reins. The horse moves forward, to find that its legs
are free. Up it goes in a long curve, alighting with his four feet
stiffly planted together. The head is down. Maddened and frightened,
the bronco bawls, like a man in a nightmare. Up in air the animal goes
again, drawing up its hind feet toward the belly, as if it would scrape
off the cinch-strap. The fore feet are extended stiffly forward.
Every time the bronco hits the ground, the jar is like the fall of a
pile-driver's weight. Bud watches every move. When the feet hit the
earth, he rises in stirrups to escape the jolt. But always he is in
the saddle, for any unexpected move.

The horse rises on its hind legs to throw the rider. Should it fall
backward, the wind will be knocked of the animal, but Bud will be out
of the saddle before he strikes the ground, and into it again before
horse can struggle erect.

If it tries the trick again, Bud uses the quirt, lashing it about the
ears, the flanks, and under the belly. There is not a part of the body
into which the biting leather does not cut. Lashing the flanks drives
the horse forward.

The struggle has been going on for twenty minutes. Bud is covered with
sweat and dust. The horse has begun to sulk. It will not respond to
rein or quirt.

Now is the time for the steel. Bud drives the spurs deep into its
flanks. The horse plunges forward with a bounding leap. Again the
spurs rasp, and again it plunges. The bronco finds that going ahead is
the only way in which to avoid punishment. Round and round the corral
it gallops until exhausted. The sweat is pouring off the brute in
rivulets. It has taken Bud forty minutes to give the first lesson.
Easing up the bronco, Bud swings out of the saddle, and then remounts.
This is done a half-dozen times, as the horse stands panting and
blowing. Then, with a quick movement, the saddle and bridle are flung
against the post. Bud pats the bronco on the neck and the flank, and
turns it loose for a second lesson in a couple of days. A third will
follow before the end of the week. Then he will saddle the horses,
unaided, ride them once or twice about the corral, and finally let one
of the hands give each the first lesson on the open plains. This means
a wild dash anywhere away from the ranch. The rider must avoid holes
in the ground, and keep up the pace until the horse slows up on its own
account. Four or five of these lessons with a post-graduate course in