he winter in good, healthy form.
The farmer promised to report monthly on their condition, and agreeing
to send for them by the first of April, I hastened on home.

My wife had taken a hand in the building of the new house on the Clear
Fork. It was quite a pretentious affair, built of hewed logs, and
consisted of two large rooms with a hallway between, a gallery on
three sides, and a kitchen at the rear. Each of the main rooms had an
ample fireplace, both hearths and chimneys built from rock, the only
material foreign to the ranch being the lumber in the floors, doors,
and windows. Nearly all the work was done by the ranch hands, even the
clapboards were riven from oak that grew along the mother Brazos, and
my wife showed me over the house as though it had been a castle that
she had inherited from some feudal forbear. I was easily satisfied;
the main concern was for the family, as I hardly lived at home enough
to give any serious thought to the roof that sheltered me. The
original buildings had been improved and enlarged for the men, and an
air of prosperity pervaded the Anthony ranch consistent with the times
and the success of its owner.

The two ranches reported a few over fifteen thousand calves branded
that fall. A dim wagon road had been established between the ranches,
by going and returning outfits during the stocking of the new ranch
the spring before, and the distance could now be covered in two days
by buckboard. The list of government contracts to be let was awaiting
my attention, and after my estimates had been prepared, and forwarded
to my active partner, it was nearly the middle of December before I
found time to visit the new ranch. The hands at Double Mountain had
not been idle, snug headquarters were established, and three line
camps on the outskirts of the range were comfortably equipped to
shelter men and horses. The cattle had located nicely, two large
corrals had been built on each river, and the calves were as thrifty
as weeds. Gray wolves were the worst enemy encountered, running in
large bands and finding shelter in the cedar brakes in the canons and
foothills which border on the Staked Plain. My foreman on the Double
Mountain ranch was using poison judiciously, all the line camps were
supplied with the same, and an active winter of poisoning wolves
was already inaugurated before my arrival. Long-range rifles would
supplement the work, and a few years of relentless war on these pests
would rid