Excerpt from Cow-Country IN hot mid afternoon when the acrid, gray dust cloud kicked up by the listless plodding of eight thou sand cloven hoofs formed the only blot on the hard blue above the Staked Plains, an ox stumbled and fell awkwardly under his yoke, and refused to scramble up when his negro driver shouted and prodded him with the end of a willow gad. Call your master, Ezra, directed a quiet woman voice gone weary and toneless with the heat and two restless children. Don't beat the poor brute. He can't go any farther and carry the yoke, much less pull the wagon. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.