WHERE JIMMY LIVES.
IMMY MASON lives on a ranche in Colorado. Do you know what a ranche is? It is a kind of farm,—not a farm for raising wheat and potatoes and oats and corn, but for rearing horses and cattle and sheep.
Jimmy's papa has about a hundred horses, as many cows, and a great many hundred sheep. He does not keep them in barns, or feed them with hay, but they roam over the hills, and feed on grass both in winter and summer.
Mr. Mason's house is five miles from any neighbor, and fifteen miles from town. There is no garden or fence round it, and there are no trees to be seen anywhere near. But there are wild flowers in abundance. One of them is a species of cactus. It bears beautiful yellow blossoms in summer, after which comes the fruit, a prickly pear, not good to eat. Another kind of cactus has crimson and scarlet blossoms, but no prickly pears.
Both of these plants are covered with sharp thorns and prickles. Jimmy thinks the blossoms are pretty; but he does not like to pick them. Can you guess why?
Where do you suppose Jimmy goes to school? Well, he goes to his mamma, and he has a very nice teacher. He never gets lonesome; for he has so much to do and so much to think about, that he has no time to be lonesome.
He helps his mother in the house, he takes care of the chickens, he makes friends with the sheep. When he gets a little bigger, he will ride on horseback and help his papa in taking care of the horses and cattle out on the hills.
EMMA MITCHELL.
