oof that has
the flesh this year. Nearly any beef will buy three two-year-old steers
to take his place. It may take another year or two to shape up our
cattle, but after that, every hoof must be double-wintered."

An hour after sunrise, the drag-net was drawing together the first
round-up of the day. The importance of handling heavy beeves without any
excitement was fully understood, and to gather a shipment without
disturbing those remaining was a task that required patience and
intelligence. Men on the outside circle merely turned the cattle on the
extremes of the range; they were followed by inner horsemen, and the
drag-net closed at a grazing pace, until the round-up halted on a
few acres.

The first three shipments had tried out the remuda. The last course in
the education of a cow-horse is cutting cattle out of a mixed round-up.
On the present work, those horses which had proven apt were held in
reserve, and while the first contingent of cattle was quieting down, the
remuda was brought up and saddles shifted to four cutting horses. The
average cow can dodge and turn quicker than the ordinary horse, and only
a few of the latter ever combine action and intelligence to outwit the
former. Cunning and ingenuity, combined with the required alertness, a
perfect rein, coupled with years of actual work, produce that rarest of
range mounts--the cutting horse.

Dell had been promised a trial in cutting out beeves. Sargent took him
in hand, and mounted on two picked horses, they entered the herd. "Now,
I'll pick the beeves," said the latter, "and you cut them out. All you
need to do is to rein that horse down on your beef, and he'll take him
out of the herd. Of course you'll help the horse some little; but if you
let too many back, I'll call our wrangler and try him out. That horse
knows the work just as well as you do. Now, go slow, and don't ride over
your beef."

The work commenced. The beeves were lazy from flesh, inactive, and only
a few offered any resistance to the will of the horsemen. Dell made a
record of cutting out fifty beeves in less than an hour, and only
letting one reenter the herd. The latter was a pony-built beef, and
after sullenly leaving the herd, with the agility of a cat, he whirled
right and left on the space of a blanket, and beat the horse back into
the round-up. Sargent lent a hand on the second trial, and when the beef
saw that resistance was useless, he kicked up his heels and trotted away
t