The Washington herald., 1913-06-29

BY this time / would have been ac-
cepted as one of the rest OF the outfit.
and all strangeness would have passed
of. the attitude of my fellow cow
punchers being one of friendly for
eiveness even toward my spectacles.
Night guards for the cattle herd were
then assigned by the captain of the
wagon. or perhaps by the roundup
foreman, according to the needs of the
case. the guards standing for two
hours at a time from in the evening
till 4 in the morning. The first and
last watches were preferable, because
sleep was not broken as in both of the
other two. II things went well, the
cattle would soon bed down and moth
ink further would occur until morning,
whsn there was a repetition of the
work, the wagon moving each day
eight or ten miles to some appointed
camping place.
Each man would picket his night
horse near the wagon. usually choosing
the quietest animal in his string for
that purpose, because to saddle and
mount a mean" horse at night is not
pleasant When utterly tired. IT was
HARD TO have to get. up for ones trick
at night herd. Nevertheless. On ordi-
nary nights the two hours round the
cattle in the still darkness were pleas
ant. The loneliness. under the vast
empty sky, and the silence. in which
the breathing of the cattle sounded
loud, and the alert readiness to meet
any emergency which might suddenly
arise out of the formless night, all
combined 10 give one a sense OF sub
dued interest.
Then, one soon got to know the cat
tie of marked individuality, the ones
hA nrh inf mischief.
one also grew to recognize the traits
they all possessed in common. and the
irnpulses which, for instance. made
whole herd get up toward midnight
each beast turning round and then ly-
ing down again. But by the end or
the watch each rider had studied the
cattle until il grew monotonous, ana
heartily welcomed his relief guard. A
newcomer, of course. had any amount
&c learn, and sometimes the simplest
things were those which brought MIN
TO grief.
One night early in my career i failed
satisfactorily to identify the direction in
which / was to go in order 10 reach the
night herd. 1t was pitch-dark night
managed to get started wrong, ana
never found either the herd or the wagon
again until sunrise, when / was greeted
with whitening scorn by the injured cow
puncher. who ha! been obliged to stand
double guard because 1 failed to relieve
him.
4 Stampede.
There were other misadventures that
met with where the excuse was greater.
The punchers on night guard usually
rode round the cattle in reverse direc-
tons: calling and singing to them If the
beasts seemed restless. TO keep them
quiet. On rare occasions something hap
pened that made the cattle stampede
and then the duty of the riders was to
keep with them as long as possible and
try gradually to get control Of them.
One night there was heavy STORM
and all of us were at the wagons were
obliged to turn out hastily TO help the
night herders. After a while there was
a terrific peal of thunder, the lightning
struck right by the herd, and away all
the beasts went, heads and horns ana
tails in the air. For minute or two l
could make out nothing except the dark
forms of the beasts running on every
side of me- and 1 should have been very