THE BRONC PEELER 2

the old man stood in the yard and watched as bily unsaddled his horse. altho a little on the hard side the brown horse was of high quality. he was well shod and you could tell well cared for. that was a point in billy s direction. billy washed and curry ed the animal before turning him into the corral. he found a open bale of hay in the barn and fed the weary animal. the old man turned and stumped back to his seat and returned to what he was doing but kept a eye on billy. when billy had put his gear away he grabbed a single saddle bag and started to the bunk house.it wasnt long before smoke appeared out of the stove pipe over the bunk house. it was mid morning but the old man realized that billy was cooking a meal. his horse was lean and hungry but billy must have been also but he still cared for the animal first. another point in his favour. at a time in the west when how well your horse was cared for it told you a lot about the man rideing him. in the bunk house billy was opening another can of beans and pouring them in the skillett. he hadnt eaten in two days. he had decided when in the town if he didnt find work he was going to rob the store there. he had been able to scrounge feed for his horse. but him, that was a different story. he wanted to be up and running tomorrow when the old mans partner returned and escorted him to the horse camp. billy was just past 30, a little on the long side of age to be rideing broncs. the cattle country was replaceing herds of horses with cattle. a rough, rank 5 year old broc didnt produce the cash flow of a good mother cow. he ate his head off and worked maybe six weeks in the spring and then another six in the fall. old timers like the old man sitting out side who still raised and kept those kind of horses were few and far between. billy had been giveing some serious thought to just hireing out as a cow puncher. but, the lure of a big rank bronc was still strong. but ranchers were cutting their horse herds back to useable mounts that wouldnt buck when saddled. horses you could get a ten hour day from and would recover with good feed and a days rest. the changes comming to the ranching community were looming on the horizon, and men like billy needed to be able to adjust to those changes. the beans were hot, billy had found a tin plate and poured it full of beans. he sat down to eat. while chewing the first fork full he looked around the bunk house really absorbing what was there for the first time since he came in. it was clean, not just kinda clean with dust in the corners or the windows smudged. it was CLEAN , every nook and cranny. on the wooden bunks the mattreses were rolled up placed at the head of each bunck. the more he looked the more impressed he became. when he was through eating billy washed the skillett and the plate. then put them back where he found them. maybe just being a puncher was something he needed to consider, he would make a point of keeping the horse camp he was going to in as good a shape as this.