“I suppose the government regulation of the range has spoiled all that now?” Scott suggested.
“Spoiled it!” the old man exclaimed, “Yes, they’ve spoiled it, and it’s a mighty good thing, too. There were lots of lambs lost in that spring race for the grass, many an acre of range spoiled, and many a small rancher ruined. Even when you succeeded in beating the other fellow to the range you never knew how long it would be ’til some bigger fellow would come along and crowd you off. Now you know a year ahead just what you are going to get, how many head you can hold over, and that the grass will be there whenever you want to go.”
“But I thought the sheep men were opposed to the government regulation,” Scott protested.
“Humph,” grunted the old man contemptuously, “some of ’em are. They are the fellows who want to hog the whole thing and crowd out the little fellow. The government will not let them do that and they are sore. Still think they are bigger than Uncle Sam. I knew better right from the first and took my medicine like a man and now I like it.”
“It is certainly building up the range,” Scott said; “they are supporting more sheep now than under the old system and doing it better.”
“Certainly they are,” agreed the old gentleman. “You seem to know a good deal about this country, young man, for any one who has never seen a mountain before,” he added suspiciously.
Scott laughed. “I don’t know nearly as much about it as I should like to. I have been reading up on it because I am coming down here to work, but it seems as though the very things a fellow wants to know most are always left out of the books.”
“What are you going to do, if it is any of my business?”
“It may be some of your business,” Scott laughed. “I’m going to be a patrolman with the Forest Service.”
“No, too far west, you will not get any of mine there. You don’t know the west at all?” he asked musingly.
“Only what I have read,” Scott said. “I feel as though I know the timber pretty well, but I’m afraid I don’t know the stock business at all.”
“Well, I’m leaving you at the next station. I get over your way once in a while and shall probably see you again, if you stay there,” he added with a grin. “If you study the stock business the way you have been studying this country, and keep your eye on Jed Clark you will be all right. Don’t let them bluff you.” With this advice he walked back to his seat to collect his things.