At last the haying was over. The stacks were all protected from the wind and carefully fenced against ravages of the range stock. Now the nights were growing shorter and cooler; sometimes there was a frost, with a skim of ice. The leaves of the aspens began to turn yellow. Down on the lake the broods of young ducks which had been reared there were gradually being added to by the arrivals of early migrants from the north. The last time Jack and Donald went out on the mountains for fresh meat for the house, they had killed a bull elk whose horns, though still wearing the velvet, were full-grown and hard, and the animal was fat. September was at hand, and before many days Jack would be obliged to turn his face eastward and get back to college and work. "Well, boys," Mr. Sturgis said one morning at breakfast, "it's about time for us to gather our beef and start it in to the railroad. We ought to find it all pretty close at home, and I hope we can begin to-morrow, and gather it and take it to the railroad in short order." The day was devoted to getting up the horses and preparing the wagon for the short trip, for early the next morning they were to start for a little stream twelve or fifteen miles away, where there was a corral and a good camping place. Hugh had declared that on this trip he would drive the team and would cook, and Jack, Donald, Jack Mason, Rube and Mr. Sturgis were to gather the beef. Donald, who had become reasonably skilful with the rope and at home on a cow horse, declared that if Hugh could cook he could wrangle the horses, and that he would do that in addition to his riding. It was not likely that there would be any night herding to be done. The beeves, as they were cut out in considerable bunches, could be sent back to the ranch and held in the pasture for a short time; while the horse bunch would be likely to stay with the old bell mare that most of them knew so well. Long before sunrise, the riders set out, traveling to the northeast, intending to ride circle of the basin and to turn in toward the camp all the cattle found. These could be turned loose again after the beef had been cut out; and possibly there would be time for another circle to the south, when more cattle could be brought in the same night or the next morning; when again the beef would be cut out, and the cows and young stock turned loose. Not long after the riders had gone, Hugh climbed into the wagon and, chirruping to his team, soon disappeared down the valley. It was a fine morning for riding, and all the men felt its invigorating influence. The air was keen but dry, a light breeze just stirred the tops of the sage and the taller grass stems, and from the bushes everywhere sounded the sweet, melancholy, autumn whistle of the meadow-lark.