We shall see.
Very often after his return did I hear Master speaking of things he had seen in the "West," and while, like other men, he spoke often of the country and people, unlike them, he told of the dumb creation.
"You're a regular crank, Dick," Fred would say, "soft-hearted as a baby;" but then he would pat him on the shoulder, and I know that there has always been a tender reverence in his heart for this noble brother.
To me they were wonderful stories, those about the horses of the plains and the cattle of the ranches.
"Seeing is believing," Master said. "I went there in the fall when the creatures were in good condition, and watched every phase of their existence until they—or their survivors—were in the same condition again; but what they endured meanwhile no earthly computation could estimate; I doubt not the record is being all kept straight above.
"I made my headquarters with an old friend and schoolmate—one of the most humane ranchmen on the plains, I presume. I told him I wanted no varnish, but reality; and he said I should have it.
"He owns a large ranch, his nearest neighbor being eighteen miles distant. There is, in the clearing, the usual ranch-house, stables, sheds, horse corral and the like.
"Their horses all come from the wild ones, and a few of them become truly tame. My friend has one—old Mark—who follows him like a dog, and obeys him as readily as Dandy does me, but he is an exception. Sometimes those not in use wander off and are gone for months. When they find them they are as wild almost as ever, and have to be broken all over again. And this breaking was one of the things that seemed so inhuman to me, but you would not believe flesh and blood could stand what they do anyway, and live. And such looking creatures! apparently nothing but skin and muscle, and so hardy that men grow naturally, I suppose, to think they have no feeling. But to me they presented a piteous picture of dumb faithfulness and brute misery. Despite their hardiness, they are as capable of suffering as the man who rides them. Of course, old Mark can endure more hardships than Dandy, just as his master can endure more than I, but that does not alter the fact that we can all be overworked, abused and suffering.
"Immediately after breakfast the men on my friend's ranch gather the horses into the corral. In the centre is what they call the snubbing-post; here the men stand with ropes, and, as the animals race around the corral, they lasso the ones they want to use that day, and then the rest are turned loose again. Some of them get quite tame. I told Charley that if I were a ranchman I would have them every one obedient to my voice. He assured me that—as a rule—it ain't bronco nature.
"He had a professional breaker—'bronco busters,' they call them—break a few new horses while I was there, but I only watched the operation twice; that was quite enough for me. These 'busters' get big-wages, for their work is extremely dangerous, and they are always in such a hurry that what they do is done in the quickest way, which is generally the roughest.