was sure that the herder was coming, I would just take them
out and let the lambs drop behind, the same as to-day. Then if he
brings the wagon along, as I told him to, he could get them in--that
is, if there are a great many of them. There might not be many lambs
come; but the trouble is that you can't tell. If I thought there were
going to be a great many lambs, and he was n't coming right away, I
would keep the whole bunch here and not take them out at all--that is,
I would if I had feed. But I could hardly feed twelve hundred sheep on
a mere chance if I had it to spare. But then, I don't think he will
stay away any longer. I 'll just take them out."

"Really, it is quite a problem, is n't it?"

"That's just what I was beginning to think," he replied.

"How many lambs might there be in the next day or two, if they really
started coming?"

"Maybe two or three hundred."

"Two or--!"

The words died out as Janet looked down in her lap and considered the
one. He was resting comfortably.

"Two--or--three--hundred," she repeated vacantly.

CHAPTER IX

G'lang there, yeoo-oo-oo, _Rip_. Yeoo-oo-oo, _Squat_. Yeoo-oo-oo ----
---- ---- Buff.

_Bang_.

As it is difficult to make a noise in print, it might be well to
explain that, of the above words, the last is supposed to sound like a
revolver-shot. It is as near as we can come to the disturbance made by
a Texas "prairie buster" as he came down Claxton road.

Ahead of him were ten oxen--five yoke. His far-reaching bull-whip
exploded just beside Rip's left ear. The next shot took Squat exactly
as aimed. There was a momentary scuffling of hoofs, an awful threat in
the ox-driving language; then everything went on peacefully as before.
The ox-driver caught the returning cracker deftly in two fingers of his
right hand and settled down on his iron seat with his elbow on his knee
while he took a chew of tobacco. The big tongue of his "busting" plow
knocked in the ring of the wheelers' yoke; the chain clanked idly
against it; a little cloud of debris--hair and dust which the cracker
had bit out of the tuft between Squat's horns--floated away on the
breeze.

All this was not done with any expectation of making them go faster.
For an ox to alter his gait, except slightly to run away, would be
unnatural. It was merely to convey to certain ones that they were not
out to enjoy the roadside grass. And to remind the string in general
that the seat of auth