After a time the sharp night chill drove them under the shelter. Huddled forms out in the sage told of the cowmen fast asleep where they lay. Rolling in their blankets, the boys voted to call it a day. Sid lay awake, listening to the rustlings of a pack rat which had come foraging into camp, and enjoying the wild howl of the coyotes barking in shrill chorus from the mesas all about them. It was all wild, lonely and beautiful--too beautiful for anyone but outers and very honest men, he decided, as he dozed off to sleep, with the sweet tang of sage in his nostrils. Next morning before dawn the whole party was awake, the boys shivering and glad enough to warm their hands before the fire. Bacon, flapjacks and coffee were in progress, and, downing them, the horses were unpicketed and fed and the whole cavalcade started for Hinchman’s. The sharp, bracing air was good for horses and men alike. They were full of oats and bacon and high spirits. Sid raced along with Scotty beside him, giving their ponies full rein to run off the first enthusiasm of a new day. Big John brought up the rear, singing a cow song at the top of his lungs, the meter chiming in with the jolt of his horse. “Whoo--pee,--de--I--yaho! Git along lit--tle dogie, For ’tis your misfortune an’ none of--my own! Whoo--pee,--de--I--yaho! Git along lit--tle dogie, For I know that Wy--O--ming will be your new home,” he sang, in a monstrous shout, bawling out the I’s and O’s in a blare like a foghorn. The boys giggled with joy as verse after verse of the cowman’s riding song roared out. “They sing that song to soothe the cattle when riding around the herd at night,” laughed Sid. “It sure carries well! The cows are perfectly contented so long as they hear a human voice. Otherwise they are apt to get nervous about wolves, and stampede.” “What’s a ‘dogie,’ Sid?” asked Scotty, posting as his pony changed gait to a trot. “Oh, that’s a lean little yearling that they used to drive north to Wyoming, for Government rations for the poor Indians. Listen----” “Oh, you’ll be beef for Un-cle Sam’s Injuns, It’s ‘Beef,--heap Beef!’ we he-ar them cry, Git along, git along, git along lit-tle dogies, For you’ll be beef steers by and by,” sang Big John’s concluding verse, Red Jake chiming in on the chorus,-- “Whoop-ee, de--I--yaho!” etc. Sunrise over the desert! A magnificent spectacle, a stunning spectacle, a gorgeous, overwhelming, awe-inspiring spectacle! The boys fell head over heels in love with the whole thing, and then as if to give it a touch of adventure, Pepper let out a squeak, with a funny break in it like a boy’s voice changing, and streaked across the sage. After him tore Lee and Bourbon, belly down, legs flying like long broom handles. “Hi! Hi! _Yip--yip!_--Coyote!” yelled Red Jake, wheeling his broncho to flash off after the dogs. “Git him, boys!”