orders to Carlos—­who was the chief of the Rancheros, and the man who managed the farm during the absence of his employer—­and an hour or two afterward four quarters of fine beef would be carried into the cellar, or Mr. Winters would be requested to step to the door and see if they had captured the horse he wanted.  The Rancheros accomplished this with their lassos, which they carried suspended from the horns of their saddles wherever they went.  A lasso is a long rope, about as large as a clothes-line, and is generally made of rawhide.  One end of it is fastened to the saddle, and the other, by the aid of a strong iron ring, formed into a running noose.  This contrivance these herdsmen could use with a skill that was astonishing.  Mounted on their fleet horses, they would ride up behind a wild steer, and catch him by the horns, around his neck, or by one of his feet, as suited their fancy.

On the morning we find Frank and Archie on the porch, their nearest neighbor, also a stock-raiser, had ridden over to inform them that one of his fine steers, which he had intended to drive to market, had escaped from his Rancheros, and joined one of Mr. Winters’s droves; whereupon Frank, who, in the absence of his uncle, acted as the head man of the ranch, sent for Carlos, and commanded him to capture the runaway, and confine him in the cow-pen until his owner should send for him.  Carlos had obeyed the first part of the order, but just then it seemed that that was all he could do.  The steer had suddenly taken it into his head that he had been driven far enough, and that he would not go through the gate that led into the cow-pen; and, although Carlos pulled him by his lasso, which he had thrown over his horns, and another Ranchero, named Felix, vigorously applied a whip from behind, the obstinate animal refused to budge an inch.  Sometimes he would kick, and plunge, and try to run off; and then the horse on which Carlos was mounted, which seemed to understand the business quite as well as his master, would plant his fore-feet firmly on the ground to stop him.  Finding that he could not effect his escape in that way, the steer would run around in a circle; and the horse would turn around also, keeping his face toward the animal all the while, and thus avoid being wrapped up in the lasso.  This novel battle had been going on for nearly ten minutes, and even Frank had become highly excited over it.

“Pull him along, Carlos!” shouted Archie, jumping about on the porch as if he had lost all control over his legs, and they would dance in spite of every thing he could do to prevent it.  “Pull him along!  Whip up behind, Felix; hit him hard!”

Archie continued to shout his orders at the top of his voice; but they did not seem to help the matter any, for the steer still refused to move.  He had fallen to his knees, and laid his head close to the ground, as if he had deliberately resolved that he would remain there; and for a long time, all the pulling and whipping the two Rancheros could do, brought nothing from him but angry snorts and shakes of the head.