[Gutenberg 48571] • Philip of Texas: A Story of Sheep Raising in Texas

fiction, Action, Adventure, children, AMERICA, Texas, Ohio

FOREWORD

The author of this series of stories for children has endeavored simply to show why and how the descendants of the early colonists fought their way through the wilderness in search of new homes. The several narratives deal with the struggles of those adventurous people who forced their way westward, ever westward, whether in hope of gain or in answer to "the call of the wild," and who, in so doing, wrote their names with their blood across this country of ours from the Ohio to the Columbia.

To excite in the hearts of the young people of this land a desire to know more regarding the building up of this great nation, and at the same time to entertain in such a manner as may stimulate to noble deeds, is the real aim of these stories. In them there is nothing of romance, but only a careful, truthful record of the part played by children in the great battles with those forces, human as well as natural, which, for so long a time, held a vast portion of this broad land against the advance of home seekers.

With the knowledge of what has been done by our own people in our own land, surely there is no reason why one should resort to fiction in order to depict scenes of heroism, daring, and sublime disregard of suffering in nearly every form.

JAMES OTIS.

MY DREAMS OF A SHEEP RANCH

The day I was twelve years old, father gave me twelve ewes out of his flock of seventy-two, counting these sheep as payment for the work I had done in tending them. Even at that time I thought myself a good shepherd, for I was able to keep a small flock well together.

With Gyp, our dog, I could have herded five hundred as readily as I did seventy-two, because on our plantation in Mississippi the pastures were fenced. Therefore when father began to talk of moving to Texas and there making a venture in the cattle business, I decided at once that if he did so, it should be my aim to raise sheep. With this idea I gathered from the neighbors roundabout, who had larger flocks than ours, all the possible information about the business in our own state.

CONTENTS

My Dreams of a Sheep Ranch

Sheep Raising

Herding Sheep

Something about Texas

Land Grants

The "Texas Fever"

Why I Wanted to Go into Texas

Hunting in Texas

Father Goes to Spy Out the Land

Our Plantation in Mississippi

Father Comes Home

The Bigness of Texas

Where We Were Going

What I Hoped to Do

Cattle Driving

How We Set Out

A Laborious Journey

Comanche Indians

Father Comes to My Rescue

The Arrival at Fort Towson

Preparing for a Storm

A Dry "Norther"

Two Kinds of "Northers"

How Turkeys Kill Rattlesnakes

Deer and Rattlesnakes

Making a Corral of Wagons

On the Trail Once More

Mesquite

A Texas Sheep Ranch

The Profits from Sheep Raising

Father's Land Claim

Spanish Measurements

The Chaparral Cock

Our First Night on the Trinity

Standing Guard

A Turkey Buzzard

Plans for Building a House

The Cook Shanty

A Storm of Rain

A Day of Discomfort

Thinking of the Old Home

Waiting for the Sun

Too Much Water

The Stream Rising

Trying to Save the Stock

The Animals Stampeded

Saving Our Own Lives

A Raging Torrent

A Time of Disaster

The Flood Subsiding

A Jack Rabbit

Repairing Damages

Rounding up the Live Stock

The First Meal after the Flood

Waiting for Father

Recovering Our Goods

Se