Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTEB III THE FIKST DAY'S WORK Befoee starting out from Hillsboro we branded the pack burros. They were all "broncs" caught wild in the hills and quite unmanageable. The job, in consequence, was fraught with a certain amount of excitement. Since we were anxious to be on our way, every one—including Ewing, who showed up bright and early, apparently none the worse for his "day of rest"—turned in and helped. But it was, notwithstanding, a matter of considerable difficulty to rope and hog-tie the score of restive jackasses and to hold down each one in turn while the packers, who wielded the branding irons, seared a large ".U. S." on the neck of the prostrate "jack" or "jinny." Wetherby, of us all, took the occasion most seriously. He approached the conflict with a purposeful mien worthy of a crusader, and expended a tremendous amount of energy during the morning; though his chief utility lay, after it was all over, in having furnished us with a laugh that lingered in our minds many a day. He elected in the beginning to wield a rope, alleging familiarity with the art, but the astute burros eluded his feverish casts withcareless ease, ducking perfunctorily whenever the loop by any chance threatened to fall in the vicinity of one of their number. Whereat Horace would carefully recoil his rope and swear mightily. He was, he assured us, a "fearful blasphemer." After a time the unsuccessful roper decided that his methods were too precipitate. He selected an inoffensive-looking jinny with drooping ears and began a policy of stealthy and insidiously slow advances. He stalked his victim, infinitely cautious, until within a few yards, then with a yell of triumph rushed upon her and holding the noose in both hands dropped it over her head. ''I've got one! I've got one!" he shouted...