throat, and his sight began to blur. Bradley-Hampton's fashionable store reared its unfriendly front in the distance. Peanuts began to waver. All at once, the fruits of his victory were turning to bitterness. They had passed Bings' place and were half way across the street, when he caught the agent by the hand and swung him around. "There," said Peanuts, thickly, "is the best and cheapest store in town." His lips quivered dangerously, and with a guilty feeling he slipped away and ran up the alley to his home. Bings was a business man from the word "go; so was the agent. They bargained and dickered for an hour or more, but in the end Bings had an order such as the town of Hubbel's Corners had seldom seen delivered. It took them all day, with help of an "extra man," to get it out. After the dealings were over, and the "What kind of a day did you have, Bings." agent was struggling with one of "Bings' Best" cigars, Peanuts appeared on the opposite corner, demonstrating to a crowd of onlookers the wondrous feat of swinging a pail of milk over his head "without spilling a drop." "Smart kid, that," said the agent. "It was him touted me onto your joint. He cracked you up to beat the band." Bings' jaw dropped-the coals of fire were beginning to burn. Evening came, with its usual gathering of small boys on the corner. The main topic of discussion was the big order Bings sold the circus. Peanuts, standing in their midst, was strangely silent about the whole affair. A hush fell on the crowd. The subject of their conversation was coming down the street. "Hello, Bings;" "Howdy, Bings;" "Evening, Bings," a dozen voices chorused; Peanuts never spoke. The great man pushed his way through the crowd to where Peanuts stood, and holding out his hand, said, "Peanuts, I'm sorry I done it." Just a moment Peanuts paused for the audience to grasp the full significance of the apology, and then, his face beaming with the joy of reconcilliation, he slapped his dirty hand into the grocer's big palm, and said: "All right, Bings; we'll call it square." A few moments later, the two sat in blissful and contented silence on the steps, and Peanuts inquired, slyly : "What kind of a day did you have, Bings?" "A whopper," said Bings. One by one the boys disappeared; sounds of play and rioting were stilled. Nothing broke the silence save the trilling of insects and the drowsy chirping of the night-birds. The golden flush of sunset faded in to the azure of night, and peace reigned throughout the world. The great Bings-Peanuts feud was ended. The Passing of the Bull-Whacker By Sumner W. Matteson With Photographs by the Author HE days of "bull-whacking" in of buffalo and little else would always the West are over, and those abound on the plains, seemed to find of distant freighting by horses pleasure in ruthless slaughter and wanare numbered. But a half cen- ton waste. Scarcely six years later, the tury ago, the '49-ers might have white man suddenly realized that there been seen "Gee, Haw-ing" their strings was not a single herd of any size left of oxen across the Great Plains. Rest- in that country, and in 1882 the last less spirits, those, who, attracted by the shipment of hides was made from the glitter of California's gold, invaded the Yellowstone and the country north. realm of a hostile foe, and, if spared a cruel death at the hands of Indian hordes, oft met a worse fate in the drought of a desert waste. Many tarried in fair Colorado, and for a time "Pike's Peak or Bust" was the familiar response to "Whither bound?" In '69, the Union Pacific Railway pushed through from the Missouri River to Ogden, Utah. and sounded the death knell of the transcontinental overland emigrant. Even then, countless herds of buffalo blackened the plains, and often impeded traffic by road and rail. They furnished food, raiment and shelter for the roving bands of Indians that literally camped on their trails, while the emigrants, having no thought but that large herds When nature provided less, it became necessary for man to provide more, and as the country gradually became settled, overland stage and freight routes were established from railroad and river points for several hundred miles into the interior. Then followed other trunk lines with a network of branches, and a development of indus THE PABLO HERD OF 300 BUFFALO-On the Flathead Indian Reservation, Montana. Helena, and even into the British Northwest. Of recent years, the longest haul has been from the Judith Basin to Great Falls, Montana, a distance of 135 miles; yet even now the railroad grades into this section are well under way, and before another year Lewiston will boast of a branch road in full op eration. So, year after year, the freighter finds his domain invaded and his livelihood taken from him, yet is not sorry, if he is fit for and able to secure other work elsewhere. In the wool season, he is paid 75 cents per hundred weight, or $150.00 for a load of 20,000 pounds. It is not possible to make two trips in a month, nor at this season to secure a return load, excepting possibly of building material at a nominal price, while at other times no freight to the railroad is available excepting an occasional load of empty beer cases. Figuring grain for fifteen horses at $3.00 per diem, and the larder of the driver at 50 cents, $70.00 of our $150.00 is eaten up more than a bare living at this, one of the hardest kinds of work. And in this country skilled labor in other lines commands from $3.00 to $8.00 per diem. As for accidents: Within the past year a freighter on the Judith Basin road was prostrated by a stroke of lightning, and recovered only to find that the bolt had burned a hole down through his wool sacks to the lead chain, and following this had killed all twelve horses pulling, and the saddle horse trailing. Now that there is no longer any danger from raids by Indians and horse thieves, and with the country partially settled, the work is perhaps less hazardous than formerly, yet there still remains the danger in managing fractious beasts and the hardships of a fickle climate. With a change of wind from a "Chinook" to a "Norther," one actually see the mercury drop anywhere from 60 deg. above to 40 deg. below zero within a day, and without warning. Some seasons the range suffers from fires and MAKING THE RETURN TRIP WITH A PARTIAL LOAD-The freighter's At early dawn the freighter arouses himself, his first concern being, not for his clothes, as he has slept in them, but for his horses, that may have wandered miles away in search of better feed. The camp horse, which alone has been kept up, is quickly saddled, and a hasty examination of the fresh tracks gives a clue to the course taken by the horses the night before, and ordinarily they are found and herded into camp within an hour's time. After being watered, they fall into their respective places and are grained from nose-bags while the freighter proceeds to adjust the harness. All is soon in readiness for another day's haul of from fifteen to twenty-five miles. On the road their progress must necessarily be slow, for they can never leave a walk, and on steep grades or other hard pulls the wagons must be uncoupled and taken up one at a time. On fair roads, the driver rides the nigh wheel horse and directs the lead team with a jerk-line, a steady pull turning to the left and a quick jerk to the right. He is, however, more apt to be running along side, whip in hand, lashing the laggards and endeavoring to make all pull together. The monotony and loneliness, and often the bitter cold on long trips leads to frequent indulgence in whiskey and other stimulants, and sooner or later a large percentage of freighters goes wrong through drink. Only this fall one lost his reason while on this road, and wan |