me? Ever since I see him at that shearing at Agua
Caliente eight, ten year gone, he not like for let me be. I have been
the best shearer in that shed, snip--snip--quick, clean. Ah, it is
beautiful! All the sheepmen like for have me shear their sheep. Filon is
new man at that shearing, Lebecque is just hire him then; but yes,
M'siu, to see him walk about that Agua Caliente you think he own all
those sheep, all that range. Ah--he had a way! Pretty soon that day
Filon is hearing all sheepmen say that Raoul is the best shearer; then
he come lean on the rail by my shed and laugh softly like he talk with
himself, and say, "See the little man; see him shear." But me, I can no
more. The shears turn in my hand so I make my sheep all bleed same like
one butcher. Then I look up and see the devil in Filon Geraud's eye. It
is always so after that, all those years until I kill Filon. If I make a
little game of poker with other shepherds then he walks along and say:

"Ah, you, Raoul, you is one sharp fellow. I not like for play with you."
Then is my play all gone bad.

But if Filon play, then he say, "Come, you little man, and bring me the
good luck."

It is so, M'siu! If I go stand by that game, Filon is win, win all the
time. That is because of the devil. And if there are women--no, M'siu,
there was never _one_ woman. What would a shepherd, whose work is always
toward the hills, do with a woman? Is it to plant a vineyard that others
may drink wine? Ah, non! But me, at shearings and at Tres Pinos where we
pay the tax, there I like to talk to pretty girl same as other
shepherds, then Filon come make like he one gran' friend. All the time
he make say the compliments, he make me one mock. His eyes they laugh
always, that make women like to do what he say. But me, I have no
chance.

It is so, M'siu, when I go out with my sheep. This is my trail--I go out
after the shearing through the Canada de las Vinas, then across the
Little Antelope, while the grass is quick. After that I go up toward the
hills of Olancho, where I keep one month; there is much good feed and
no man comes. Also then I wait at Tres Pinos for the sheriff that I pay
the tax. _Sacre_! it is a hard one, that tax! After that I am free of
the Sierras, what you call _Nieve_--snowy. Well I know that country. I
go about with my sheep and seek my meadows--_mine_, M'siu, that I have
climbed the great mountains to spy out among the pines, that I have
found by the grace of God,