THE JACKASS ROPERS 14

the next morning early dan gave travis and his son directions to the lake pleasent camp site. they loaded up and left. dan was unloading the supplys for ellen . as she walked up he took her hand and plopped a box of rifle ammunition it it. ellen smile and said thank you. " is that what it takes to get you to smile once in a while?"dan asked. ellen ducked her head " the past few years i havent had a lot to smile about. i guess i got out of the habit." after carrying all the supplys in the house dan locked the dogs up in the saddle room and started his truck. ellen came over to him as he got in" anything you need done while your gone?" " just keep the lions at bay and dont let lizzie bring home a new boy friend." dan smiled .ellen broke up laughing. " ill try to be back in a week or so. just to check on you."dan dropped the truck in gear and drove off . ellen stood there waveing. dans arm went out the window in a wave as he drove away. when travis and dusty pulled into the camp ground at lake pleasent the first thing they saw was twenty donkeys gathered around the hay stack helping their selves to the alphalfa.travis pulled to one side of the ground and the two unloaded their horses and tied them to the trailer. then saddled rope horses and pulled on their chaps. dureing all this the donkeys payed no attention. the portable corral was behind the donkeys. so the cowboys approached the donkeys from the front ropees at the ready. the donkeys had to be pushed away from the stack of baled hay but still they didnt run. travis and son simply waved their ropes at the donkeys and talked wuiet and kept pushing the donkeys toward the corral the donkeys milled around trying to find a way back to the hay stack. but when they were all in the portable corral the cowboys fell off their horses and scooted the panels together, lockung the donkeys in. " think we just made a weeks wages lad" travis told his son. as they turned to the truck another 15 donkeys appeared around the hay stack. " we cant pen these without loosing what we got. but i got a idea" travis told his son. travis would ride as close as possible to the bunch and reach out and rope a donkey. then drag him out in the open and dusty would heel the donky stretching him out. at that point travis would jump down and tie both front feet on the donky together, they repeated this routine until ten burros had been hobbled and stood around the camp ground. when dusty went for number eleven the last five moved away into the desert. while they were trying to figgure out how to get the roped burros into the corral dan pulled in. he stopped next to travis s trailer. he got out of his truck and stared in amazment at the corral and the donkeys standing around the flat. "you boys made pigs of your self it looks like. you bucking for a raise?" " we had to let five get away, we ran out of hobble rope. good thing you got here!" travis was grinning as he rolled a smoke.