Cow-Country | Page 3

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COW-COUNTRY
by B. M. BOWER

CHAPTERS
:
1. AN AMBITIOUS MAN-CHILD WAS BUDDY 2. THE TRAIL
HERD 3. SOME INDIAN LORE 4. BUDDY GIVES WARNING 5.
BUDDY RUNS TRUE TO TYPE 6. THE YOUNG EAGLE MUST
FLY 7. BUD FLIPS A COIN WITH FATE 8. THE MULESHOE 9.
LITTLE LOST 10. BUD MEETS THE WOMAN 11. GUILE
AGAINST THE WILY 12. SPORT O' KINGS 13. THE SINKS 14.
EVEN MUSHROOMS HELP 15. WHY BUD MISSED A DANCE 16.
WHILE THE GOING'S GOOD 17. GUARDIAN ANGELS ARE
RIDING "POINT" 18. THE CATROCK GANG 19. BUD RIDES
THROUGH CATROCK AND LOSES MARIAN 20. "PICK YOUR
FOOTING!" 21. TRAILS END

COW-COUNTRY

CHAPTER ONE
: AN AMBITIOUS MAN-CHILD WAS BUDDY
In hot mid afternoon when the acrid, gray dust cloud kicked up by the
listless plodding of eight thousand cloven hoofs formed the only blot
on the hard blue above the Staked Plains, an ox stumbled and fell
awkwardly under his yoke, and refused to scramble up when his negro
driver shouted and prodded him with the end of a willow gad.
"Call your master, Ezra," directed a quiet woman voice gone weary and
toneless with the heat and two restless children. "Don't beat the poor
brute. He can't go any farther and carry the yoke, much less pull the
wagon."
Ezra dropped the gad and stepped upon the wagon tongue where he

might squint into the dust cloud and decide which gray, plodding
horseman alongside the herd was Robert Birnie. Far across the sluggish
river of grimy backs, a horse threw up its head with a peculiar sidelong
motion, and Ezra's eyes lightened with recognition. That was the colt,
Rattler, chafing against the slow pace he must keep. Hands cupped
around big, chocolate-colored lips and big, yellow-white teeth, Ezra
whoo-ee-ed the signal that called the nearest riders to the wagon that
held the boss's family.
Bob Birnie and another man turned and came trotting back, and at the
call a scrambling youngster peered over his mother's shoulder in the
forward opening of the prairie schooner.
"O-oh, Dulcie! We gonna git a wile cow agin!"
Dulcie was asleep and did not answer, and the woman in the slat
sun-bonnet pushed back with her elbow the eager, squirming body of
her eldest. "Stay in the wagon, Buddy. Mustn't get down amongst the
oxen. One might kick you. Lie down and take a nap with sister. When
you waken it will be nice and cool again."
"Not s'eepy!" objected Buddy for the twentieth time in the past two
hours. But he crawled back, and his mother, relieved of his restless
presence, leaned forward to watch the approach of her husband and the
cowboy. This was the second time in the past two days that an ox had
fallen exhausted, and her eyes showed a trace of anxiety. With the feed