Jack the Young Cowboy: An Eastern Boy's Experiance on a Western Round-upGrinnell, George Bird
General
Jack the Young Cowboy: An Eastern Boy's Experiance on a Western Round-up
Grinnell, George Bird
Cowboys -- Juvenile fiction; Western stories
At length the boys who were to relieve them came out, and Jack and Joe
raced their horses back to camp, caught up fresh horses, unsaddled
those that they had been using, and presently sat down to breakfast.
All the outfit had started to work, and Frank had his wagon packed,
ready to roll as soon as these last two had finished breakfast.
"McIntyre told me to tell you," he said, "that you two had better go
along and help move the herd to the next camp. That's what you get for
going on night herd--an easy job for the rest of the day."
"That suits me well enough," laughed Joe. "We'll take it easy to-day,
Jack, and I'll bet McIntyre will make it up to us in the next few days,
and we'll have plenty of riding to do."
"I hope we will," replied Jack.
When they returned to the herd they found that the cattle had about
finished feeding, and had been driven down to a little stream to drink.
Now came the work of pushing them along over the ten or twelve miles
to the next camp. It was a slow and more or less wearisome task; but,
as Joe said, it was all in the day's work. The cattle were full and
lazy and unwilling to move. Each one would go on just as long as it was
being driven, but all the others stopped. It was constantly necessary
to ride up behind the little groups and urge them on, and the time of
two men was spent in riding backward and forward at the tail of the
herd pushing on the laggards. One man rode ahead of the herd, at a
slow walk; and there was one at either side, to keep the cattle from
scattering.
After the herd had been moving along for two or three hours, Bill
Duncan, the man in the lead, called back something to the others; but
they did not hear what he said, and, as he went on, paid no particular
attention to it. A few moments later there was quite an excitement
among the leading cattle. They were lowing and clustering together in a
thick bunch, and as the cow punchers pushed up toward them they could
see that they were pawing the ground and some of them were kneeling
and thrusting their horns into the soil, and there was much commotion.
Quietly, but very steadily the boys urged the cattle along and at
length broke up the gathering; but the animals were excited, and the
yearlings and young stock ran ahead, kicking their heels in the air and
striking at each other with their horns.
After they had passed the place, the explanation of the excitement was
seen. Some animal had recently been killed there, and its blood and
other remains smelled by the cattle had greatly excited them.
"That must have been what Bill was talking about when he called back
to us," Joe said to the others. "We ought to have sent some one up to
find out what he was saying."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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