Chapter I: Preface

This is a true tale of a boy's life in the West twenty-five years ago. It is an account of his amusements, his trials, his work, his play. The incidents described actually happened and are described substantially as "the boy" related them to the writer.

The "wild and woolly" West is fast vanishing, and a great deal of the adventurous life is going with it. Buffalo hunts are things of the past; encounters with Indians that were experienced in the time of John Worth's boyhood are now happily very rare; railroads have penetrated the cattle country, and vast herds of cattle are no longer driven long distances to the shipping point, so that the consequent danger, hardship, and excitement are largely done away with.

In places the great prairies have been fenced, in others grain grows where heretofore only buffalo, cattle, and horses ranged, and much of the free, wild life of the cowboy, the ranchman, and the miner is gone for all time.

It is hoped that this book will be of interest, not because of its novelty but of its truthfulness. The author feels that the story of a boy who has passed through the stern training of a frontier life to an honorable place in an Eastern university will be acceptable to boys young and old.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

I. AN INDIAN ATTACK 1

II. THE YOUNG BRAVE'S DARING 20

III. A NARROW ESCAPE 36

IV. HITTING THE TRAIL 54

V. IN A MINING CAMP 73

VI. A SNOWSHOE RACE 91

VII. A BUFFALO HUNT 106

VIII. A CLOSE FINISH 122

IX. A "BAD MAN'S" END 140

X. BATTLE ROYAL 157

XI. A TRYING JOURNEY 177

XII. A CHANGE OF SCENE 195

XIII. HERDING HORSES AND PANNING GOLD 214

XIV. A MIGRATION 229

XV. "RANGE-RIDING" 245

XVI. A BRONCHO BUSTER 261

XVII. A COW-PUNCHER IN EARNEST 273

XVIII. A MIDNIGHT STAMPEDE 289

XIX. AN AWAKENING 304

XX. A TRANSFORMATION 317

XXI. TWELVE HUNDRED MILES AWHEEL TO COLLEGE 331

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

A XXX BUNCH _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE

MOUNTING A BUCKING BRONCHO 14

GLANCING OVER SAW AN INDIAN VILLAGE 32

CUSTER'S COMMAND 50

THE TAIL OF THE COOK'S WAGON WAS LET DOWN 62

THE STOCK OF THE RIFLE RESTED CLOSELY AGAINST HIS CHEEK 86

BEN WENT OVER TO WHERE THE GAME LAY 86

ROPING AN UNBROKEN HORSE 98

"CROW HAT'S FACING THIS WAY" 104

THE INDIAN CAMP 104

THE BIGGEST GAME THE COUNTRY AFFORDED 118

A SQUAW ... JUST SAW SOME BUFFALO 118

A SHEPHERD ... ALONE WITH HIS FLOCK 136

A DIFFICULT TASK IF THERE ARE MANY LAMBS IN THE FLOCK 146

MR. WORTH HAD BUILT FOR HIMSELF A NEW HOUSE 158

THE SHEEP RANCH HOUSE 158

HE ... BUCKS, PITCHES, KICKS 170

CURRAN, BRADY'S NIGHT WRANGLER 190

THE MEN BROKE UP INTO LITTLE GROUPS 210

A ROPE CORRAL WAS DRAWN ABOUT THE SADDLE BAND 220

EACH MAN TOOK HIS ROPE AND FLUNG IT OVER THE HORSE HE WANTED 236

A LITTLE BOX OF A CABIN IT WAS 248

THE SNUBBING POST HOLDS HIM FAST 264

JERRY TAKES IN THE SLACK 264

JOHN KNOTS THE ROPE LOOSELY ROUND HIS NECK 264

ROPED 278

THROWN 278

WHOSE IS IT? A QUESTION OF OWNERSHIP 278

DRAGGED IT UP TO THE FIRE 290

... WHILE THE IRON WAS APPLIED 290

HERDS WERE POURING IN FROM EVERY DIRECTION 308

THE DRIVE ... FORDING A STREAM 320

THE SUN RIVER RANCH HOUSE 334

* * * * *

MARGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS BY JANET MAC DONALD.

The drawings of beaver, etc., on pages 75, 84, and 90, by Ernest Seton Thompson are reproduced through the courtesy of _Recreation_.

CATTLE RANCH TO COLLEGE.