Huntsville gazette., 1885-01-31

ever since he joined us; and he hailed
the proposition with delight. So the
next morning we built corral, or pen,
of cottonwood logs, and in the after
| noon started out to catch some calves;
for we surmised that if we had the
youngsters penned, the mothers would
] be sure to stay around, and we could
milk them at our leisure. We soon
had half-a-dozen little fellows cut out
from the drove, and started them up
the valley; but l hope that l may be
pardoned for the strength of my
simile in saying that it was like trying
to drive so many streaks of lightning!
l never saw such active, mercurial,
elusive little beggars as those calves
some of them not yet month old!
They were as spry as squarrels, as light
legged as deer, and as slippery as eels.
They would gallop awkwardly on
ahead of us for a few yards, till one
would get the idea into his little pate
that he was too far from his beloved
mamma, when he would wheel as if on
a pivot, and with plaintive
"ya-a-a-a-p!" scud back like rabbit.
Then away the rest would go, zig
tagging aud twisting here and there,
worse than a jack-snipe on a windy
day. If you were ahead of them. and
tried to cut them off, they would bolt
and dodge like hare before the
hounds. But if you were behind, or at
the side, and rode at them to turn
them, they wouldn't turn a bit, but
keep straight on. A steer would sheer
| D{f - ~
his flank and he sees that there is dan
ger of collision; but these little racers
would scud right along, head and tail
up, and if you didn't hold up, you'd
catch somersault over them.
The Judge, not suspecting the exist
ence OF such idiotic perversity, fairly
rode down the first one he attempted
to overhaul, and calf, horse and rider
tumbled together in the dirt. The calf
was up and hundred yards away be-
fore the Judge regained his seat, and it
cost him scamper of a mile before he
could turn it.
At last, however, after infinite
| trouble, we succeeded in penning three
of the calves, and left them to be
| hunted up by their mothers. These
latter we found when we got up the
next morning, vainly trying to reach
their imprisoned offspring through the
corral fence.
The next thing was to catch and
milk the anxious COWS. The trees in
the locality were so close together that
we could not use a lasso, and the COWS,
as if suspecting a trap, would not be
| 10 rt of hp
which we had left for them. Finally,
my brother John took a lariat, and
climbing a tree, lay out on limb about
twenty feet from the ground. The
rest of us on horseback, then tried to
drive the COWS under the limb. Two
soon took fright and broke away
through the woods, but third, a beau
tiful black heifer, would not leave her
calf.
She was very handsome animal, as
slender as a deer, and her horns, a
yard from tip to tip, curved up and out
like Turkish scimitars, tapering to
points as fine as a bayonet's.
She lodged us here and there like
will-o' 'the-wisp, now and then max
ling a quick dash at one of us, and
necessitating some abrupt movements
on our part, till, in one of her rushes,
she passed under the limb where John
lay, and the lasso, dropped deftly from
above, brought her up, plunging and
wild-eyed
Getting a rope around one Of her
hind feet, we stretched her between
two trees, so that she was compara-
lively helpless; and then Joha, with
camp-kettle, proceeded to do the milk
ing.
"Soh, boss! sohr' he remarked to
her soothingly, But ''boss'' wouldn't
'.soh;'' mighty plunge, writhe of
the body, dexterous fore-handed kick
from the free hind leg, and down she
came with a thump upon her side;
while the camp-kettle flew from Johns
hands and he danced wildly around on
one leg, nursing the barked ankle of
the other. But in minute she was on
her feet, and the same performance,
minus the barked ankle, was gone
through with again. Finally, both
legs of the COW were tied fast. 1t was
found, however, that even then she
possessed the power to ''hold up" her
milk. We could get very little from
her. About a pint was at last pro-
cured.
Then another lariat was passed
around her horns, and with John at
one lariat, myself at the other, and the
Judge acting as drag behind, we
started to take her to the corral, that
the calf might have its breakfast. We
intended to imprison her there for
another trial.
For about ten yards all went well,
then there came sudden, violent bolt
the Judge was ''jerked'' from his feet
and landed. face downward, among
the sage brush, losing his grasp on the
rope; the lariat in Johns hands
snapped and | had "a vision of sud
den DEATH in the shape of black
bovine virago with blood-shot eyes and
needle-pointed horns, bearing straight
down upon me.
All the cows untamed blood was
up. How got over that corral fence,
ten feet high, don't know to this day.
When could survey the scene from
between the bars of my portcullis, the
heifer had changed her course, and was