1 904 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



Si 



sure 'miff product of the effete East ; 

 one of them college cusses, with gig- 

 lamps on his eyes and his hair parted in 

 the middle. He never was on a horse 

 or saw a pair of chaps till he come up 

 here. Consequently his system was 

 plumb loaded down with microbes and 

 liis main drink was cod-liver oil and 

 creosote. 



" For an hour after he would imbibe 

 that there medicine you'd swear there 

 was a chimney burnt out if you come 

 anywheres near him. He was a pale, 

 slim-built little cuss, and weak as" a cat 

 at first, but nothin' would suit him but 

 he must go to work with us boys. That 

 was part of the cure, so the down-east 

 doctor said. 



"Well, we found him a horse and a 

 saddle, and he got so he could stick on, 

 part of the time, after a week or so of 

 painful experimentin'. in the back cor- 

 ral. Then nothin' would do but he must 

 ride out one day to where the boys was 

 holdin' the herd and show off. When 

 he got about thirty feet from the cattle 

 a jack-rabbit jumps up and the whole 

 blame bunch lit out for the Missouri, 

 jest touchin' the high places. They 

 didn't get much of a start before the 

 boys was alongside trying to turn 'em 

 and get 'em to millin', but poundin' 

 along behind in the dust comes that 

 ' lunger, ' boundin' around in the saddle 

 and shriekin', and pullin' all the leather 

 in reach. Of course, the boys couldn't 

 hold the herd as long as he was there. 

 I reckon he wasn't really yearnin' for 

 haste so much, but the cay use insisted, 

 being well into the spirit of the game, 

 though he was yankin' on the bit all 

 the time. 



' This here perverseness on his part 

 got the bronk sort of peevish after a 

 while, and pretty quick she bucked him 

 off, haid first, into a badger hole. 



"When the boys come back in the 

 course of twenty minutes there he was, 

 settin'^on the ground, a-clawin' the sand 

 out of his ears. Fred made some crack 

 at him about being a pity to lose it, but 

 I reckon the feller didn't hear him, for 

 he never batted an eye. His troubles 

 was too distractin' just then. Always 

 after that he acted grieved over that 

 stampede, because the boys 'lo\ved the 



herd must have smelt them creosote cock- 

 tails an' took it for a prairie fire comin' . 



" Then about five or six months later, 

 along in the fall, I give him a touch of 

 high life one' Sunday afternoon that 

 he'll never forget nor me neither. 



''We'd been duckshootin' on the 

 passes below Da wson, and wereclippin' 

 along for the ranch in a light buggy, 

 behind a light pair of bays that we used 

 for runnin' coyotes in the winter. The}' 

 sure enjoyed a chase as much as me, and 

 that means a whole lot. 



"About three miles from home a coy- 

 ote showed up, and the horses saw him 

 as quick as I did. The prairie was nice 

 and level, and there wasn't any fences 

 around to bother, so I pulled the team 

 around a little and began to circle the 

 wolf, who was settin' up on his haunches 

 watchin' our movements with a heap of 

 interest. We were gettin' closer and 

 closer, and when we were about 200 

 yards away, the wolf dropped on all- 

 fours and started. I whistled to the 

 team, and we were all off in a bunch 

 with the wind buzzin' in our ears and 

 the runnin' gear jumpin up and down 

 over the hummocks. The box rides 

 more steady, that-a-way, than you would 

 think for ; the springs takes most of 

 the jar. The team was stretchin' out 

 like a pair of scared jack-rabbits, but 

 steady and wise as old plugs. 



' ' The tenderfoot ' s hat blew off the fi rst 

 jump, and I see him, out of the tail of 

 my eye, clingin' fast for dear life, and 

 lookin' out mighty mournful for a soft 

 place to light on. But precty quick, 

 gettin' more used to the situation, he 

 grabbed his scatter-gun, dumped out 

 the sixes, and shoved in some BB's that 

 he carried in his upper pocket. 



' ' We were travellin' three feet to the 

 coyote's two, and in the course of a mile 

 we'd pulled up on him so that he were 

 only about thirty yards away, right 

 down in front of the team. The Eastern 

 guy couldn't shoot for fear of hittin' 

 the horses, and I didn't dare swing 

 aside, goin' at that rate, for fear of 

 throwin' 'em. So we held straight 

 ahead, and, try as he would, old Mr. 

 Wolf couldn't gain an inch. If I'd 

 only took the hounds with us, they 

 would have caught him too easy. 



