DELBERT BRIGGS 22

the next morning delbert was building a hat full of fire along side the corral fence. he had saddle two horses that morning norma came walking to the corral and stood watching him feed the fire and place the branding irons in it. "get on your horse and rope a calf and drag it up here." delbert said without looking up. " are you nuts? i never done anything like that in my life!"norma almost yelled. " then its time you start. you watched dad do it, just try to immulate him. dont worry about how long it takes. just take your time and catch them around the neck if you need to. just the little ones. i got lots of wood so you can take all the time you want."delbert smiled at her. norma went to her horse and pulled his cinchas snug then mounted. picking up her rope she fumbled with it but got a loop made and the coils on the left side of her horse with the bridle reins threaded through her fingers. "are you sure about this? what if i mess up?" she asked delbert. " if you mess up then we will clean up the mess and start over. just ride slow and swing slow. when you catch one dont look at your saddle horn. just drop your hand down and feel for it the dally when you know where it is." delbert explained. it tool norma five loops to catch her first calf. but she did as delbert instructed and after dallying turned her horse toward the fire and drug the clf up to dlbert. as she came past him he dropped his left elbow over the rope and slid down to the calf. he pushed his left knee between the calves front legs and steped around and reeaching over the calf s back grabbed a hand full of flank. the calf bawled and made a little jump and when it did delbert rolled the calf ovver his knees and dropped him flat on the ground where he tied three legs together. he pulled normas rope off and smile at her" see? peice of cake. go get another one while i brand this one" it took almost all day to brand the little calves but as time progressed norma improved a little with each loop. delbert could see self confidence creeping into her with each calf she roped. when they had finished branding the little calves there was eight un branded bigger animals three being mothers of some of the calves. " we will wait until dad gets here to do those. we can put these in the holding trap and go after more tomorrow." delbert explained. norma was rubbing her shoulder " ill need to get used to this i think." " you did great." delbert told her.