82 Next to the Ground 



rolling, a chopping frolic, cradling wheat, 

 wrestling, or pitching horseshoes. He was 

 not really old — a little under forty ; but he 

 had married at sixteen, and had twin sons 

 rising twenty, so it was necessary in some 

 way to distinguish him. Beyond that, his 

 family never called him anything else. When 

 he was in the humor for boasting, he said 

 he had moved seventeen times since his wed- 

 ding day, had brought up twelve children, 

 and was a sow and pigs and three yearlings 

 better off than when he married. 



He showed a sort of cynical pride in his 

 shiftlessness, and cynical contempt for good 

 repute. He let all his stock run out on the 

 range, even when he had a pasture handy. 

 Joe had never quite got over hearing him say 

 with a grin : " I woon't have no mark but 

 the rogue's mark — both ears cut off close to 

 the head." Marks, properly earmarks, are 

 important things on a farm. Law takes 

 cognizance of them — it is actionable to 

 change or counterfeit an established mark. 

 Considering that the beasts of the field have 

 but two ears, the variety possible in marks 

 is astounding. Their primary elements, the 

 crop, half-crop, slit, hole, swallow-fork, un- 

 der-bit, and over-bit, may be ' used, singly, 

 or together, in above five hundred ways — 

 as slit-and-crop, slit-and-under-bit, slit-and- 



