ot for me, dear. You see, there's trade rivalry. I wish you had shot
them."

"I'm sort of sorry. Many's the time, camped on your bench land, which I
own is a good place for cougars, I'd set up half the night to listen.
They'd come purring so close I could see their eyes glint. Seemed to me
they sat round on their tails and purred because they liked a camp whar
there was no gun-smell. They sang love songs, big war songs, and all
kinds of music. Fancy you bein' scared!

"Kill them? They're hard to see as ghosts, and every time you fire they
just get absent. That ain't the reason though, for if the landlord
wanted cat's meat, I'd like to see the fight."

"They'd never dare to fight that giant bear!"

"I dunno. Eph ain't lost no cougars. He treats them as total strangers.

"But the real reason I fed no mountain-lions to Eph is mostly connected
with sheep. Cougars does a right smart business in sheep, 'specially
Surly Brown's. Sheep is meaner's snakes, sheepmen is meaner'n sheep, and
if the herders disagrees with the cougars, give me the cougars. Sheepmen
is dirt."

There spoke the unregenerate cow-boy!

"But, Jesse dear, are you sure that Eph won't expect me to be 'spared'
next time he's hungry?"

"Why, no. He was raised respectable, and there's a proper etiquette for
b'ars on meeting a lady. It's sort of first dance-movements:--'general
slide, pass the cloak-room, and whar's my little home?'"

* * * * *

_Jesse's Note_

N. B.--Kate and me agrees that the next chapter has to be cut out, being
dull. It's all about the barn-raising after we got home to the ranch.
The neighbors put us up a fine big cabin connecting to the old one by a
covered porch of cedar shakes. That's where the fire-wood lives, the
water-butt, the grind-stone, which Kate says is exactly like my singing
voice, likewise the ax and saw.

Of course our house-raising was a celebration, with a dance, camp-fire,
water-butt full of punch, and headaches. I bet five dollars I was the
only semaphore signaler in our district, and lost it to Iron Dale, who
learned signaling five years ago during the Riel rebellion. Cap Taylor
put up a signal system for our use, of fires by night or big smokes by
day. One means a celebration, two means help, and three means war. The
women beat the men at tug-of-war, but that was due to the widow's wooden
leg being a rallying point for the battle. Eph being holed up for the
winter, I got more