tfit in the saddle, ironing up a big
calf crop, while the improved herd was the joy and pride of my
foreman. An altitude of about four thousand feet above sea-level had
proved congenial to the thoroughbreds, who had acclimated nicely, the
only loss being one from lightning. Two men were easily holding the
isolated herd in their canon home, the sheltering bluffs affording
them ample protection from wintry weather, and there was nothing
henceforth to fear in regard to the experiment. I spent a week with
the outfit; my ranch foreman assured me that the brand could turn
out a trail herd of three-year-old steers the following spring and a
second one of twos, if it was my wish to send them to market. But it
was too soon to anticipate the coming summer; and then it seemed a
shame to move young steers to a northern climate to be matured, yet it
was an economic necessity. Ranch headquarters looked like a trapper's
cave with wolf-skins and buffalo-robes taken the winter before, and it
was with reluctance that I took my leave of the cosy dugouts on the
Double Mountain Fork.

On returning home I found a statement for the year and a pressing
invitation awaiting me to come on to the national capital at once. The
profits of the summer had exceeded the previous one, but some bills
for demurrage remained to be adjusted with the War and Interior
departments, and my active partner and George Edwards had already
started for Washington. It was urged on me that the firm should make
themselves known at the different departments, and the invitation
was supplemented by a special request from our silent partner, the
Senator, to spend at least a month at the capital. For years I had
been promising my wife to take her on a visit to Virginia, and now
when the opportunity offered, womanlike, she pleaded her nakedness in
the midst of plenty. I never had but one suit at a time in my life,
and often I had seen my wife dressed in the best the frontier of Texas
afforded, which was all that ought to be expected. A day's notice was
given her, the eldest children were sent to their grandparents, and
taking the two youngest with us, we started for Fort Worth. I was
anxious that my wife should make a favorable impression on my people,
and in turn she was fretting about my general appearance. Out of a
saddle a cowman never looks well, and every effort to improve his
personal appearance only makes him the more ridiculous. Thus with each
trying to make the othe