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Blaisdell took time for a curious scrutiny and study of Jean, that, frank and kindly as it was, and evidently the adjustotten froreasons of his own for so doing

"Wal, you're like your sister Ann," said Blaisdell "Which youman Both of you favor your mother But you're an Isbel Back in Texas there are ht hands, an' shore I reckon if one of theraves had opened an' he'd go for his gun"

Blaisdell's laugh pealed out with deep, pleasant roll Thus he planted in Jean's sensitive one Isbels

His further re to Jean The settling of the Tonto Basin by Texans was a subject often in dispute His own father had been in the first party of adventurous pioneers who had traveled up from the south to cross over the Reno Pass of the Mazatzals into the Basin "Newcoet impressions of the Tonto accordin' to the first settlers they meet," declared Blaisdell "An' shore it'sthey are! Wal, I've heard ot run out of Texas, but he swore he wasn't one of theood for twenty years, an' for all the Texans who es an' ot some bad men heah There's no law Possession used tohave begun to hold forth with a high hand No sh stock to pay for his labor"

At the time of which Blaisdell spoke there were notits vast area But these, on account of the extreme wildness of the broken country, were limited to the comparatively open Grass Valley and its adjacent environs Naturally, as the inhabitants increased and stock raising grew in proportion the grazing and water rights became matters of extreme importance Sheepmen ran their flocks up on the Rim in summer time and down into the Basin in winter time A sheepman could throw a few thousand sheep round a cattlee was free It was as fair for sheepraze their herds anywhere as it was for cattlemen This of course did not apply to the few acres of cultivated ground that a rancher could call his own; but very few cattle could have been raised on such limited area Blaisdell said that the sheepmen were unfair because they could have done just as well, though perhaps atthe open valley and little flats to the ranchers Fores were being encroached upon by sheep the rustler e, for the simple reason that no cattleman knew exactly who the rustlers were and for the nificant reason that the rustlers did not steal sheep