Cattle Brands | Page 9

the brand
and turn them back towards their own pasture. It was possible to cast
bread upon the waters, even on the range.
The new order of things was received with many protests. Late in the

fall three worthies of the range formed a combine, and laid careful
plans of action, in case they should get let out of a winter's job. "I've
been on the range a good while," said Baugh, the leader of this trio,
"but hereafter I'll not ride my horses down, turning back the brand of
any hidebound cattle company."
"That won't save you from getting hit with a cheque for your time when
the snow begins to drift," commented Stubb.
"When we make our grand tour of the State this winter," remarked
Arab Ab, "we'll get that cheque of Baugh's cashed, together with our
own. One thing sure, we won't fret about it; still we might think that
riding a chuck-line would beat footing it in a granger country, broke."
"Oh, we won't go broke," said Baugh, who was the leader in the idea
that they would go to Kansas for the winter, and come back in the
spring when men are wanted.
So when the beef season had ended, the calves had all been branded up
and everything made snug for the winter, the foreman said to the boys
at breakfast one morning, "Well, lads, I've kept you on the pay-roll as
long as there has been anything to do, but this morning I'll have to give
you your time. These recent orders of mine are sweeping, for they cut
me down to one man, and we are to do our own cooking. I'm sorry that
any of you that care to can't spend the winter with us. It's there that my
orders are very distasteful to me, for I know what it is to ride a
chuck-line myself. You all know that it's no waste of affection by this
company that keeps even two of us on the pay-roll."
While the foreman was looking up accounts and making out the time of
each, Baugh asked him, "When is the wagon going in after the winter's
supplies?"
"In a day or two," answered the foreman. "Why?"
"Why, Stubby, Arab, and myself want to leave our saddles and private
horses here with you until spring. We're going up in the State for the
winter, and will wait and go in with the wagon."
"That will be all right," said the foreman. "You'll find things right side
up when you come after them, and a job if I can give it to you."
"Don't you think it's poor policy," asked Stubb of the foreman, as the
latter handed him his time, "to refuse the men a roof and the bite they
eat in winter?"
"You may ask that question at headquarters, when you get your time

cheque cashed. I've learned not to think contrary to my employers; not
in the mouth of winter, anyhow."
"Oh, we don't care," said Baugh; "we're going to take in the State for a
change of scenery. We'll have a good time and plenty of fun on the
side."
The first snow-squall of the season came that night, and the wagon
could not go in for several days. When the weather moderated the three
bade the foreman a hearty good-by and boarded the wagon for town,
forty miles away. This little village was a supply point for the range
country to the south, and lacked that diversity of entertainment that the
trio desired. So to a larger town westward, a county seat, they hastened
by rail. This hamlet they took in by sections. There were the games
running to suit their tastes, the variety theatre with its painted girls, and
handbills announced that on the 24th of December and Christmas Day
there would be horse races. To do justice to all this melted their money
fast.
Their gay round of pleasure had no check until the last day of the races.
Heretofore they had held their own in the games, and the first day of
the races they had even picked several winners. But grief was in store
for Baugh the leader, Baugh the brains of the trio. He had named the
winners so easily the day before, that now his confidence knew no
bounds. His opinion was supreme on a running horse, though he
cautioned the others not to risk their judgment--in fact, they had better
follow him. "I'm going to back that sorrel gelding, that won yesterday
in the free-for-all to-day," said he to Stubb and Arab, "and if you boys
go in with me, we'll make a killing."
"You can lose your money on a horse race too quick to suit me,"
replied Stubb. "I prefer to stick to poker;