. Philip of Texas; a story of sheep raising in Texas. lone to doour best at cutting the wild bull out from the herd,and ending his career with a rifle ball. We left our camp, without waiting for breakfast,believing in our ignorance that the hunt would notbe long; but very shortly after it began we under-stood that we had more of a task on our hands than hadbeen anticipated. To get within rifle shot of the herd seemed for a longtime an impossibility. No sooner would we come insight of the animals than up would go their tails andaway across the prairie all the cattle would dash as ifsuddenly gro
. Philip of Texas; a story of sheep raising in Texas. lone to doour best at cutting the wild bull out from the herd,and ending his career with a rifle ball. We left our camp, without waiting for breakfast,believing in our ignorance that the hunt would notbe long; but very shortly after it began we under-stood that we had more of a task on our hands than hadbeen anticipated. To get within rifle shot of the herd seemed for a longtime an impossibility. No sooner would we come insight of the animals than up would go their tails andaway across the prairie all the cattle would dash as ifsuddenly grown wild. ODD HUNTING Then it was necessary to creep up on them, stalkingthe huge creatures as carefully as we might have hunteddeer; but so wild were they that the least incautiousmovement when we were creeping through the grass,wriggling along like snakes, would provoke a snort ofterror, and away the whole herd would go again. More than once I urged father to turn back, sayingwe might drive our own cattle entirely across the re- io8 PHILIP OF TEXAS. public of Texas, and finally lose them, if we continuedour efforts. I pointed out to him that already we wereat least five or six miles from home and had not hadour breakfast; but he replied grimly that if we wouldsave our own stock, it was necessary to put an endto the career of that black bull, who seemed pos-sessed by the spirit of mischief, or the tame cattlemight grow so wild it would be impossible to herdthem. We made our way slowly at times, and again we ranswiftly if there was no danger of being seen by thebeasts, for not less than fifteen miles, when we came to A SUPPLY OF FRESH MEAT 109 a pecan grove in which we hid ourselves, with the ideaof resting from the exertion of the chase. While we sat there concealed by the foliage, thevery animal we were so eager to kill led the herd directlytoward us. He kept on feeding leisurely twenty orthirty paces in advance of the others, and snifEng theair with each mouthful. Fortunately
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectfrontierandpioneerli
