Brown Jug still ran gamely and displayed as much interest as ever, but he was evidently tiring.

We were both glad to see Homer's grey showing in the fringe of mesquite.
Together we soon succeeded in throwing the cows into the main herd.
And, strangely enough, as soon as they had joined a compact band of their fellows, their wildness left them and, convoyed by outsiders, they set themselves to plodding energetically toward the home ranch.
As my horse was somewhat winded, I joined the "drag" at the rear.

Here by course of natural sifting soon accumulated all the lazy, gentle, and sickly cows, and the small calves.

The difficulty now was to prevent them from lagging and dropping out.

To that end we indulged in a great variety of the picturesque cow-calls peculiar to the cowboy.