ved that my cattle
were doomed by reason of the sheep trail crossing the river here at my
feet I bought me a she-goat with kids, and a ram from another flock.
These I herded myself along the brow of the hill, and they soon
learned to rear up against the bushes and feed upon the browse which
the sheep could not reach. Thus I thought that I might in time conquer
the sheep, fighting the devil with fire; but the coyotes lay in wait
constantly to snatch the kids, and once when the river was high the
_borregueros_ of Jeem Swopa stole my buck to lead their sheep across.

"Then I remembered a trick of my own people in Sonora, and I took the
blind pups of a dog, living far from here, and placed each of them
with a she-goat having one newborn kid; and while the kid was sucking
at one teat the mother could not help but let down milk for the puppy
at the other, until at last when the dog smell had left him she
adopted him for her own. Now as the pups grew up they went out on the
hills with their goat mother, and when, they being grown, she would no
longer suckle them, they stole milk from the other she-goats; and so
they live to-day, on milk and what rabbits they can catch. But
whenever they come to the house I beat them and drive them back--their
nature is changed now, and they love only goats. Eight years ago I
raised my first goat dogs, for many of them desert their mothers and
become house dogs, and now I have over a hundred goats, which they
lead out morning and night."

The old man lashed fast the gate to the corral and turned back toward
the house.

"Ah, yes," he said musingly, "the Americanos say continually that we
Mexicanos are foolish--but look at me! Here is my good home, the same
as before. I have always plenty beans, plenty meat, plenty flour,
plenty coffee. I welcome every one to my house, to eat and sleep--yet
I have plenty left. I am _muy contento_, Senor Hardy--yes, I am always
happy. But the Americanos? No! When the sheep come, they fight; when
their cattle are gone, they move; fight, fight; move, move; all the
time." He sighed and gazed wearily at the barren hills.

"Senor Hardy," he said at last, "you are young, yet you have seen the
great world--perhaps you will understand. Jeff tells me you come to
take charge of the Dos S Rancho, where the sheep come through by
thousands, even as they did here when there was grass. I am an old man
now; I have lived on this spot twenty-four years and seen much of the
she