Fred Fearnot's New Ranch Read online

morning sun can do me no harm, for it has hardly got itseyes open yet."

  "All right; open the gate, Joe," and the dairyman went to the outer gateand held it open for them to pass through.

  They went dashing down toward the spring, and when they reached thereFred dismounted, went to where a big, native-raised gourd was hanging toa bush, dipped it full of the water and handed it up to her.

  She drank copiously of it, smacked her lips and said:

  "Oh, my, Fred! I can taste both sulphur and iron plainly."

  "Yes, those ingredients are the strongest in its composition, if it werenearer town it would become a the place of resort."

  "Well, you must make it one, anyway. You must lay off the groundsbeautifully, thin out the timber somewhat so flowers will grow and yetleave enough to form plenty of shade. Then if you build a few cottages,or maybe a hotel, it would easily become a resort--that is, if I am anyjudge of the water. It tastes perfectly delicious to me, and really Ibelieve that it will finally prove the most valuable part of the ranch."

  Then Fred led the way further down the road in a southerly direction,skirting the timber, and at almost every ten feet quail and prairiechickens flew up out of their way.

  After they had gone about a couple of miles Evelyn suddenly sawsomething running through the tall grass as if trying to avoid beingseen.

  "Fred." said she, "aren't those wolves out there?"

  "Where?" and Fred gazed in the direction in which she was pointing.

  He could barely catch a glimpse of their backs through the tall grass.

  "I guess they are coyotes," he said. "Let's give them a race," and heput spurs to his horse and dashed off after them. Evelyn, of course,followed, for she was quite as good a rider as he.

  To his surprise, he gained on them, and he knew that the coyote wasabout the swiftest little animal of the kind anywhere, so he supposedthat the tall grass was impeding their progress.

  When he urged his horse faster the brutes turned, growled, showed theirfangs and stood at bay.

  "Great Scott, Evelyn!" he exclaimed, "they are timber wolves!" and hishorse showed fear of them.

  Evelyn reined up her horse right alongside of Fred.

  "Why, Fred," said she, "they seem to be defying us, which is a mightybold thing for them to do in the open daylight."

  "Yes, indeed; but they saw that we were gaining on them. Luckily I havemy revolver in my pocket," and with that he drew the weapon and againdashed toward the wolves, who seemed to be full of fight. When withinfifteen feet of them he fired and the wounded wolf yelped with pain,while his mate seemed on the point of charging upon them. He fired thesecond time and the bullet crashed through the wolf's head. They bothgave a single yelp, sank down in the grass and did a little kicking. Thefirst one he had shot at hadn't been hit in a vital spot.

  So he stood by snarling and showing his fangs until another shotstretched him on the ground alongside of his mate.

  "Why, Fred," said Evelyn, as she rode up and looked at them after theywere dead, "is it possible that they come up so near the houses on theranch?"

  "Well, I never saw them up so far this way before. I fear that they cameup during the night in search of a calf, and I dare say if we searcharound we can find a dead calf half devoured somewhere in theneighborhood; but we won't stop to look for it. We will go back to thehouse and send two cowboys down here to get the wolves' pelts, for wealways let them have the pelts of any wild beasts that we kill." So theyrode back to the house, and just as Terry and Jack were placingbreakfast on the table Fred dismounted and assisted Evelyn to theground. She ran into the house, while Fred went to the stable with thetwo horses and sent word around by the stableman to two of the cowboysto go down and get the pelts of the two wolves and make a search for theremains of any cow or calf that the wolves had probably killed duringthe night.

  Before he returned to the house Evelyn had acquainted Terry with theresult of their ride.

  "I'm not surprised at it," said Terry. "Before we placed cattle on thetwo ranches wolves were rarely seen in this part of the locality. Theycome up from the river bottom, some thirty miles away, and I guess wewill have to have a grand wolf hunt pretty soon. Jack's and ours are theonly ranches between here and the river. There are farms, though; butthey don't raise cattle enough to tempt the wolves to leave the swamp,and they kept their hogs pretty well protected by wire fences. I amsurprised, though, that only two wolves were seen, for generally they goin gangs for protection. As a general thing they are afraid of thelong-horned cattle, and they rarely attack the grown ones; but theymanage to catch calves quite often, for these long-horned cattle cantoss a wolf high in the air and probably give him his death-wound."

  Fred came in and then they sat down to the table, on which was friedprairie chicken and broiled quail.

  "Oh, my! such an appetite as I have," said Evelyn, "and I don't think Iever sat down to a more appetizing meal in my life."

  Her cheeks were like roses, for the brisk ride in the morning air hadflushed them beautifully.

  "Terry, just look at those cheeks," said Fred, "did your ever see themglow more than now?"

  "Oh, they'll glow every morning down here if she takes rides beforebreakfast."

  They all ate heartily. Jack delighted in cooking since the new range hadbeen put up.

  Terry was an expert at broiling quail and any other kind of game, andthey had fresh butter and milk.

  "Brother," Evelyn said, during the meal, "last night Fred said that youwould have to go to town to buy a piano. Are you going?"

  "Yes, I guess I will."

  "Then I want you to take several balls of this butter to severaldifferent ladies in town as presents from me and tell them that I wantthem to pick out a good cook for me. Not that I am too lazy to do thecooking myself, but because we will need a good, strong colored woman todo household and laundry work."

  "Sensible!" remarked Fred.

  "Then bring one or two young ladies down with you," he added.

  "Oh, you needn't bring anybody down vet. I'm not becoming lonesome yetby any means. I don't believe I would ever get lonesome with chickensand cows and pigs and, ducks to look after."

  "My, sister! are you going to take all that responsibility on yourshoulders?"

  "Yes, for I'm going to be boss of the entire ranch, boys and all."

  "Good! Good!" exclaimed Fred.

  "Fred, don't whoop until you get out of the woods," said Terry, "for youwill soon find out her style of bossing. You will find her sitting onthe fence somewhere yelling to you to do this and to do that, and bequick about it. I know what it is to work for a girl boss, so I will besure that we'll get competent help if it can be had. I want to do alittle bossing myself."

  As soon as Evelyn could fix up five or six pounds of the rich, goldenbutter, pressed into pound cakes, Terry took the bucket in which she hadplaced them and waited for the first freight train that came along.Nearly a score of trains passed the ranch every twenty-four hours, goingeither east or west, it was about an hour's ride from the ranch toCrabtree. Terry sent the cakes of butter to the ladies whom Evelynwanted to have them and delivered her message to the effect that shewould be glad to have them find her a good, all-around cook and houseservant.

  Mrs. Westervelt, the wife of the railroad superintendent, said that sheknew a cook who would fill the bill.

  "Send for her at once, please, madam, and tell her to get ready to movedown to the ranch within a day or two. We will give her good wages and,besides, allow her to make money out of the cowboys by doing theirwashing, if she wishes to."

  "Mr. Olcott," she asked, "did your sister make this butter?"

  "No, she hasn't started that yet, but let me tell you there is no woman,North or South, who can beat her at butter making."

  CHAPTER VII.

  FRED AND TERRY AFTER CATTLE THIEVES.

  Terry, being a good judge of musical instruments, went to a music storein Crabtree, ran his fingers over the keys of half a dozen differentpianos, and quickly
made his selection. Then he purchased a splendidviolin, paying seventy-five dollars for it, which was the most costlyviolin that was ever sold in Crabtree, for he was very fond of goodviolin music. Then he bought a guitar, a banjo and a splendid flute. Thedealer promised to send them all down to the ranch the next day.

  "I'll take the violin and the flute myself," said Terry.

  "Mr. Olcott," said the dealer, "we have a large selection of vocal andinstrumental music. Would you like to look over it to make someselections?"

  "Haven't time," he replied. "Sister may have a big quantity of her oldmusic in her trunk, but if she didn't bring any down with her she cancome down here some day