United States or Liberia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
It was the band of the Mavericks playing the regiment to camp; for the men were route-marching with their baggage. The rippling column swung into the level carts behind it divided left and right, ran about like an ant-hill, and ... 'But this is sorcery! said the lama. The plain dotted itself with tents that seemed to rise, all spread, from the carts.
"My Indian corn, though," began Halicarnassus; but I snapped him up before he was fairly under way. I had no idea of travelling in that direction. "What am I to do with all those baskets that I bought, I should like to know?" I asked, sharply. "What did you buy them for?" he asked in return. "To send cherries to the Hudsons and the Mavericks and Fred Ashley," I replied promptly.
He supposed strange irons were set now and then on the hide of an NL animal across the mountains but the branders had better not let him catch them at it! On the other hand, he would see to it that they did not catch him branding mavericks on his own range. To Tom that seemed fair enough, a give-and-take game of the rangeland.
Anxiety to learn soon made me an expert, and before the month ended I had caught and branded for myself over one hundred mavericks. Cattle were so worthless that no one went to the trouble to brand completely; the crumbs were acceptable to me, and, since no one else cared for them and I did, the flotsam and jetsam of the range fell to my brand.
'First by means of letters from the kindly priest whom we met in the camp of armed men; but he is now gone to his own country, and I sent the money to his brother. Colonel Creighton, who had succeeded to the trusteeship when Father Victor went to England with the Mavericks, was hardly the Chaplain's brother. 'But I do not well understand Sahibs' letters. They must be interpreted to me.
"That's a pleasure still to come," replied Frank. "But where's the fellow that tried to stab Bart? I don't see him anywhere. Seems as though the party isn't complete without him." They made inquiry of one of the guards. "Oh, that one," replied the guard. "They've roped him out from the rest of these mavericks and given him a hut all by himself. I guess he's thinking of making his will.
Then the colonel of the Mavericks, reading his newspaper diligently, and scenting Frontier trouble from afar, posted to the army headquarters and pled with the Commander-in-chief for certain privileges, to be granted under certain contingencies,; which contingencies came about only a week later, when the annual little war on the border developed itself and the colonel returned to carry the good news to the Mavericks.
The room was empty. In a corner, cased like the King of Dahomey's state umbrella, stood the regimental Colours. Dan lifted them tenderly and unrolled in the light of the candles the record of the Mavericks tattered, worn, and hacked.
Unbranded calves who had partly attained their growth, were termed "mavericks," and when the herds of different owners mingled, there was, usually, a division of the mavericks, since it could not be accurately told who owned them. The title maverick was derived from a stock man of that name, whose practice was to claim all unbranded calves in a herd.
We can't afford anything of that sort, you know." "All righty; but I'd shore like ter git a crack at some o' them mavericks," said Bud grudgingly. "They're all licked in their minds already," said Ted. "Of course, they're sore at losing their money, and if a dozen or more of them were to tackle you, you'd have a hard time getting away with it.
Word Of The Day