and if one arrived about mid-day they would regale him with scraps of
jerked beef, a cake of unleavened bread cooked in the skillet, and
coffee which, considering what it was made of, was a very inspiring
drink. In particular I recall the _pastor_ Patricio, a very pretty
fellow, with curly black hair and black eyes, a fine nose with a
patrician lift to the nostrils, a little black moustache bristling like
a cat's on a smiling lip, a red handkerchief about his neck: he was very
voluble of soft words, and made the waste blossom with his distinguished
manner. A dozen of these camps were to be discovered about the range,
and the brush fences and unused corrals of many more, which had been
used and would be used again as the sheep were moved from
grazing-ground to grazing-ground and portions of the range temporarily
exhausted.

From his camp the herder goes forth at daybreak with his flock of
fourteen hundred ewes and lambs or two thousand wethers, grazing slowly
toward the creek or neighboring water-hole where at noon he lies up in
the shade; and to it he slowly returns in the cool of the afternoon, the
flock moving in loose order among the mesquites, taking a nip here, a
nip there, but ever hanging together and dependent, the most gregarious
of animals. In their unity of action, in their interdependence and
solidarity, the timid sheep are capable of a momentary suggestion of
awe. About weaning-time a couple of large flocks got temporarily
together, and one could see driven by the herder a compact mass of four
thousand advancing over the prairie with a quick step, "a unit in
aggregate, a simple in composite," their impassible countenances gazing
fixedly forward, resembling, it seemed to me, a brigade going into
action. For most of the year it is thought by no means advisable to fold
the sheep in the corral at night, so they sleep at large near it.
Especially on moonlight nights they are apt to be uneasy and to move