54 FRUIT RANCHING. 



metaphorically. I was just giving up the thing in 

 utter despair — hot, panting, exhausted — when, thank 

 heaven ! Leslie's head appeared above the edge of the 

 bench, and soon after he was followed by one of the 

 men. Stationing myself, therefore, at the parting of 

 the ways, 1 sutTered them to carry off the honours by 

 chasing the evil-doers out of the fields. 



These cattle belonged to a neighbour, who had 

 them fenced, it is true, into his own domain; but they 

 had broken bounds, scrambled down the side of a 

 steep ravine, then climbed up the other side, and 

 traversed over a mile of our woods. I could not 

 help thinking that for the crime of being a " tender- 

 foot " I was receiving something more than the 

 punishment that was strictly my due. 



Our cows came back that night; so did the heifer 

 and the calves, for by this we had two of them. But 

 that prodigal son of a bull did not show himself either 

 that evening or the next. I had to go over to my 

 neighbour, and lodge a formal complaint against his 

 cows of having eloped with the lord and master of my 

 herd, and request his assistance in recovering the 

 truant. This he readily promised, and he was as 

 good as his word. In three or four days he let me 

 know that he had the culprit safe in a stall in his 

 cattle shed. 



Calaby and I trudged over to bring the hull back 

 home again. It w'as not the most inviting task — to 

 lead a strong young bull, who had never know-n re- 

 straint, whose nose was not even pierced for a ring, 

 a distance of a mile and a half through a country desti- 

 tute of roads. Fortunately, my neighbour was an ex- 

 perienced man among cattle, having been at one 



