ut you
know how it is--your own organization--firm, farm or factory--is
doubtless the best of its kind. No? You surprise me. You have missed
much--faith in others, hope for others, comradeship.

It is laughable to recall that men of other brands disputed the
headship of the Bar Cross. Nor was this jest or bravado; the poor
fellows were sincere enough. Indeed, we thought this pathetic loyalty
rather admirable than otherwise. Such were the 101, in Colorado; the X
I T, in the Panhandle; the Block and the V V, between the Pecos and
the Front Range; the Bar W, west of the White Mountain; the V Cross T,
the John Cross, the Diamond A and the L C, west of the Rio Grande.
Even from Arizona, the T L, the Toltec Company--Little Colorado River
way--put forth absurd pretensions.

The Bar Cross men smiled, knowing what they knew. That sure knowledge
was the foundation of the gay and holdfast spirit they brought to
confront importunate life. No man wanted to be the weak link of that
strong chain; each brought to his meanest task the earnestness that is
remarked upon when Mr. Ty Cobb slides into second base; they bent
every energy on the thing they did at the joyful time of doing it. In
this way only is developed that rare quality to which the scientific
give the name of pep or punch. Being snappy made them happy, and being
happy made them snappy; establishing what is known to philosophers as
the virtuous circle. The nearest parallel is newspaper circulation,
which means more advertising, which boosts circulation, and so onward
and upward.

In that high eagerness of absorption, a man "working for the brand"
did not, could not, center all thoughts on self; he trusted his
fellows, counted upon them, joyed in their deeds. And to forget self
in the thought of others is for so long to reach life at its highest.

* * * * *

The Bar Cross had worked the northern half of the range, getting back
to Engle, the center and the one shipping point of the Jornada, with
fifteen hundred steers--finding there no cars available, no prospect
of cars for ten days to come. To take those steers to the south and
back meant that they would be so gaunted as to be unfit for shipment.

So the wagon led on softly, drifting down to the river, to a beating
of _bosques_ for outlaw cattle and a combing of half-forgotten ridges
and pockets behind Christobal Mountain. It was a work which because of
its difficulty had been shirked fo