y to Idaho to raise sheep? Why didn't his father
raise his sheep in the East? Certainly there was room enough, plenty of
room, that was much nearer than Idaho. How did sheep get into the
mountains of Idaho anyway?

Mr. Clark ducked his head under the torrent of queries.

"You will drown me with questions!" he exclaimed laughing. "Well, I
shall do my best to answer you. New Mexico was the first sheep center in
our country. Herds were originally brought from Spain, and these flocks
worked their way up from Mexico through New Mexico and California; here
the hills supplied the coolness necessary to animals with such thick
coats, and furnished them at the same time with plentiful grass for
food. During the day the herds grazed, and at night they were driven
into corrals of cedar built by the shepherds. These sheep were mostly
Merinos, a variety raised in Spain. Afterward, in 1853, a man named
William W. Hollister brought three hundred ewes across our continent to
the West. Think what a journey it must have been!"

"Wasn't the railroad built?"

"No. Neither were there any bridges. There were rivers to swim and
mountains to climb; furthermore there was many a search for water-holes,
because Mr. Hollister was not well enough acquainted with the country to
know where to find water for himself and the herd."

"I should not think a sheep would have lived through such a journey!"
cried Donald.

"Many of them did, however," answered his father, "and that is how our
western sheep-raising industry began. Now it is one of the great
occupations of our land, and soon you and I are to know more about it."

"And about Sandy McCulloch, too, I hope," put in the boy.

"I hope so; only remember--not a word of that telegram to any one at the
ranch. We shall get into Glen City this noon if our train is on time and
we must trust to luck in getting to Crescent Ranch. It is fifteen miles
from the station, up in the foot-hills of the Rockies."

"The--the--you don't mean the Rocky Mountains!" gasped Donald, his eyes
very wide open.

"Certainly. Have you forgotten your geography?"

"Of course I know that a spur of the Rocky Mountains does run diagonally
across Idaho; but somehow I never thought of really being in the Rocky
Mountains!"

Mr. Clark enjoyed the outburst.

"To be where there are bears and bob-cats and----"

"Maybe, after all, you would rather have stayed at home and finished out
your school year."

"I rather guess not!"