THE HOME RANCH 



27 



interfere (which they do about every second year), other ve<jetables as 

 well. For fresh meat we depend chiefly upon our prowess as hunters. 



During- much of the time we are away on the different round-ups, that 

 ''wheeled house," the great four-horse wagon, being then our home; but 

 when at the ranch our routine of life is always much the same, save dur- 

 ing the excessively bitter weather of midwinter, when there is little to do 

 except to hunt, if the days are fine enough. We breakfast early — before 

 dawn when the nights have grown long, and rarely later than sunrise, 

 even in midsummer. Perhaps before this meal, certainly the instant it is 

 over, the man whose duty it is rides off to hunt up and drive in the saddle- 

 band. Each of us has his own string of horses, eight or ten in number, 

 and the whole band usually split up into two or three companies. In 

 addition to the scattered groups of the saddle-band, our six or eight 

 mares, with their colts, keep by themselves, and are rarely bothered by 

 us, as no cowboy ever rides anything but horses, because mares give 

 great trouble where all the animals have to be herded together. Once 

 every two or three days somebody rides round and finds out where each 

 of these smaller bands is, but the man who goes out in the morning 

 merely gathers one bunch. He drives these into the corral, the other men 

 (who have been lolling idly about the house or stable, fixing their saddles 

 or doing any odd job) coming out with their ropes as soon as they hear 

 the patter of the unshod hoofs and the shouts of the cowboy driver. 

 Going into the corral, and standing near the center, each of us picks out 

 some one of his own string from among the animals that are trotting and 

 running in a compact mass round the circle ; and after one or miore trials, 

 according to his skill, ropes it and leads it out. When all have caught 

 their horses the rest are again turned loose, together with those that have 

 been kept up overnight. Some horses soon get tame and do not need 

 to be roped ; my pet cutting pony, little Muley, and good old Manitou, 

 my companion in so many hunting trips, will neither of them stay with 

 the rest of their fellows that are jamming and jostling each other as they 

 rush round in the dust of the corral, but they very sensibly walk up and 

 stand quietly with the men in the middle, by the snubbing-post. Both 

 are great pets, Manitou in particular; the wise old fellow being very fond 

 of bread and sometimes coming up of his own accord to the ranch house 

 and even putting his head into the door to beg for it. 



Once saddled, the men ride off on their different tasks ; for almost 

 everything is done in the saddle, except that in winter we cut our fire- 

 wood and quarry our coal. — both on the ranch, — and in summer attend 

 to the garden and put up what wild hay we need. 



