El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-07-24


And he never learned to write,
While he don't know all there Is ABOUT
society;
But his head is good and clear;
He can brand a long horned steer
In the most perplexing methods and var
iety.
He most generally takes whiskey,
And he loves the country store;
When he does thing he does 1t MT TO ous'
He can round u bunch of cattle,
And his home is in a saddle.
When he sleep. his sleep is iuster than the
just.
Rhine of the Cow Puncher.
81 was almost torn in half once,
said old Perk one night, when he 1elt
n particularly communicative mooo.
No, 1t wasn't by a buffalo nor steer.
Yol could never guess. 1t was notning
but my old dog aud q coon, at each END,
and me In the middle. 1 reckon L wss
in as much danger that time as l ever
have been, and 1 wasn't two hundred
yards from my own cabin.
sit was a good many years ago, up
in Jack county, near Fort Richardson.
1 forget just what year it was.
81 was ruunin' hog ranch, and had
some OF the finest in the country too.
They just run wild on the prairie ana
didn't have to be fed none. Why, those
hogs got fat right out rootin' for them
selves among the roots and berries, and
the grass and o e thing and another
that hogs eat.
81 had been troubled q good deal by
mountain lions and 1 was gettin' tired
of it. They came down from the noun
tsins, and the rocks where they stayed
duriu' the day, and carried off my hogs
at night Seems like these mountain
lions could tell which was the latest
hogs the same as man could, and they
always GOT the youngest and tenderest
that there was in the droves.
81 made up my mind that 1 was
goin' to stop havin' my hogs stole,
3D. 1 set traps for 'em, aud tried every
way to get 'em, but it didn't seem to
do no good. They was just as many
pigs gone every mornin', and 1 used to
see the carcasses of the young hogs
where they was half eat, and left ly-
ing around.
lone night the dogs began 10 bark
right out around near the house, and
they kept it up SO long that L knew it
was q lion that was after some amin ais
which was out in a clesrin' near the
shanty. 1t was about nine o'clock,
and had been to sleep for long time
1 reckon, but got up and took the gun
and went out after the brute and made
up my mind to get that one If it took
all light.
SIT WAS dark, and 1 couldn't see any
thin, but the dogs was making so much
noise that didn't have no trouble in
fndin' out where the lion was. went
on out across the clearin' pretty eau
tious like, because 1 didn' It want to run
up against that lion before L could see
it. The dogs was barking around a
little clump of scrub trees in the mid
die of a big green briar patch, and L
knew that she old lion was holdin' 'em
off easy under them circumstances.
81 crept up slow till got to the be-
ginnin' of the briars, then 1 worked my
way through with considers BILE difficult
ty seein' that it was night, and bad
walkin' even In daylight. Some of the
dogs had got in close to the middle of
the patch, and they jumped around me
when 1 came up, the same that all dogs
will when there's danger, and a man
comes. They feels safer, reckon, the
logs do, when there's q man around. |
we noticed that more than q hundred |
lines.
swell, the dogs jumped around and |
parked all the louder. and 1 pretty |
DON saw where the thing was they
vas bsrkin' at. Right in the middle
Of the patch was a big hollow tree
that had been struck by lieb thin,
and as soon as 1 seen it 1 remem-
bered where I was. OF course l ma
turally supposed the brute had been
drove in there by the dogs, and 1
wasn't far from bein' right. Whatever
it was, it was right inside of that
trunk.
81 moved up nearer, the dogs closin'
up with me, and we had the tree sur.
rounded in no time. There wasn't no
way for what was 10 there to get out,
so L got the gun ready to shoot aud
took step nearer.
81 hadn't got two feet from that
there hollow tree, when somethin' come
out the quickest you ever saw and
grabbed me by the foot. Then L seen
that it wasn't no lion after all, but q
great big buck coon. the biggest l ever
eaW