A RANCHMAN'S RECOLLECTIONS 



zero. We sold the cattle In a tent, when the weather 

 was lo degrees below, shipped them over a wide 

 radius, did not lose a single head, and every carload 

 made a good market record that summer or fall. 

 After that I was sure that Texas had the goods to 

 stand any climate, and it was just a matter of stay- 

 ing with the enterprise. 



A rather amusing incident occurred while we were 

 at Tallula. I had taken two outstanding cowboys 

 with me, men who simply had to know what was to 

 be done, and did it in spite of hell and high water. 

 They had been up there with me in the fall, when 

 the red apples hung on the trees, and the weather 

 was fine. They loved it, but with 20 degrees below 

 zero weather we cut holes in ice on ponds and drove 

 the cattle out, so that their weight would flood the 

 surface. 



We were spelling each other cutting through the 

 two feet of ice, and I was resting, after my turn, 

 when the humor of the situation struck me, and I 

 began a rhapsody on the beauty of the north. 

 "Boys," I said, "I was born in the north. I love 

 these snow-clad hills, this bounty of ice and the 

 splendid invigoration of zero temperature." For 

 some minutes I did a good job in a grandiloquent 

 way. Finally one of them rested on his axe, and, 

 turning with a look of supreme disgust, said, "You 

 can take your damned north and go to hell with it; 

 I wish I was there with you to warm up some." 



[75] 



