The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-08-03

calves. Then as soon as the calves
were branded 1 turned them all out on
the range.
"The following spring, when the
shed was left open to dry six out of
those seven cows came back and had
their calves in it again. They didn't
come together, but during April and
May they all sauntered in. They
had found their way back, one thirty
miles, one ten, one twenty-five miles
and so on up to fifty. The seventh
COW had died, or doubtless she'd have
turned UP too.
Peculiar Well, the peculiarest
thing about the whole business tome
was that each COW returned to the ex-
act corner or stall where she had been
the year before. The six cows kept
that caper up as long as I kept them,
five years or so.
"But about the most interesting
-a-sl
association Of ideas, or whatever you
would call it, that I ever saw was in
a couple of COW ponies and an old
mule that used to be drifting about
on the range north of the Yellowstone
a few years ago.
"You sometimes read In the papers
of wornout old fire department horses
who when an alarm rings forget the
pedler wagons or dump carts they are
pulling and dash off for the fire, all
their dormant selves awaking again
at the dear old familiar clang. Well,
that's the sort of thing that happened
to Button and Sunday, the old K T
COW ponies.
"Year after year they had worked on
the roundup till their joints got stiff.
Every May they would start out with
the outfit, following down one creek
and up another till November and
frosts made rounding up uncomfort-
able. Then they'd be turned out on
the range for the winter till the next
May would begin the old roundup
life all over again.
Roundup work is devilish hard
on ponies-worse than polo, if possi-
Bile. They age early under it. Button
and Sunday couldn't have been more
than 7 or 8 when the x / T men, de-
Gliding they were worn out, put
couple of fresh ponies in their place,
and started off without them.
"In the course of the summer the
outfit struck the valley where the two
old broncs were grazing. No sooner
did the derelicts catch sight of the
familiar roundup wagon and the boys
who had been their pards than they
insisted on throwing in with them.
The boys couldn't shake 'em.
"And so long as the K I was
operating in that country, Button
and Sunday would continue to work
it with them. Without any man
riding 'em, they'd spend their morn
ings circling, then stand on herd or
help work the herd afternoons. Say,
but they were stars at standing on
herd They wa MT no foxy old COW
or cocky young steer could rush 'em
or fool 'em.
"When the outfit had worked its
way out of the valley where the po-
nies were located, they'd shake day
day, as it were, to the gang and be-
gin grazing.
"Those two cow ponies loved their
business better than many humans
love theirs, but they didn't love it so
we'll as Billy, the old mule Of the Bar 2.
He was plumb in love with his.
"He too had had his day with the
roundup, and he too had been dis
carded for a younger, smarter animal.
When spring came Billy was looking
to going as usual, and it almost broke
the old fellows heart to see the boys
pulling out of Miles City without
him.
"Aint 1 a Bar boy as much as
any of emp he sorter says to him.
self. They ought to give me chance
even if have hipped myself and have
corns forrard. They can't shake me
so easy?'
"With that the old boy Lit out after
the others, and he followed the Bar 2
outfit of his own accord for two years,
working just as he'd been used to
work in his young, smart days. Then
he got so or nary that Dynamite Joe,
the foreman, was afraid he'd hurt
some one who wasn't on to his temper,
and he sold him."