354 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



the ground very soft, nothing worse would come of it than 

 a smart jolt, which the Doctor would aver, with the most 

 indomitable good humor, "assisted his digestion." 



Pony never seemed to feel at liberty to desert his friend, 

 after he had demonstrated his affection in this curious fashion, 

 but would stand perfectly still, and with a very demure, 

 repentant look, take the kick which the Doctor always 

 favored him with before remounting. 



I have laughed till my sides ached at this quaint couple. 

 The Doctor was the strangest compound of simplicity and 

 good humor that can be conceived. 



The Rangers were most of them gentlemen, in breeding at 

 least, so that the days of our travel glided by delightfully, 

 enlivened with pleasantries and tales of curious adventure, 

 to which I was a most untiring listener. I had, in the mean- 

 time, received my horse at the hands of the Mexican, and 

 was very well pleased at his behavior. The character of the 

 scenery was now entirely changed. It had been agreeably 

 diversified before, but now we had stretched around us to the 

 horizon, the fatiguing monotony of a dead-level, sterile plain, 

 covered with coarse thin grass, with only once in fifteen or 

 twenty miles a clump of stunted bushes to relieve the eye. 

 This continued for several days. 



At last, however, just as we were beginning to be exces- 

 sively bored by it, a dim broken line looked in the lilac 

 distance before us like a great bank of clouds. This, to our 

 great relief, was announced to be the San Saba Hills. 



"Now," said the little Doctor, who had been looking some- 

 what disconsolate, but brightened up when he heard this, 

 "Now for the bear-steaks ! And I warn you, gentlemen, that 

 I shall win the first that are eaten, with this same spear of 

 mine, which has been the subject of so much wit among you 

 all ! You need not laugh, I shall confound you before to- 

 morrow night." 



And saying this, he plunged his spurs into the sides of 



