look twice

a few years ago a friend of mine called and asked if I would help him gather and haul his little batch of steers to a local feedlot.  I think there was 40 head or so and they were in a little pasture up in the foothills of the chiricahua mountains. I think it was 4 sections or so. there was a creek runnin through the middle and the flats on each side were haired over with a good stand of mesquite. the creek bottom was dry and had a good stand of oak and sycamore trees.  the ground was rocky but not impassable. the corrals set in one corner where the cattle had to come to water.  my friend is a border trader and these cattle were left overs he had accumulated over the coarse of a years trading. they were gentle little Mexican herfords and charlois steers. when I arrived that morning for the gather there was another trader there who was a friend of my friend. we were aquainted but I didn't know much about him. he was rigged in a good set of NEW gear and had a pretty good kinda horses under him.  it was plain to see that his chaps and cowboy saddle hadn't seen much use in the brush.  my friend explained the lay of the pasture and asked me to work one side, his trader friend the other and he would work the creek bottom.  a couple hours later we were sitten in the gate of this chicken coop corral with 25 head of steers in the corral.  my friend asked his friend if he saw anything of the missing steers on his side and he replied he hadn't.  in a brushy deal like that, no matter who you are you will miss a few.   the young man decided he would haul the 25 steers to the feedlot while my friend and I looked for the missing cattle.  we split on the up hill side of the pasture . I took the area that our other friend rode and my friend worked the side I rode.  both of us would check into the creek at different times .  as I work my along  I kept seeing lots of cow tracks made the night before.  a set of fresh horse tracks was over the top of them. the closer to the corrals I got the fresher the cow tracks got. when I was about a half mile from the corrals in a dense little mesquite infected area I began to find cattle bedded under those stunted mountain mesquite. that set of horse tracks went right through the middle of the cattle in a straight line to the now visable corrals.  I circled around the little batch of cattle , whistled and popped my chaps a time or two and 12 head of gentle little Mexican steers stood up, stretched and lined out for the corrals at a ambling walk.  when I got to the corrals the rest of the cattle were there watering. I knew then that ole kid with the new gear had been asleep when he rode through those cattle or just didn't look. he would never wear that gear out the way he worked!!