cattle holders, like this T 0 outfit, and any of them wouldn't
shy very hard at a little sleeperin' on the side. Buck Johnson
told us all to watch out, and passed the word quiet among the big
owners to try and see whose cattle seemed to have too many calves
for the number of cows.

[2] "Oilers"--Greasers--Mexicans.


The Texas outfit I'm tellin' you about had settled up above in
this Double R canon where I showed you those natural corrals
this morning. They'd built them a 'dobe, and cleared some land,
and planted a few trees, and made an irrigated patch for alfalfa.
Nobody never rode over his way very much, 'cause the country was
most too rough for cattle, and our ranges lay farther to the
southward. Now, however, we began to extend our ridin' a little.

I was down towards Dos Cabesas to look over the cattle there, and
they used to send Larry up into the Double R country. One
evenin' he took me to one side.

"Look here, Jed," says he, "I know you pretty well, and I'm not
ashamed to say that I'm all new at this cattle business--in fact,
I haven't been at it more'n a year. What should be the
proportion of cows to calves anyhow?"

"There ought to be about twice as many cows as there're calves,"
I tells him.

"Then, with only about fifty head of grown cows, there ought not