Cow-Country

n hoofs formed the only blot on the hard blue above the Staked Plains, an ox stumbled and fell awkwardly under

neless with the heat and two restless children. "Don't beat the poor bru

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

nd at the call a scrambling youngster peered over his mothe

We gonna git a

he eager, squirming body of her eldest. "Stay in the wagon, Buddy. Mustn't get down amongst the oxen. O

the cowboy. This was the second time in the past two days that an ox had fallen exhausted, and her eyes showed a trace of anxiety. With the feed so poor and the water so scarce, it seemed as though the

team of strong horses, or even with a yoke of oxen, I could drive well enough, and relieve these poor brutes." She pushed back her sun-bonnet and with it a mass of red-bro

n't have to take a man's place and drive, Lassie." He took the cup of water she drew from a keg and proffered-water was precious on the Staked Plains, that season-and his eyes dwelt on her f

you good," she called out to the cowboy, who had dismounted to ti

ace, grimed with the dust of the herd, was aglow with heat, and his eyes showed gratitude. A cup of water from

ely when he had swallowed the last drop and had wiped his mout

st over the crest of a pile of crumpled quilts. "Buddy has a hard time of it. He's all man in his disposition,

and since he would not rise, the three remaining oxen, urged by the gad and Ezra's upbraiding, swung the wagon to one side and moved it a little farther after the slow-moving herd, so that the exhausted animal could rest, and the raw recruit be yoked i

o-mother-now" meant that something he would delight in but must not watch was going to take place. Spankings more or less official and not often painful signified that big folks did not understand him and his activities, or were cross about something. Now, mother did not want him to watch the wild cow run and jump at t

nds. It felt all loose and useless, so Buddy stopped long enough to pull the apron off and throw it beside Sister before he crawled under the canvas flap and walked down the spokes of a rear wheel. He did not mean to get in the way of the wild cow, but he

interested him at all was a horned toad; a hawn-toe, he called it, after Ezra's manner of speaking. Ezra had caught a hawntoe for him a few days ago, but it had mysteriously disappeared out of the wagon. Buddy did not connect his mother's lack of enthusiasm with the disappearance.

ost. He knew perfectly that the brown cloud on his narrowed horizon was the dust over the herd, and that the wagon was just behind, because the wind that day was blowing from the southwest, and also because the oxen did not

ad, however, and he kept after it u

nd held Buddy's attention to the exclusion of everything else-save the horned toad he had been at such pains to acquire. He tucked the toad inside his underwaist and ignored its wriggling agai

ether in the same direction; whereas the ant herd traveled both ways. Buddy made sure of this, and then started off, following what he had decided was the re

learned the sting of cactus thorns. A rattlesnake buzzed warning when he backed away and the shock to Buddy's nerves roused within him the fighting spirit. Rattlesnakes he kne

il. He did not wait to see what happened, but picked up another rock, a terrific buzzing sounding stridently from the coil. He threw anothe

the blue fire of righteous conquest. He went close-close enough to have brought a protesting cry from a grownup-lifted the rock high as he could and brought it down f

ds on his hips, as he had seen the cowboy do wh

part of the cowboy. Then, quite sure that the snake was dead, he took it by the tail, f

ddy was absolutely fascinated, lost to everything else. When some instinct born in the very blood of him warned Buddy that time was passing,

id not, though he watched it for a full minute. He looked at the sun-it had not set but glowed big and yellow as fa

mother would maybe wonder where he was, and he knew that the point-riders had already stopped pushing the herd ahead, and that the cattle were feeding now so that they would bed down at dusk. The chuckwagon was camped somewhere close by, and old Step-and-a-Half, the lame cook, was stirring things in his Dutc

t the niggers. It did not occur to him that they might be shouting for him, until from another direction he heard Ezra's unmistakable, booming voice. Ezra sang a thunderous baritone when the niggers lifted up their voices i

h y'all, Bud

shrilled impatiently

beauty that dulled to the shadows of dusk. Buddy trudged on, keeping to the deep-worn buffalo trails which the herd had followed and scored afresh with their hoofs. He could not miss his way-not Buddy, son of

e closest, and it seemed to Buddy that Ezra never once stopped calling. Twice Buddy called ba

ed. He heard someone whom he recognized as Frank Davis, but by this time he was so angry that he would not say a word, though he was tempted to ask Frank to take him up on his horse and let him ride to camp. He heard others-and once the beat o

hen first saw the three twinkles on the gro

electable things in the iron pots and stopping every minute or so to stare anxiously

ng the toad that had begun to squirm at the h

f, and whipped out his six-shooter

er arms, laughing with a little whimpering sound of tears

wight here." He patted his chest gloatingly. "

e set him down hurriedly and surveyed

p that snak

said firmly. He pulled the horned toad from his waist-front and held it tightly in his two hands. "An's

lled up his horse in the edge of t

onting his mother with a dead snake, a horned toad and a stubborn set to his lips. He saw that the mother looked ra

ded sternly, "whe

s was trailing a herd. I got

we had to get out and hunt you, and mother was scared the wolves mi

bare foot touched the dead snake and he took comfort. "I was comin'," he said. "I WASN'T los'. I bringed my