Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1898-10-13

Twelve hundred feet hlSn is the
sundial of the Lazy Ranch and
nearly as broad-that cliff of divers
hues which stands out from the wall
of the canon of the Grand river.
The opposite precipice serves the
cowboys as gnomon OF index to the
hours of day, for its shadow sweeps
over the stupendous, variegated face
and marks the course of the sun
through sky that is always un
clouded. A ledge of porphyry, fifty
feet deep, crowns the dial; often it
looks like a strip of pink ribbon to
the men below by the stream. But it
was. glorious coronal, kindling in the
first rays from the east, when Holden
hailed it with uplifted eye and hand
as he quirted his horse through the
barway of the corral.
",5unup" cried Holden, the young
foreman, filled with the JOY of the
morning. He is the son of the presi-
dent of the cattle company; he had
come straight from college to the cow
camp, and the old stroke of the var
sity eight set hot pace in saddle for
the Lazy ] riders.
He rode that morning big-boned,
Roman-nosed, blue-roan "outlaw"- o
horse pronounced irreclaimable by the
boys; he had tied a bucking roll
across the shoulders of his saddle to
supplement the grip of his knees, and
on top of that lay the big, loose coil
of his fifty-foot cable line, for he was
still young enough to disdain lariat
of lesser length and caliber.
Behind Holden Navajo Jim lifted a
light left foot to the stirrup; then his
spurred right tripped clinking to the
evasive dance Of his young horse, and
he slipped inimitably into his saddle.
To its right shoulder hung the trim
coiled ring OF his rope of braided raw
hide, which, to that of the foreman,
was as steel to iron and would hold
anything on hoofs.
Foreman and follower struck out
through the crossword over ground
without grass; the grazing range lay
high on the mesa, fenced by the lofty
wall of the canon. It's seemingly in
accessible height was scaled by the
sure-footed. agile range cattle at a
break in the porphyry ledge not far
up the canon, and presently they took
to the dizzy trail.
With slack cinches the blowing
horses clawed up the loose footing at
the top of the break and moved out on
a narrow projecting tongue OF the
.mesa. Still higher the mesa broad
,ened and was set with squat cedars
Eaud pinors. Here the riders saw cat
tie already chewing their cuds in the
shade.
These beasts, ranging free, had
taken on some Of the habits Of deer.
Cows and calves and yearlings hung,
with the does and fawns, about the
lower slopes, while the wild steers
ranged with hardly wilder bucks on
the higher hills.
sWe're too low down. There's
nothing here said the young fore
man, his eyes rowing over the stock.
''It's beef Tn after. I've got to
get train-road off'by the first and not
9 hundred steers gathered yeti"
"Quaking-asp putty good place
for steer now," said Navajo jim.
"Water sweet there and stampin'-
ground close"
'sYes, I know" Holden returned.
impatiently. "The boys started
twenty head down yesterday and had
them pointed for the corral, when
that blamed gray steer scattered the
bunch, and they broke back for the
hills"
''That gray steer like bull elk. Bet
ter corral him with six-shooter." said
Jim. zone steer not much worth. "
''Six-shooter nothing! What's our
ropes for?" cried Holden. "That big
grizzly brute will fetch up whole
carload to the top notch in the stock
pens. He goes on hoof to Omaha. l
told the boys I'd give $50-dollar
saddle to the first man that 'twined'
him and stayed with him.
"I already got putty good saddle,
Mr.. Holden said Jim, with grin.
"That steer seven, eight year old now,
and all time run wild. Horns SO long
stick clean through horse"
"Well, beefs up in the air; horses
are down. returned the foreman.
squirt up, Jim. Well strike up
higher.
\ On the loftier grazing ground they
found the cattle sfill at feed Through
!, ,sfhjckeai X hosts of dses-hies and
hoese-hies ls' y slup the
atean oakb .niad