Produced by Mary Starr COW-COUNTRY By B. M. Bower CHAPTERS: 1. AN AMBITIOUS MAN-CHILD WAS BUDDY 2. THE TRAIL HERD 3. SOME INDIAN LORE 4. BUDDY GIVES WARNING 5. BUDDY RUNS TRUE TO TYPE 6. THE YOUNG EAGLE MUST FLY 7. BUD FLIPS A COIN WITH FATE 8. THE MULESHOE 9. LITTLE LOST 10. BUD MEETS THE WOMAN 11. GUILE AGAINST THE WILY 12. SPORT O' KINGS 13. THE SINKS 14. EVEN MUSHROOMS HELP 15. WHY BUD MISSED A DANCE 16. WHILE THE GOING'S GOOD 17. GUARDIAN ANGELS ARE RIDING “POINT” 18. THE CATROCK GANG 19. BUD RIDES THROUGH CATROCK AND LOSES MARIAN 20. “PICK YOUR FOOTING!” 21. TRAILS END COW-COUNTRY CHAPTER ONE: AN AMBITIOUS MAN-CHILD WAS BUDDY In hot mid afternoon when the acrid, gray dust cloud kicked up by the listless plodding of eight thousand cloven hoofs formed the only blot on the hard blue above the Staked Plains, an ox stumbled and fell awkwardly under his yoke, and refused to scramble up when his negro driver shouted and prodded him with the end of a willow gad. “Call your master, Ezra,” directed a quiet woman voice gone weary and toneless with the heat and two restless children. “Don't beat the poor brute. He can't go any farther and carry the yoke, much less pull the wagon.” Ezra dropped the gad and stepped upon the wagon tongue where he might squint into the dust cloud and decide which gray, plodding horseman alongside the herd was Robert Birnie. Far across the sluggish river of grimy backs, a horse threw up its head with a peculiar sidelong motion, and Ezra's eyes lightened with recognition. That was the colt, Rattler, chafing against the slow pace he must keep. Hands cupped around big, chocolate-colored lips and big, yellow-white teeth, Ezra whoo-ee-ed the signal that called the nearest riders to the wagon that held the boss's family. Bob Birnie and another man turned and came trotting back, and at the call a scrambling youngster peered over his mother's shoulder in the forward opening of the prairie schooner. “O-oh, Dulcie! We gonna git a wile cow agin!” Dulcie was asleep and did not answer, and the woman in the slat sun-bonnet pushed back with her elbow the eager, squirming body of her eldest. “Stay in the wagon, Buddy. Mustn't get down amongst the oxen. One might kick you. Lie down and take a nap with sister. When you waken it will be nice and cool again.”