THE ROUND-UP 



57 



which is placed in a hole dug in the ground, so that there may be no risk 

 of its spreading. The men are rarely very hungry at breakfast, and it is 

 a meal that has to be eaten in shortest order, so it is perhaps the least 

 important. Each man, as he comes up, grasps a tin cup and plate from 

 the mess-box, pours out his tea or coffee, with sugar, but, of course, no 

 milk, helps himself to one or two of the biscuits that have been baked in a 

 Dutch oven, and perhaps also to a slice of the fat pork swimming in the 

 grease of the frying-pan, ladles himself out some beans, if there are any, 

 and squats down on the ground to eat his breakfast. The meal is not an 

 elaborate one ; nevertheless a man will have to hurry if he wishes to eat it 

 before hearing the foreman sing out, "Come, boys, catch your horses"; 

 when he must drop everything and run out to the wagon with his lariat. 

 The night wrangler is now bringing in the saddle-band, which he has been 

 up all night guarding. A rope corral is rigged up by stretching a rope 

 from each wheel of one side of the wagon, making a V-shaped space, into 

 which the saddle-horses are driven. Certain men stand around to keep 

 them inside, while the others catch the horses: many outfits have one man 

 to do all the roping. As soon as each has caught his horse — usually 

 a strong, tough animal, the small, quick ponies being reserved for the work 

 round the herd in the afternoon — the band, now in charge of the day 

 wrangler, is turned loose, and every one saddles up as fast as possible. It 

 still lacks some time of being sunrise, and the air has in it the peculiar 

 chill of the early morning. When all are saddled, many of the horses 

 bucking and dancing about, the riders from the different wagons all 

 assemble at the one where the captain is sitting, already mounted. He 

 waits a very short time — for laggards receive but scant mercy — before 

 announcing the proposed camping-place and parceling out the work 

 among those present. If, as is usually the case, the line of march is along 

 a river or creek, he appoints some man to take a dozen others and drive 

 down (or up) it ahead of the day herd, so that the latter will not have to 

 travel through other cattle ; the day herd itself being driven and guarded 

 by a dozen men detached for that purpose. The rest of the riders are 

 divided into two bands, placed under men who know the country, and 

 start out, one on each side, to bring in every head for fifteen miles back. 

 The captain then himself rides down to the new camping-place, so as to be 

 there as soon as any cattle are brought in. 



Meanwhile the two bands, a score of riders in each, separate and make 

 their way in opposite directions. The leader of each tries to get such a 

 "scatter" on his men that they will cover completely all the land gone 

 over. This morning work is called circle riding, and is peculiarly hard 



