A RANCHMAN'S RECOLLECTIONS 



of a battle. We made for the settler's house. The 

 horse lot was open and lightning struck one end of 

 the house gallery as we dodged under the shed. 



I waited for a lull, and rode back to headquarters. 

 The boys were just getting in; the storm had struck 

 them just after throwing the cattle into the hold pas- 

 ture, and all they could do was to turn their backs 

 and take it. During supper the storm came back 

 from another direction ; for an hour the winds blew ; 

 the heavens seemed one immense water bag, with the 

 stopper out; lightning sizzed, thunder roared. We 

 all sat around the fire drying our clothes. Most of 

 the boys did not say anything, but one spoke of the 

 big revival down at Fairview and '"lowed" that the 

 outfit should all go down on Sunday. Another spoke 

 of how much good Sam Jones had done in Texas, and 

 that he was glad to see so many new churches in the 

 county. Sam Sawyer told how he never had felt so 

 good as when he helped pull a "nester" out of Double 

 Mountain Fork when he got bogged down. 



With occasional shots as from a retreating battery 

 the storm passed. One of the boys asked another for 

 some paper and tobacco; several took a chew, and 

 "Abilene" remarked, "That was a pretty doggoned 

 hard storm." Somehow a weight seemed to have 

 been lifted, and a sort of "come alive" feeling was 

 apparent as opposed to the "drop a nickel in the 

 contribution box" look that everyone had been wear- 

 ing for an hour. 



[170] 



