【英文原著类】THE HERITAGE OF THE SIOUX(西欧克丝的传统).pdf

THE HERITAGE OF THE SIOUX
THE HERITAGE OF
THE SIOUX
by . Bower
1
THE HERITAGE OF THE SIOUX
CHAPTER I. WHEN GREEN
ES
Old Applehead Furrman, jogging home across the mesa from
Albuquerque, sniffed the soft breeze that came from opal-tinted distances
and felt poignantly that spring was indeed here. The grass, thick and green
in the sheltered places, was fast painting all the higher ridges and foot-hill
slopes, and with the green grass came the lank-bodied, big-kneed calves;
which meant that. roundup time was at hand. Applehead did not own more
than a thousand head of cattle, counting every hoof that walked under his
brand. And with the incipient lethargy of old age creeping into his habits
of life, roundup time was not with him the important season it once had
been; for several years he had been content to hire a couple of men to
represent him in the roundups of the larger outfits--men whom he could
trust to watch fairly well his interests. By that method he avoided much
trouble and hurry and hard work--and escaped also the cares e
with wealth.
But this spring was not as other springs had been. Something--whether
an awakened ambition or an access of sentiment regarding range matters,
he did not know--was stirring the blood in Applehead's veins. Never, since
the days when he had been a cowpuncher, had the wide spaces called to
him so alluringly; never had his mind dwelt so insistently upon the
approach of spring roundup. Perhaps it was because he heard so much
range talk at the ranch, where the boys of the Flying U were foregathered
in uneasy idleness, their fingers itching for the feel of lariat ropes and
branding irons while they gazed out over the wide spaces of the mesa.
So much good rangeland unharnessed by wire fencing the Flying U
boys had not seen for many a day. During the winter they had been content
to ride over it merely for the purpose of helping to make a motion picture
of the range, but with ing of green grass,