rse,
named Jim Swinger, which we were allowed to use because he bucked so
under the saddle that nobody on the ranch could ride him. We drove six
or seven hours across the dry, waterless plains. There had been a heavy
frost a few days before, which had blackened the budding mesquite trees,
and their twigs still showed no signs of sprouting. Occasionally we came
across open space where there was nothing but short brown grass. In most
places, however, the leafless, sprawling mesquites were scattered rather
thinly over the ground, cutting off an extensive view and merely adding
to the melancholy barrenness of the landscape. The road was nothing but
a couple of dusty wheel-tracks; the ground was parched, and the grass
cropped close by the gaunt, starved cattle. As we drove along buzzards
and great hawks occasionally soared overhead. Now and then we passed
lines of wild-looking, long-horned steers, and once we came on the
grazing horses of a cow-outfit, just preparing to start northward over
the trail to the fattening pasture. Occasionally we encountered one or
two cowpunchers: either Texans, habited exactly like their brethren in
the North, with broad-brimmed gray hats, blue shirts, silk neckerchiefs,
and leather leggings; or else Mexicans, more gaudily dressed, and
wearing peculiarly stiff, very broad-brimmed hats with conical tops.

Toward the end of our ride we got where the ground was more fertile,
and there had recently been a sprinkling of rain. Here we came across
wonderful flower prairies. In one spot I kept catching glimpses through
the mesquite trees of lilac stretches which I had first thought must
be ponds of water. On coming nearer they proved to be acres on acres
thickly covered with beautiful lilac-colored flowers. Farther on we
came to where broad bands of red flowers covered the ground for many
furlongs; then their places were taken by yellow blossoms, elsewhere
by white. Generally each band or patch of ground was covered densely
by flowers of the same color, making a great vivid streak across the
landscape; but in places they were mixed together, red, yellow, and
purple, interspersed in patches and curving bands, carpeting the prairie
in a strange, bright pattern.

Finally, toward evening we reached the Nueces. Where we struck it first
the bed was dry, except in occasional deep, malarial-looking pools, but
a short distance below there began to be a running current. Great blue
herons were stalking beside th