Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 26: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

CHAPTER II. CHASED BY A PRAIRIE FIRE. Sitting there by the bright camp-fire, the boy from the East forgot his fatigue and the hazardous ad- venture through which he had recently come. He listened like one charmed while Karl told in simple, though graphic language, what manner of life a prairie lad led, his rough experiences, his dan- serous work when in the midst of a stampeding, fear-crazed herd of cattle, his lonely vigil when serv- ing as night wrangler for the camp, watching the horses or mules while they fed, and defending them against the attacks of wild animals, or, it might be horse thieves with a red skin. How Cuthbert hung breathlessly upon every word! ‘This was what he had long yearned to experience; and now that there seemed a fair chance of his being gradually intro- duced to the characters constituting the drama of ranch and range, the old enthusiasin leaped up anew. In imagination he scoured the limitless prairie on the fleetest of bronchos, shied his trusty rope through the air, singling out his victim and bring- ing him down with unerring precision, fought the wild prairie fire, breasted the fierce blizzard in the effort to save the stunned and starving cattle—all these and more he had read about, and now had painted for him in plain but forcible language by one who, though but a stripling like himself, had passed through the checkered career of herdsman, wrangler and cowboy. There were other events even less pleasant, of which Karl said little—of desperate battles with In- dians on their periodical raids or encounters with comiclboolks.c©