mmits, and the weakest merely stared
dully as the mounted men jingled by. The desert, kind in her bounty, was
terrible in her wrath. She took her toll freely and the dried bones of
her victims rattled in the wind. The fittest survived. Durham died,
Hereford lived through, and turned up after the first rains wiry, lean,
and active.

Then came the round-up. From the hidden defiles, the buttes and ranges,
the hills and plains, the cowboys drew their net to the centre. Each
"drive" brought together on some alkali flat thousands of the restless,
milling, bawling cattle. The white dust rose in a cloud against the very
blue sky. Then, while some of the cowboys sat their horses as sentinels,
turning the herd back on itself, others threaded a way through the
multitude, edging always toward the border of the herd some animal
uneasy in the consciousness that it was being followed. Surrounding the
main herd, and at some distance from it, other smaller herds rapidly
formed from the "cut." Thus there was one composed entirely of cows and
unbranded calves; another of strays from neighbouring ranges; and a
third of the steers considered worthy of being made into beef cattle.

In due time the main herd was turned back on the range; the strays had
been cut out and driven home by the cowboys of their several owners; the
calves had been duly branded and sent out on the desert to grow up. But
there remained still compact the beef herd. When all the excitement of
the round-up had died, it showed as the tangible profit of the year.

Its troubles began. Driven to the railroad and into the corrals, it next
had to be urged to its first experience of sidedoor Pullmans. There the
powerful beasts went frantic. Pike poles urged them up the chute into
the cars. They rushed, and hesitated, and stopped and turned back in a
panic. At times it seemed impossible to get them started into the narrow
chute. On the occasion of one after-dark loading old J.B., the foreman,
discovered that the excited steers would charge a lantern light.
Therefore he posted himself, with a lantern, in the middle of the chute.
Promply the maddened animals rushed at him. He skipped nimbly one side,
scaled the fence of the chute. "Now keep 'em coming, boys!" he urged.

The boys did their best, and half filled the car. Then some other
impulse seized the bewildered rudimentary brains; the cattle balked.
J.B. did it again, and yet again, until the cars were filled.

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