rs and "dry" cattle, the property
of the different owners represented. Dinner is ready by twelve, horses
changed again and the day-herd is watered, and then the branding of the
calves begins. But wait. _Such_ a dinner! With few appliances it is
really wonderful how a mess-wagon cook feeds the crowd so well. His fuel
is "chips" (_bois des vaches_); with a spade he excavates a sunken
fireplace, and over this erects an iron rod on which to hang pots, etc.
He will make the loveliest fresh bread and rolls at least once a day,
often twice; make most excellent coffee (and what a huge coffee-pot is
needed for twenty or thirty thirsty cowpunchers), serve potatoes, stewed
or fried meat, baked beans and stewed dried fruit, etc. Everything was
good, so cleanly served and served so quickly. True, any kind of a mess
tastes well to the hungry man, but I think that even a dyspeptic's
appetite would become keen when he approached the cattleman's chuck
wagon. Dinner over the wagon is again loaded up, the twenty or more beds
thrown in, the team hitched and started for the night camping-ground,
some place where there is lots of good grass for the cattle and saddle
horses, and at the same time far enough away from all the other herds.
The saddle horses in charge of the horse "wrangler" accompany the wagon.
The men are either grazing and drifting the day-herd towards the camp,
or branding morning calves, not in a corral but on the open prairie. The
calves, and probably some grown cattle to be branded, must be caught
with the rope, and here is where the roper's skill is shown to most
advantage. At sundown all the men have got together again, night horses
are selected, supper disposed of, beds prepared and a quiet smoke
enjoyed.

If a horse-hair rope be laid on the ground around one's bed no snake
will ever cross it. But during work the beds are seldom made down till
after sunset, by which time rattlesnakes have all retired into holes or
amongst brush, and so there is little danger from them.

First "guard" goes out to take charge of the herd. The herd has already
been "bedded" down carefully at convenient distance from the wagon.
Bedding down means bunching them together very closely, just leaving
them enough room to lie down comfortably. They, if they have been well
grazed and watered, will soon all be lying resting, chewing their cuds
and at peace with the world. Each night-guard consists of two to four
men according to the size of the her