nsferable.

The first storm was followed by ideal winter weather until Christmas
day. The brothers had planned an extra supper on that occasion,
expecting to excuse Dell during the early afternoon for the culinary
task, and only requiring his services on corraling the herd at evening.
The plan was feasible, the cattle were herd-broke, knew their bed and
water, and on the homeward circle all that was required was to direct
and time the grazing herd. The occasion had been looked forward to,
partly because it was their very own, their first Christmas spread, and
partly on account of some delicacies that their sponsor had forced on
Dell on parting at the railroad, in anticipation of the day. The bounds
of the supper approached a banquet, and the question of appetites to
grace the occasion was settled.

The supper was delayed. Not from any fault in the planning, but the
weather had not been consulted. The herd had been grazed out on a
northwest course for the day, and an hour after noon, almost the time at
which Dell was to have been excused, a haze obscured the sun and dropped
like a curtain around the horizon. Scurrying clouds appeared, and before
the herd could be thrown together and started, a hazy, leaden sky shot
up, almost due west, heralding the quarter of the coming storm. The herd
sensed the danger and responded to the efforts of the horsemen; but
before a mile had been covered, it was enveloped in swirling snow and
veering its march with the course of the storm. The eddying snow blinded
the boys as to their direction; they supposed they were pointing the
cattle into the valley, unaware that the herd had changed its course on
the onslaught of the elements. Confidence gave way to uncertainty, and
when sufficient time had elapsed to more than have reached the corral,
conjecture as to their location became rife. From the moment the storm
struck, both boys had bent every energy to point the herd into the
valley, but when neither slope nor creek was encountered, the fact
asserted itself that they were adrift and at the mercy of the elements.

"We've missed the corral," shouted Dell. "We're lost!"

"Not yet," answered Joel, amid the din of the howling storm. "The
creek's to our right. Loosen your rope and we'll beat these leaders into
the valley."

The plying of ropes, the shouting of boys, and the pressure of horses
merely turned the foremost cattle, when a new contingent forged to the
front, impelled onward by the