Narrative Essay: A Long Day Of The Earth-A Short Story

Spring-

When Spring came, the scent in the air changed. There were still crunchy snow patches on the shady side of the corral in Lakeshore as Jed tossed the saddle onto the horse’s back and secured the soft, spicy-scented strap around Beck’s underside. The half-frozen mud was treacherous to walk in.

One foot could slide over a slippery dirt clod while the other foot would sink down into cold, melted, watery dung. This was going to be a long day for the manger—in fact the whole yard would look really different in about twelve hours.

This morning, the yard and pasture in Lakeshore was full of cattle. They were kind of anxious as if they could tell something was going to happen. The mother cows were bawling for their calves, trying to

They were all herded up Highway 6, going towards Denver. Some of the beef would be cut out as they arrived at certain ranches. The animals would spend the summer in the cooler hills, foraging on the grasses and drinking from the streams, and then when the water master notified the ranchers, the cattle would be rounded up and driven back down the narrow, two-lane highway to the drive corrals on Canyon Road. Then the ranchers would have to go to

Jed had devoured his lunch and cleaned out his treats. The cowboys had to eat lunch without stopping because the cattle were slowing down the highway traffic and if they stopped to eat they ran the chance of some crazy steer wandering off the edge of the road and likely falling into the river. The men joked about who would have to go into the river to rescue the steer. Pity the new guy, whoever he was! Sometimes, after much debate, it was determined that if there was some sort of crisis, the guy with the worst batting average last season would need to be the