A RANCHMAN'S RECOLLECTIONS 



wus to be pulled off Saturday evenin', straight half- 

 mile, standin' start at the pop o' a gun. The captain 

 tuk the thing in charge an' sed he'd lick eny damned 

 puncher thet tried to run a sandy on the Kid. It 

 was all settled, but by the time I hed crawled into 

 my hot roll thet night I 'membered the talk Shorty 

 Owen give me. Stud wus kinda mine, but he war a 

 company hoss, arter all, to work on an' not fer 

 racin', an' I sure wus in a jackpot fer losin' my 

 head. Well, the nex day I tuk Stud off to practice fer 

 a standin' start. You know how I say 'Now I' when 

 I'm workin' on a hoss and jest as I want him to do 

 somethin'. Well, Stud he'd been trained thet a-way, 

 with jest a little touch o' the spur, an' I figured to 

 say 'Now!' as the gun popped an' touch him thet 

 a-way, an' he got the idee. 



"Thet night I tuk him to the track an' put him 

 over it four or five times. An' onct when we wus 

 restin' a-tween heats I says to him, 'Stud, if me an' 

 you loses this here race looks like we'd hev to steal 

 off home in the night an' both o' us mighty nigh 

 naked.' Everybody knocked off work Saturday, You 

 know how even in them days word gits 'bout by the 

 grapevine. Well, by noon they wus ridin' and 

 drivin' in from all directions. The wimin folks 

 brought pies and cakes. The cusey cooked up two 

 sacks o' flour an' we hed to kill two beeves. Every- 

 body et at the chuck wagon an' it wus sum picnic. 

 I tol' the fellers not to bet on me an' Stud, but they 



[222] 



