id he, "it all depends on how your folks
bring you up. Down home we buy and sell by ages. A cow is a cow, a steer
is a steer, according to his age, and so on down to the end of the
alphabet. The cattle never misrepresent and there's no occasion for
seeing them. If you are laboring under the idea that my old man would
use any deception to sell a herd, you have another guess coming. He'd
rather lose his right hand than to misrepresent the color of a cow. He's
as jealous of his cattle as a miller is of his flour. These boys are his
customers, last fall, this summer, and possibly for years to come. If he
wanted them, Joel did perfectly right to buy the cattle unseen."

The second train of Lazy H beeves reached the railroad on schedule
time. The shipper was in waiting, cattle cars filled the side track, and
an engine and crew could be summoned on a few hours' notice. If
corralled the night before, passing trains were liable to excite the
beeves, and thereafter it became the usual custom to hold outside and
safely distant.

The importance of restocking the range hurried the shipping operations.
Instead of allowing the wagon to reach the station, at sunrise on the
morning of shipping, it and the remuda were started homeward.

"We'll gather beeves on the lower end of our range to-morrow," said Joel
to the cook and wrangler, "and there's no need to touch at headquarters.
Follow the trail to the old crossing, and make camp at the lower
tank--same camp-ground as the first shipment of Lazy H's. The rest of
the outfit will follow, once these cattle are loaded out. You might have
a late supper awaiting us--about ten o'clock to-night."

The gates closed on the beeves without mishap. They were cut into car
lots, from horseback, and on the arrival of the crew, the loading began.
A short hour's work saw the cattle aboard, when the dusty horsemen
mounted and clattered into the straggling hamlet.

The homeward trip was like a picnic. The outfit halted on the first
running water, and saddle pockets disgorged a bountiful lunch. The
horses rolled, grazed the noon hours through, and again took up their
former road gait. An evening halt was made on the Prairie Dog, where an
hour's grazing was again allowed, the time being wholly devoted to
looking into the future.

"If we stock the range fully this fall," said Joel, in outlining his
plans, "it is my intention to build an emergency camp on this creek, in
case of winter drifts. Build a dug-