The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1892-12-09
A TEXAS L0CHlNVAR.

chested, cat-hammed little beggar, with
blood in his eye and as many devils in
his disposition as there are cookie burrs
in his tail
l wish some of the people who i'm.
agine that droves of such little beasts
are the horses generally raised on Texas
ranches could see Jim McQueen's
Cinco. His sire was four-mile horse
whose ancestry ran vaguely back toward
Kentucky, and he unites with the
beauty. speed, smooth coat, good tenn
per and larger size of this stock the
indomitable pluck and hardihood and
the inexhaustible bottom of his native
Texas blood.
Jim traded five ponies for him when
he was raw. slim-legged yearling, and
called him Cinco in commemoration.
He is six years old now and has never
known the feeling of collar. 1t is true
that if some uninstructed outsider
should insist upon putting him into
harness Cinco would probably end by
kicking the vehicle into kindling wood
and himself clean of every scrap of har-
ness, but this would be simply con-
temptuous protest-a forcible explana-
tion of the fact that he wasn't built to
haul loads.
Cinco is the best horse in this, a
country of good horses. His qualifi-
cations and accomplishments are varied.
He is an inapproachable COW horse, a
finished expert in all the horse ma
ueuvres incident to rounding up, roll
ing and cutting out a perfect mine
of endurance and good spirits on the
trail, and always wins the long distance
and handicap races at the county fair.
He won his last handicap about month
ago under circumstances of thrilling
interest to loving frontier
society.
Jim is the junior partner at the
bachelor Gillespie & Mcqueen sheep
ranch on Boggy run. Their nearest
neighbor, five miles above, is the Aus
tell ranch, at Crockett's well. Miss
Chummie Austell, when she came out
to the ranch year ago from some east
Texas school, had rs easy walkover of
the undisputed belleship of the whole
county as Cinco would have had in an
open race against field of COW ponies
and without an ounce of handicap. It
was jim, with his good looks, boyish
spirits, and what Wade Keener bitterly
styled Ibis blame winnin' ways" who
first gained her maiden preference and
held it so long in the face of so much
and such spirited, not to say desperate,
rivalry that it looked as though the
course of true love might be going to
run smooth once, just to show its west
Texas originality.
But now came upon the scene the
cause of discord, misunderstanding,
jealousy and reproaches, spirited retorts
and secret tears and finally angry separ-
alton in the person of sheepman's s
''drifter' from somewhere up in the
Panhandle. Spur was most unro-
mantle figure, about five or six feet in
height and three across, with a sort of
air of good fellowship about him, and
giving impression somehow of great and
abounding wealth.
Now drifting sheepman is, gener-
ally speaking, not very kindly taken to
by cattlemen or even by sheep ranchers
He is man who may have 1000, 15,-
900 or ~, 600 sheep, and grow rich off
the wool and mutton without ever own
ing foot of land. But old man Aus
tell and Mrs. AustelI were undeniably
impressed by the atmosphere of wealth
that went about with Spur, and when
he laid violent siege to Chummie's af-
fections he got more or less support
from the family-even the boys, who
were Jim's special friends, standing off
neutral. jim, hurt and angry, rode
over to see Chummie and demanded
that she give that chump his vamos
right straight.
It's hard for pretty girl who knows
her power to accede gracefully and
promptly to an order like that, even
from the man she loves, and the result
was an angry rupture.
For some weeks they never met, and
all this time Spur was staying at the
Austell ranch or camping close to it
pushing his suit with Chummie, and
Chummie. with the indiscretion of the
weaker sex, thinking to scare Jim into
repentance, allowed herself to be drawn
into a sort of promise, which Spur inn
mediately fastened upon, sent to San
Antonio for an immense diamond soli-
taire and, with the support of the old
people. hurried ON the marriage, so that
before she realized where she stood the
frightened and unhappy girl was act
ually putting on her wedding dress.
And jim?
The season was bad, there had been
no rain for long, Boggy Run was run
out, the grass was dry as tinder and the
stock was beginning to suffer. The
sheep could do where they were-a well
regulated Texas sheep can come as near
dispensing with drinking water as a
Kentucky colonel-but the cattle were
rounded up and started out on the trail
for 1.-The territory" Jim, who usually
stayed with the sheep, took charge OF
the cattle this year. There was most
uncomfortable soreness in the region oi
his heart, which it seemed somewhat to
him might be more or less worked of
in the toll of managing herd of trail
cattle, lamming recalcitrant steers, fight
ing to keep the bunch to the trail in the
face of norther, or struggling to pre-
vent or to quell an incipient stampede.
They had been out on the trail nearly
week, and were pretty we'll up to-
wards the State line when Bob English
rode into their camp one evening. AT
ter supper, when Jim's two cowboys
were out riding around the herd, get