The Little Fellow, who under the provisions of the homestead act began to push West arid, to depart farther and farther from the protecting lines of the railways, could locate land and water for himself and fence in both.

"I've got the law back of me," was what he said; and what he said was true.

Around the old cow camps of the trails, and around the young settlements which did not aspire to be called cow camps, the homesteaders fenced in land--so much land that there came to be no place near any of the shipping-points where a big herd from the South could be held.

Along the southern range artificial barriers to the long drive began to be raised.

It would be hard to say whether fear of Texas competition or of Texas cattle fever was the more powerful motive in the minds of ranchers in Colorado and Kansas.