possession.
This tenant, whoever he is, will walk his sheep when he goes, of
course. I thought it was unusual to hire a ranch to raise sheep on for
only one year, but Dad said the sheep get some sort of a disease if
they're not walked frequently, and I guess this fellow sort of figured
on trying it out for a year before settling down to a permanent place.
The owner of the ranch lives up north somewhere, and Dad simply bought
him out. Why Dad wanted to go in for woolies I don't know, but he must
have had his reasons."

"Then we won't have to start sheep nursin' right away," Nort said.

"We'll have to get this 'J. D.' out before we can do anything,"
declared Bud. "What do you think about it, Kid? I don't want to run
to Dad at the first sign of trouble, but it looks as though we had a
job on our hands before we really begin herding."

Yellin' Kid pushed his sombrero to the back of his head and looked up.

"Well, boys, I'll tell you," he said slowly. "While Bud and Dick were
inside gassin' I took a good look around. And I'll tell you a funny
thing; I didn't see no sign of sheep ever being on this here ranch at
all. No feedin' troughs, no hurdles, no nothin'. Billee, how about
it? Did this look like a sheep ranch to you?"

"Not any," the veteran puncher answered laconically. "Of course I'm no
sheep expert, but I can tell a sheep ranch when I see one. Usually
they have a feedin' ground around somewhere, for the woolies to feed in
durin' the winter. And they have troughs to put the fodder in when
they can't get to the range to graze, for sheep are dam perticular what
they eat off of. Maybe it was away 'round the back somewhere, but I
couldn't spot it."

"That's what I thought," went on the Kid. "Of course he may have sold
all the sheep a while back, and cleared his truck away at the same
time, but it don't hardly seem likely he could get rid of all traces.
Where ever sheep go, you can usually tell they been there." He paused
reflectively and added:

"Sort of queer that deputy we met didn't say something about there
bein' no sheep here. Did you tell him we was expectin' to find a sheep
ranch?"

"Now that you mention it, I don't believe I did," Bud answered. "I
said we were going to take charge of a ranch. He probably thought we
were bringing the cattle over later."

"Probably. So your friend in the house told you he'd give one thousand
bucks if you'd let him stay, did he?"

"Yep. That made me s