been weaned and shifts for itself. The maverick then belongs to
the man who finds it and brands it. These little calves that
lose their mothers sure have a cruel time of it. Many of them
die. Then the coyotes and wolves and lions prey on them. Every
year we have two big round-ups, but the boys do some branding all
the year. A calf should be branded as soon as it's found. This
is a safeguard against cattle-thieves. We don't have the
rustling of herds and bunches of cattle like we used to. But
there's always the calf-thief, and always will be as long as
there's cattle-raising. The thieves have a good many cunning
tricks. They kill the calf's mother or slit the calf's tongue so
it can't suck and so loses its mother. They steal and hide a
calf and watch it till it's big enough to fare for itself, and
then brand it. They make imperfect brands and finish them at a
later time.

"We have our big round-up in the fall, when there's plenty of
grass and water, and all the riding-stock as well as the cattle
are in fine shape. The cattlemen in the valley meet with their
cowboys and drive in all the cattle they can find. Then they
brand and cut out each man's herd and drive it toward home. Then
they go on up or down the valley, make another camp, and drive in
more cattle. It takes weeks. There are so many Greasers with
little bands of stock, and they are crafty and greedy. Bill says
he knows Greaser cowboys, vaqueros, who never owned a steer or a
cow, and now they've got growing herds. The same might be said
of more than one white cowboy. But there's not as much of that as
there used to be."

"And the horses? I want to know about them," said Madeline, when