, were 

 in the shack. The hail pounded and the 

 wind shook it. Water covered the floor. 



"Pray, Billy," said the one on the 

 barrel. 



"No; you do it," he answered from 

 the table top. 



The ^lack had ro window, and with 

 the door ( icsed it was pretty dark in 

 there. When Whalen r*^ached home twc 

 hours later, the floor was still wet and 

 the hoys were yet roosting on table and 

 barrel, but outside, in the bright snii- 

 ligbt, the ground appeared already al- 

 most dry. A solitary goat stood upon 

 the shfd roof. He had been among the 

 sheep in the pen. 



"You can't keep a good man down 

 any more than you can a gcat," was 

 B'-ick's con u n;t on the catastrophe. 



While Whaitu was working the boys 

 double tiiuC at fulling the wool from 

 the dead sherp he had the happy 

 thought of stcdiing his ranch with 

 bees. Having nicliey enough from the' 

 proceeds of his wool sale to toy 100 

 stands, he promttlv carried the thought 



