ting off pieces of its
tail. This sacrificial part having been pretty well used up, the beast's
situation in view of another attack was very ticklish. And it had, in
fact, the air of occupying the anxious-seat. The Mexican, it may be
added, uses neither dog nor crook. He may have a cur or _pillone_ to
share his solitude, but its function is purely social: for catching
sheep there is his lariat. He is measurably faithful and trustworthy, a
careful observer of his flock, and quick to appreciate their troubles.
Of course he loses sheep semi-occasionally, causing those long
sheep-hunting rides among the hills which the ranchman curses and the
visitor enjoys; and occasionally in winter on cold nights he is
overpowered by the temptation to visit a friend, the whole flock gets
astray, and, fearing consequences, Juan, not stopping to fold his tent
like the Arab, silently steals away.

IV.

The busiest periods of the sheepman's year are the lambing- and
shearing-seasons. The first begins early in March, when the little
mesquite-trees are of a feathery greenness and the brown gramma and
mesquite grass are beginning to freshen, and lasts about six weeks. It
is an exacting time for the conscientious proprietor. He says good-by to
his cottage, and goes off to camp with a small army of Mexicans, who,
proof against the toils of the day, make night crazy with singing,
dancing, and uncontrollable hilarity. He is as much concerned about the
weather as a sailor or one in conversation's straits. His terror is the
long, cold storm which covers the grass with a hopeless coating of ice.
The weakened ewe cannot graze, and the norther comes down with a bitter
sweep to devastate the starved flock.

The camp is pitched within easy reach of the bed-grounds of two
ewe-flocks, each of twelve hundred, who absorb all the attention of the
superintendent and his numerous aids. Each flock goes out on the range
at daybreak under the charge of two herders. The ewes that have dropped
lambs over-night are retained in the corral with their offspring for
about six hours, or till afternoon, when the lamb should be in
possession of sufficient strength to move about; then the ewes go forth
slowly to graze, followed by their _chiquitas_. The unnatural mothers
who deny their children are caught, with a lariat by a Mexican, with a
crook by a Yankee, and confined in separate little pens alone with their
lambs. If necessary to compel them to acknowledge the