ream and then claim about a million, and fight like the very
devil to hold it. We've all done it, I reckon, but there is plenty of
land for everybody, and so there is no kick. Well, he was shore lucky,
for his boundary on two sides was a fair-sized stream that never went
dry, and you know how scarce that is--a whole lot better than a gold mine
to a cattleman.

"They got along all right for a while, had a tenderfoot's luck with their
cattle, which soon began to be more than a few specks on the plain, and he
was very well satisfied with everything, except that there wasn't no
school. Old man Gordon was daffy on education, which is a good thing to
be daffy over, and he was some strong in that line himself, having been a
school teacher back East. But he took his boy in hand and taught him
all he knew, which must have been a whole lot, judging from things in
general, and the kid was a smart, quick youngster. He was plumb crazy
about two things--books and guns. He read and re-read all the books he
could borrow, and got so he could handle a gun with any man on the range.

"About five years after he had located, the ranchman from whom he bought
his range and water rights went and died. Some of the heirs, who were not
what you would call square, began to get an itching for Gordon's land,
which was improved by the first irrigation ditch in Texas. There was a
garden and a purty good orchard, which was just beginning to bear fruit.
It was pure, cussed hoggishness, for there was more land than anybody
had any use for, but they must grab everything in sight, no matter what
the cost. Trouble was the rule after that, and the old man was up against
it all the time. But he managed to hold his own, even though he did lose
a lot of cattle.

"His brand was a gridiron, which wasn't much different from the gridiron
circle brand of the big ranch. It ain't much trouble to use a running iron
through a wet blanket and change a brand like that when you know how,
and the Gridiron Circle gang shore enough knew how. Their expertness with
a running iron would have caused questions to be asked, and probably a
lynching bee, in other parts of the country, but down there they were
purty well alone. They let Gordon know that he had jumped the range,
which was just what they had done, that he didn't own it, and that the
sooner he left the country the better it would be for his health. But
he had peculiar ideas about justice, and he shore was plumb full of