t to him. There was little place in the rodeo for weak,
incompetent or untrustworthy men. Each owner, from his long experience
and knowledge of men, sent as his representatives the most skillful and
conscientious riders that he could secure. To make a top hand at a rodeo
a man needed to be, in the truest sense, a man.

Before daylight, the horse wrangler had driven in the saddle band, and
the men, with nose bags fashioned from grain sacks, were out in the
corral to give the hard-working animals their feed of barley. The gray
quiet of the early dawn was rudely broken by the sounds of the crowding,
jostling, kicking, squealing band, mingled with the merry voices of the
men, with now and then a shout of anger or warning as the cowboys moved
here and there among their restless four-footed companions; and always,
like a deep undertone, came the sound of trampling, iron-shod hoofs.

Before the sky had changed to crimson and gold the call sounded from the
ranch house, "Come and get it!" and laughing and joking in friendly
rivalry, the boys rushed to breakfast. It was no dainty meal of toast
and light cereals that these hardy ones demanded. But huge cuts of
fresh-killed beef, with slabs of bread, and piles of potatoes, and
stacks of hot cakes, and buckets of coffee, and whatever else the
hard-working Chinaman could lay his hands on to satisfy their needs. As
soon as each man reached the utmost limit of his capacity, he left the
table without formality, and returned to the corral, where, with riata
or persuasion, as the case demanded, he selected from his individual
string of horses his first mount for the day.

By the time the sun was beginning to gild the summit of old Granite
Mountain's castle-like walls, and touch with glorious color the peaks of
the neighboring sentinel hills, the last rider had saddled, and the
company was mounted and ready for their foreman's word. Then to the
music of jingling spurs, tinkling bridle chains, squeaking saddle
leather, and the softer swish and rustle and flap of chaps, romals and
riatas, they rode forth, laughing and joking, still, with now and then a
roaring chorus of shouting comment or wild yells, as some half-broken
horse gave an exhibition of his prowess in a mad effort to unseat his
grinning rider.

Soon the leader would call the name of a cowboy, known to be
particularly familiar with the country which was to be the scene of that
day's work, and telling him to take two or three or