e fences on it--one inclosed
two small barns and corn-cribs; another, a pasture of two or three
acres, and the third formed the cow-pen. In the barns, Uncle James kept
his riding and farm horses; the pasture was for the use of the half
dozen cows which supplied the rancho with butter and milk; and the
cow-pen was nothing more nor less than a prison, into which, in the
spring of the year, all the young cattle and horses were driven and
branded with the initials of the owner's name. This was done so that
Mr. Winters and his hired men might be able to recognize the stock
anywhere. The cattle sometimes strayed, and became mixed up with those
of the neighbors, and the marks on their flanks showed to whom they
belonged.

[Illustration]

A fence around that farm would have been useless. None of the cattle and
horses had ever been handled, except when they were branded, and,
consequently, they were very wild. Sometimes they became frightened and
stampeded; and then they behaved like a herd of buffaloes, which turn
aside for nothing, and stop only when they are completely tired out. On
these occasions, the strongest fences that could have been made would
have been trampled down like the grass beneath their feet.

Of course, these cattle and horses had never seen the inside of a
stable. Indeed, a barn large enough to accommodate them would have been
an immense building, and would have cost more money than all the
stock-raisers in the country were worth. However, there was no need of
shelter for them. The grass on the prairie was abundant at all seasons
of the year, the winters were very mild, and the cattle were always fat
and in condition to be driven to market.

All this stock was managed by half a dozen men, called Rancheros. Four
of them were Mexicans; the others were our old friends, Dick Lewis and
Bob Kelly. So skillful were these men in their business, that a herd of
cattle, which, in the hands of any one else, would have proved utterly
unmanageable, was driven about by them with perfect ease. Sometimes it
became necessary to secure a single member of these droves. Perhaps the
housekeeper wanted some fresh meat for dinner, or Uncle James desired a
new riding horse; in either case, the services of these men were
invaluable. Mr. Winters would issue the necessary orders to Carlos--who
was the chief of the Rancheros, and the man who managed the farm during
the absence of his employer--and an hour or two afterward four quar