an
expert or had any mechanical knowledge; though continued troubles, much
hard work, accompanied by, alas! harder language, was a capital
apprenticeship. In bitter cold freezing weather I well remember we once
had to pull out the rods and the piping three times in succession before
we got the damned thing into shape, and then we did not know what had
been the matter. To pull up first 250 feet of heavy rod, disjoint it,
and lay it carefully aside; then pull up 250 feet of 6-inch or 8-inch
iron piping, in 20-feet lengths, clamp and disjoint it, and put it
carefully aside; then to use the sand-bucket to get the sand out of the
well if necessary; repair and put into proper shape the valve and
cylinder, etc.; then (and these are all parts of one operation),
re-lower and connect the 250 feet of heavy piping, the equally long
rods, and attach to the mill itself--oh, what anxiety to know if it was
going to work or not! On this particular occasion, as stated, we--self,
foreman and one boy--actually had to go through this tedious and
dangerous performance three times in succession! To pull out the piping
great power is needed, and we at first used a capstan made on the ranch
and worked by hand. But it was slow work, very slow, and very hard work
too; afterwards we used a stout, steady team of horses, with double
tackle, and found it to work much more expeditiously. But there was
always a great and ever-present danger of the pipe slipping, or a clamp,
a bolt, or a hook, or even the rope breaking with disastrous results.

These wells and mills afforded any disgruntled cowhand or "friendly"
neighbour a simple and convenient opportunity of "getting even," as a
single small nail dropped down a pipe at once clogged the valve and
rendered the tedious operation necessary. I had altogether five of such
wells.

A little more "brag," if it may be called so, and I shall have done. But
it will need some telling, and perhaps credulity on the reader's part. A
certain wild plant called "loco" grows profusely in many parts of the
Western States; but nowhere more profusely than it did in my pasture.
Indeed it looked like this particular spot must have been its place of
origin and its stronghold in time of adversity. Certainly, although it
was common all over the plains, I never saw in any place such a dense
and vigorous growth of it, covering like an alfalfa field solid blocks
of hundreds of acres. This is no exaggeration. It had killed a few of