登陆注册
5288600000014

第14章 CHAPTER V. Sheep(2)

As the three forced their horses up the steep slope, the herder, sitting slouched upon a rock, glanced up at them dully. He had a long stick, with which he was apathetically turning over the smaller stones within his reach, and as apathetically killing the black bugs that scuttled out from the moist earth beneath. He desisted from this unexciting pastime as they drew near, and eyed them with the sullenness that comes of long isolation when the person's nature forbids that other extreme of babbling garrulity, for no man can live long months alone and remain perfectly normal. Nature, that stern mistress, always exacts a penalty from us foolish mortals who would ignore the instincts she has wisely implanted within us for our good.

"Maybe," Weary began mildly and without preface, "you don't know this is private property. Get busy with your dogs, and haze these sheep back on the bench." He waved his hand to the north. "And, when you get a good start in that direction," he added, "yuh better keep right on going."

The herder surveyed him morosely, but he said nothing; neither did he rise from the rock to obey the command. The dogs sat upon their haunches and perked their ears inquiringly, as if they understood better than did their master that these men were not to be quite overlooked.

"I meant to-day," Weary hinted, with the manner of one who deliberately holds his voice quiet.

"I never asked yuh what yuh meant," the herder mumbled, scowling.

"We got to keep 'em on water another hour, yet." He went back to turning over the small rocks and to pursuing with his stick the bugs, as if the whole subject were squeezed dry of interest.

For a minute Weary stared unwinkingly down at him, uncertain whether to resent this as pure insolence, or to condone it as imbecility. "Mamma!" he breathed eloquently, and grinned at Andy and Pink. "This is a real talkative cuss, and obliging, too. Come on, boys; he's too busy to bother with a little thing like sheep."

He led the way around to the far side of the band, the nearest sheep scuttling away from then as they passed. "I don't suppose we could work the combination on those dogs--what?" he considered aloud, glancing back at them where they still sat upon their haunches and watched the strange riders. "Say, Cadwalloper, you took a few lessons in sheepherding, a couple of years ago, when you was stuck on that girl--remember? Whistle 'em up here and set 'en to work."

"You go to the devil," Pink's curved hips replied amiably to his boss. "I've got loss-uh-memory on the sheep business."

Whereat Weary grinned and said no more about it.

On the opposite side of the coulee, the boys seemed to be laboring quite as fruitlessly with the other herder. They heard Big Medicine's truculent bellow, as he leaned from the saddle and waved a fist close to the face of the herder, but, though they rode with their eyes fixed upon the group, they failed to see any resultant movement of dogs, sheep or man.

There is, at times, a certain safety in being the hopeless minority. Though seven indignant cowpunchers surrounded him, that herder was secure from any personal molestation--and he knew it.

They were seven against one; therefore, after making some caustic remarks, which produced as little effect as had Weary's command upon the first man, the seven were constrained to ride here and there along the wavering, gray line, and, with shouts and swinging ropes, themselves drive the sheep from the coulee.

There was much clamor and dust and riding to and fro. There was language which would have made the mothers of then weep, and there were faces grown crimson from wrath. Eventually, however, the Happy Family faced the north fence of the Flying U boundary, and saw the last woolly back scrape under the lower wire, leaving a toll of greasy wool hanging from the barbs.

The herders had drawn together, and were looking on from a distance, and the four dogs were yelping uneasily over their enforced inaction. The Happy Family went back and rounded up the herders, and by sheer weight of numbers forced them to the fence without laying so much as a finger upon then. The one who had been killing black bugs gave then an ugly look as he crawled through, but even he did not say anything.

"Snap them wires down where they belong," Weary commanded tersely.

The man hesitated a minute, then sullenly unhooked the barbs of the two lower strands, so that the wires, which had thus been lifted to permit the passing of the sheep, twanged apart and once more stretched straight from post to post.

"Now, just keep in mind the fact that fences are built for use.

This is a private ranch, and sheep are just about as welcome as smallpox. Haze them stinking things as far north as they'll travel before dark, and at daylight start 'em going again.

Where's your camp, anyhow?"

"None of your business," mumbled the bugkiller sourly.

Weary scanned the undulating slope beyond the fence, saw no sign of a camp, and glanced uncertainly at his fellows. "Well, it don't matter much where it is; you see to it you don't sleep within five miles of here, or you're liable to have bad dreams.

Hit the trail, now!"

They waited inside the fence until the retreating sheep lost their individuality as blatting animals, ambling erratically here and there, while they moved toward the brow of the hill, and merged into a great, gray blotch against the faint green of the new grass--a blotch from which rose again that vibrant, sing-song humming of many voices mingled. Then they rode back down the coulee to their own work, taking it for granted that the trespassing was an incident which would not be repeated--by those particular sheep, at any rate.

It was, therefore, with something of a shock that the Happy Family awoke the next morning to hear Pink's melodious treble shouting in the bunk-house at sunrise next morning:

"'G'wa-a-y round' 'em, Shep! Seven black ones in the coulee!" Men who know well the West are familiar with that facetious call.

同类推荐
  • 读书后

    读书后

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 慧珠阁诗

    慧珠阁诗

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 留别吉州太守宗人迈

    留别吉州太守宗人迈

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 百家姓考略

    百家姓考略

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 净土或问

    净土或问

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 薄荷色的盛夏之歌

    薄荷色的盛夏之歌

    对于大校草的表白,季淼表示很懵逼。全学校谁不知道,木泽楷喜欢的是校花许遇然,他怎么来给季淼表白了?结果,三个月后。“男神男神,嫁给我吧!”季淼说完,眨了眨那双她自以为很水灵的大眼睛。木泽楷一脸傲娇的轻哼了一声:“嫁?本校草只能娶,不能嫁!”
  • 残欢

    残欢

    “来人呐,将王妃请下去,家法伺候……”瑾王府家规:争风吃醋者,鞭刑!听完上官瑾的话,媚儿眼中一丝得意的窃喜闪过。早膳还未来的及用,她便被请了下去,强行绑在庭院的长椅上,下人拿着皮鞭,狠狠地抽在她的背上,长鞭抽得她衣衫破裂,条条血痕清晰地浮现,血迹斑斑,惨不忍睹,她痛面色惨白,紧咬着樱唇,陷入半昏迷状态。柳儿站在一旁,低声啜泣,怜儿,媚儿冷冷的看着鞭刑,眼里尽是快意…………
  • 深层心理学

    深层心理学

    我们认为无法克服的心灵痛苦,是源于在遥远儿时耳濡目染的悲剧故事,并在不知不觉中转换为悲剧故事中的主角,无法自拔。而这种微妙与隐形地转换,又是源于与母亲的身心分离,对述事者的妥协。社会的喧嚣,使得人们总是容易忘记,在母亲地怀抱中,是如何好奇而非沉溺地看待那些悲剧,就像听母亲讲故事一般,轻描淡写着随风而去……QQ群:833726376知乎“心灵化学”答主一对一咨询。
  • 内经评文

    内经评文

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 脱单公寓

    脱单公寓

    一间公寓,挤着四个叽叽喳喳的女生。大女王、绿茶女、傻白甜、面瘫死宅。一间公寓,迎来送往无数奇葩男。肌肉男、妈宝男、程序猿。一间公寓,发生着稀奇古怪的爱情故事。合租在公寓1013号房的大女王吕芒、绿茶女苏小茶、傻白甜白可人和死宅庄斯斋为了解决房租和人生大事问题,决定腾出公寓的一个房间招租,并为此准备了一条招租启示。“招租要求:品质好、相貌端,独立自主不妈宝姐控、三观向上经济能力佳,无婚史无负债无不良嗜好、会做饭会洗衣会喂娃遛狗,打游戏时让着人、看电影时不剧透、吃西瓜留下瓜瓤、早晚接送上下班,尤其每月定期有几天特别爱干活的中年适婚男性。”没错,她们就是要在这间公寓摆脱单身。
  • 重生从传奇开始

    重生从传奇开始

    这一年,欧元在欧盟各成员国范围内正式发行。这一年,盐湖城冬季奥运会在美国盐湖城举行。这一年,瓦良格号历经2年8个月时间,终于回到祖国。这一年,中国男足首次进入世界杯的决赛圈,五星巴西诞生。这一年,卫家回到了这里,开始了他的传奇!
  • 赵小刀下山

    赵小刀下山

    嗯,实际我自己也不知道自己写的是个什么玩意儿。
  • 让学生勤奋好学的故事(让学生受益一生的故事)

    让学生勤奋好学的故事(让学生受益一生的故事)

    勤奋好学是求知启智的根本途径,也是育人成才的重要条件。本书从“乐学好学”、“刻苦勤学”、“勤学苦练”、“立志勤学”、“虚心好学”、“自学成才”等方面,精选了众多勤奋好学的故事。希望通过阅读本书,能更好地帮助青少年朋友养成勤奋好学的好习惯。用知识来充实自己,武装自己,做一名合格的社会主义事业接班人。本书选取青少年易于接受、便于理解的内容,每个故事结尾都有一个小总结,以加深对故事思想内容的理解,并结合当前形势,告诉青少年应该怎样做,这对于他们人生观和道德观的形成,将起到潜移默化、春风化雨的作用。
  • 凰启元

    凰启元

    赫家有原配十八,个个有出将入相之才!奈何时不予惜,后世君子贤人无不痛惜!
  • 拉斐尔艺术(全集)

    拉斐尔艺术(全集)

    1520年4月7日,拉斐尔在罗马病逝.年仅37岁。他的身后留下了尚未完成的《圣容显现》等画作以及梵蒂冈宫殿的装饰工作。然而,大师死后一百年里.他的艺术作品越过阿尔卑斯山脉,跨过浩瀚的地中海,影响了整个欧洲的艺术风气。从拉斐尔留下的数封罕见的书信中,我们得以更进一步地了解大师的性格。从后人对他的追随和批判中,我们得以更深入地了解拉斐尔的一生对世界艺术的贡献与影响。而在大师的诗作中,我们更能领会他对生命的感悟:“…日夜轮转,太阳总在西沉之后重新升起,而在无言之中,我的死亡悄然降临。”