A few hours later the cattle were turned loose just outside the big pasture beyond the lake, and the little hunting party rode up to the ranch, its mission accomplished.
[CHAPTER XXV]
THE DANCE AT THE SCHOOLHOUSE
The weeks went by. Haying time came and all hands were busy cutting, hauling and stacking. The winter had been one of heavy snows, and water was plentiful in the irrigating ditches. Rains had been more frequent than usual that spring and summer, and in many a little meadow, too small for fencing, there was a growth of grass worth cutting. One of the labors of the summer about which the men growled bitterly was the never-ending work of keeping the range cattle away from these little unfenced pieces, in order to protect the growing grass. The cattle returned again and again to these patches of fresh green grass, and the men were forced to exercise constant vigilance to keep them off the meadows.
At last the haying was over. The stacks were all protected from the wind and carefully fenced against ravages of the range stock. Now the nights were growing shorter and cooler; sometimes there was a frost, with a skim of ice. The leaves of the aspens began to turn yellow. Down on the lake the broods of young ducks which had been reared there were gradually being added to by the arrivals of early migrants from the north. The last time Jack and Donald went out on the mountains for fresh meat for the house, they had killed a bull elk whose horns, though still wearing the velvet, were full-grown and hard, and the animal was fat. September was at hand, and before many days Jack would be obliged to turn his face eastward and get back to college and work.
"Well, boys," Mr. Sturgis said one morning at breakfast, "it's about time for us to gather our beef and start it in to the railroad. We ought to find it all pretty close at home, and I hope we can begin to-morrow, and gather it and take it to the railroad in short order."
The day was devoted to getting up the horses and preparing the wagon for the short trip, for early the next morning they were to start for a little stream twelve or fifteen miles away, where there was a corral and a good camping place. Hugh had declared that on this trip he would drive the team and would cook, and Jack, Donald, Jack Mason, Rube and Mr. Sturgis were to gather the beef.
Donald, who had become reasonably skilful with the rope and at home on a cow horse, declared that if Hugh could cook he could wrangle the horses, and that he would do that in addition to his riding. It was not likely that there would be any night herding to be done. The beeves, as they were cut out in considerable bunches, could be sent back to the ranch and held in the pasture for a short time; while the horse bunch would be likely to stay with the old bell mare that most of them knew so well.