In the barns, Uncle James kept his riding and farm horses; the pasture was for the use of the half dozen cows which supplied the rancho with butter and milk; and the cow-pen was nothing more nor less than a prison, into which, in the spring of the year, all the young cattle and horses were driven and branded with the initials of the owner's name.

This was done so that Mr.Winters and his hired men might be able to recognize the stock anywhere.

The cattle sometimes strayed, and became mixed up with those of the neighbors, and the marks on their flanks showed to whom they belonged.
[Illustration] A fence around that farm would have been useless.

None of the cattle and horses had ever been handled, except when they were branded, and, consequently, they were very wild.

Sometimes they became frightened and stampeded; and then they behaved like a herd of buffaloes, which turn aside for nothing, and stop only when they are completely tired out.