starting homeward. "We'll meet it.
Our course to-morrow will be northwest."

It came with little warning. Near the middle of the following afternoon,
a noticeable lull in the wind occurred, followed by a leaden horizon on
the west and north. The next breeze carried the icy breath of the
northwest, and the cattle turned as a single animal. The alert horsemen
acted on the instant, and began throwing the cattle into a compact herd.
At the time they were fully three miles from the corral, and when less
than halfway home, the storm broke in splendid fury. A swirl of snow
accompanied the gale, blinding the boys for an instant, but each lad
held a point of the herd and the raging elements could be depended on to
bring up the rear.

It was no easy victory. The quarter from which the storm came had been
anticipated to a fraction. The cattle drifted before its wrath, dropped
into the valley just above the corral, where the boys doubled on the
outside point, and by the aid of a wing-gate turned the wandering herd
into the enclosure. The rear, lashed by the storm, instinctively
followed the leaders, and the gates were closed and roped securely.

It was a close call. The lesson came vividly near to the boys.
"Hereafter," said Joel, "all signs of a storm must be acted upon. We
corraled these cattle by a scratch. Now I know what a winter drift
means. A dozen men couldn't turn this herd from the course of to-day's
storm. We must hold nearer the corral."

The boys swung into their saddles, and, trusting to their horses, safely
reached the stable. A howling night followed; the wind banked the snow
against every obstacle, or filled the depressions, even sifting through
every crack and crevice in the dug-out. The boys and their mounts were
snug within sod walls, the cattle were sheltered in a cove of the creek,
and the storm wailed its dirges unheeded.

Dawn broke cold and clear. Sun-dogs flanked the day's harbinger and
sunrise found the boys at the corral gate. The cattle lazily responded
to their freedom, the course led to the nearest divide, wind-swept of
snow, and which after an hour's sun afforded ample grazing for the day.
The first storm of the winter had been met, and its one clear lesson
lent a dread to any possible successors. The herd in the grip of a
storm, cut off from the corral, had a new meaning to the embryo cowmen.
The best advice is mere theory until applied, and experience in the
practical things of life is not tra