toilet, they proceeded in twos and threes toward the shearing-shed,
their shears in their hands and all their personal property in weapons
dangling about them. The burrers, too, Mexicans hired in the
neighborhood, put in an appearance and ranged themselves behind their
tables, A flock had been penned at the shed over-night, and, while a
fraction of it was being driven through the movable panels into the
space behind the shearing--table, the shearers were ranged along it by
the captain: they hung up their rifles and revolvers to the posts, some
their hats and jackets, and fell to chattering, lighting their
cigarettes, and sharpening their shears. When the supply of sheep was in
and the panels closed, the captain gave the shrill cry, "_Vaminos__" and
all hands rushed in among the frightened animals and dragged out their
chosen victims by the leg. They showed great shrewdness in selecting the
small, the light-woolled, the easy-to-be-shorn. "The loud clapping of
the shears" at once filled the shed, and it was not five minutes before
a light fleece was tossed upon the burring-table, and a grinning fellow
came running up to the ranchman seated in a chair thereon, the better to
supervise affairs, and called out, "Check-e!" amid _vivas_ for the first
sheep shorn. He received a tin token, which he thrust into his pocket,
and plunged over the low platform after another sheep. Calls of
"_Cole_!" "_Colero_" "_Cole, muchacho, echale_" began to ring out, and,
with an answering call of "_Onde?_" ("Where?"), two little, laughing
Mexican boys, with tumbled, curly black wigs, and cheeks like bronzed
peaches, darted about with boxes of powdered charcoal, and clapped a
pinch of it on the cut made by careless shears. The burrers threw out
the fleeces smooth upon the table, and, one on either side, patted them
over with their hands to discover the cockle-burrs entangled in the
wool; these removed, they folded and rolled the fleeces up with care and
handed them to a man who, with the aid of a small, square box, tied them
tightly with two strings, and tossed them out of the shed, where they