Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1901-12-19

One December. while l was out on my
ranch. so much work had TO be done that
II was within week of Christmas be-
fore we were able To take any thought
for the Christmas dinner. The winter
set i'm late that year and there had been
comparatively little cold weather, hut
one day the ice on the river had been
sufficiently strong to enable us TO haul
mp Il wagon load OF flour, with enough
salt pork To last through the winter, and
n very few cans Of timed goods 10 be
used nj special feasts. We had some
bushels Of potatoes, the heroic victors of
struggle for existence, in which the
BEST of our garden vegetables had sue
rumbed to drought. frost and grasshop-
pers, and we also had some wild plums
and dried elk venison. But we had no
fresh meat. and so one day my foreman
and ] agreed To make a hunt on the NOR
row.
Accordingly one OF the cowboys rode
out in the frosty afternoon TO fetch in
the saddle band from the plateau three
miles off. where they were grazing. 1t
was necessary To get To the hunting
grounds by sunrise, and ii still lacked
couple of hours of dawn when the fore
man Weakened me with n touch as | lay
asleep beneath the buffalo robes. Dress
ing hurriedly and breakfasting on n cup
Of coffee and some mouthfuls of bread
and jerked elk meat we slipped out to
the barn. threw the saddles on the horses
and were off
The air was bitterly chill. The cold had
been severe for two days, so that the riv-
er ice would again bear horses 1t had al
ready frozen once and then again thawed.
a. a. Ill.
snow we could feel the rough ground like
wrinkled iron under the horses hoofs
There was no moon, but the stars shone
brilliantly down through the cold, clear
air, and our willing horses gallopcd swift
ly across the long bottom on which the
ranchhousc stood, threading their way
dcfty among the clumps of sprawling
sagebrush. A mile off we crossed the
river, the ice cracking with noises like
pistol shots as our horses picked their
way gngcrly over ii. On the opposite
side was u dense jungle OF burberry
bushes. and on breaking through this we
| found ourselves galloping mp a long
winding valley which led back many
miles into the hills. The crannies and lit
| tie side ravineS were filled with brush
wood and groves of stunted ash. by this
time there was n faint flush of gray in
| the east. aud as we rode silently along
we could make out dimly the tracks made
! by the wild animals as they had passed
! and rcEasSpd in the snow Several times
we dismountcd 10 examine them. 4 cou-
! pie OF coyotes. possibly frightened 10y our
approach, had trottcd and Hoped up the
valley ahead OF us. leaving trail like
that Of two dogs The sharper, more del
icate footprints of n fox crossed our path.
and outside one long patch of brushwood
series of round imprints in the snow
betrayed where Il bobcat, rs plainsmen
term the small lynx. had been lurking
around to try 10 pick up rabbit or prai-
| rte fowl
As the dawn Redeemed and it became
| light enough to see objects some little
way off we began 10 sit erect in our sad
dies and 10 sean the hillsides sharply for
sight Of feeding deer. Hitherto we had
seen no deer tracks save inside the bull
berry bushes 10y the river. and we knew
! that the deer which lived in that mpone-
| trable jungle were cunning white tails
and that in such place they could only
be hunted hy the aid OF hound. But
| just before sunrise we came on three
| lines OF heart shaped footmarks in the
snow which showed where as many deer
had just crossed little plain ahead OF
us. They were walking lcisurely, and
from the lay of the land we believed we
would find them over the ridge, where