Passage Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd”
Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd”
by Dallas Lore Sharp
In this excerpt, published in 1914, author and professor Dallas Lore Sharp describes a summer cattle roundup in Oregon. The heat and dust had been relentless for three days. The cowboys were exhausted, and the cattle were restless. The ranch boss, Wade, had led the drive to a watering place, only to find it empty.
Along with the wagon had come the fresh horses—one of them being Peroxide Jim, a supple, powerful, clean-limbed buckskin, a horse, I think, that had as fine and intelligent an animal-face as any creature I ever saw. Wade had been saving this horse for emergency work. And why should he not have been saved fresh for just such a need as this? Are there not superior horses as well as superior men—a Peroxide Jim to complement a Wade?
The horse knew the cattle business and knew his rider perfectly; and though there was nothing like sentiment about the boss of the P Ranch riders, his faith in Peroxide Jim was complete. . . .
The desert, where the herd was camped, was one of the highest of a series of tablelands, or benches; it lay as level as a floor, rimmed by sheer rock, from which there was a drop to the bench of sage below. The herd when overtaken by the dusk had been headed for a pass descending to the next lower bench, but was now halted within a mile of the rim rock on the east, where there was a perpendicular fall of about three hundred feet. . . .
In the taut silence of the stirless desert night, with the tension of the herd at the snapping-point, any quick, unwonted sight or sound would stampede them. The sneezing of a horse, the flare of a match, would be enough to send the whole four thousand headlong—blind, frenzied, trampling—till spent and scattered over the plain.
And so, as he rode, Wade began to sing. The rider ahead of him took up the air and passed it on until, above the stepping stir of the hoofs rose the faint voices of the men, and all the herd was bound about by the slow plaintive measures of some old song. It was not to soothe their savage breasts that the riders sang to the cattle, but rather to preempt the dreaded silence, to relieve the tension, and so to prevent the shock of any sudden startling noise.
So they sang and rode and the night wore on to one o’clock, when Wade, coming up on the rim-rock side, felt a cool breeze fan his face, and caught a breath of fresh, moist wind with the taste of water in it.
He checked his horse instantly, listening as the wind swept past him over the cattle. But they must already have smelled it, for they had ceased their milling, the whole herd standing motionless, the indistinct forms close to him in the dark showing their bald faces lifted to drink the sweet wet breath that came over the rim. Then they started on again, but faster, and with a rumbling now from their hoarse throats that tightened Wade’s grip on the reins.
The sound seemed to come out of the earth, a low, rumbling mumble, as dark as the night and as wide as the plain, a thick, inarticulate bellow that stood every rider stiff in his stirrups. . . .
Then the breeze caught the dust and carried it back from the gray-coated, ghostly shapes, and Wade saw that the animals were still moving in a circle. He must keep them going. He touched his horse to ride on with them, when across the black sky flashed a vivid streak of lightning.
There was a snort from the steers, a quick clap of horns and hoofs from far within the herd, a tremor of the plain, a roar, a surging mass—and Wade was riding the flank of a wild stampede. Before him, behind him, beside him, pressing hard upon his horse, galloped the frenzied steers, and beyond them a multitude borne on, and bearing him on, by the heave of the galloping herd.
Wade was riding for his life. He knew it. His horse knew it. He was riding to turn the herd, too, back from the rim, as the horse also knew. The cattle were after water—water-mad—ready to go over the precipice to get it, carrying horse and rider with them. Wade was the only rider between the herd and the rim. It was black as death. He could see nothing in the sage, could scarcely discern the pounding, panting shadows at his side. He knew that he was being borne toward the rim, how fast he could not tell, but he knew by the swish of the brush against his tapaderos and the plunging of the horse that the ground was growing stonier, that they were nearing the rocks.
To outrun the herd was his only chance for life. If he could come up with the leaders he might not only escape, but even stand a chance of heading them off upon the plain and saving the herd. There were cattle still ahead of him; how many, what part of them all, he could not make out in the dark. But the horse knew. The reins hung on his straight neck, where his rider had dropped them, as, yelling and firing over the wild herd, he had given this horse the race to win, to lose.
They were riding the rim. Close on their left bore down the flank of the herd, and on their right, under their very feet, was a precipice, so close that they felt its blackness—its three hundred feet of fall! . . .
. . . Then Wade found himself racing neck and neck with a big white steer, which the horse, with marvelous instinct, seemed to pick out from a bunch, and to cling to, forcing him gradually ahead, till, cutting him free from the bunch entirely, he bore him off into the swishing sage.
The steers coming on close behind followed their leader, and in, after them, swung others. The tide was turning from the rim. More and more were veering, and within a short time the whole herd, bearing off from the cliffs, was pounding over the open plains.
Whose race was it? It was Peroxide Jim’s, according to Wade, for not by word or by touch of hand or knee had the horse been directed in the run. From the flash of the lightning the horse had taken the bit, had covered an indescribably perilous path at top speed, had outrun the herd and turned it from the edge of the rim rock, without a false step or a tremor of fear.
From “The Spirit of the Herd” by Dallas Lore Sharp—Public Domain
tablelands: plateaus, flat areas of land sharply elevated from the surrounding area
tapaderos: leather covers for stirrups
Question
Which sentence from the excerpt best reveals the mood on the drive before the lightning struck?
- A“The herd when overtaken by the dusk had been headed for a pass descending to the next lower bench, but was now halted within a mile of the rim rock on the east, where there was a perpendicular fall of about three hundred feet.” (paragraph 3)
- B“It was not to soothe their savage breasts that the riders sang to the cattle, but rather to preempt the dreaded silence, to relieve the tension, and so to prevent the shock of any sudden startling noise.” (paragraph 5)
- C“So they sang and rode and the night wore on to one o’clock, when Wade, coming up on the rim-rock side, felt a cool breeze fan his face, and caught a breath of fresh, moist wind with the taste of water in it.” (paragraph 6)
- D“Then the breeze caught the dust and carried it back from the gray-coated, ghostly shapes, and Wade saw that the animals were still moving in a circle.” (paragraph 9)
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks which sentence from the excerpt best reveals the mood on the drive before the lightning struck.
A. Incorrect. The sentence from paragraph 3 describes the setting but does not contain words that create a strong mood. In fact, this sentence shows that while there were dangerous surroundings, the riders and the herd were “now halted.”
B. CORRECT. The sentence from paragraph 5 describes the riders singing “to preempt the dreaded silence, to relieve the tension” and to prevent “shock” from any sudden noise. These words provide a strong sense of the tense, heavy mood in which a terrible event such as a stampede could quickly happen.
C. Incorrect. The sentence from paragraph 6 contains words that communicate refreshment and relief: “fresh, moist wind with the taste of water.” Relief was not the primary mood before the lightning struck; instead, the refreshing scent of moisture and its promise of water was partially responsible for the herd’s stampede toward the edge once the lightning struck (“their bald faces lifted to drink the sweet wet breath that came over the rim” [paragraph 7]).
D. Incorrect. While the words “ghostly” and “still moving in a circle” in the sentence from paragraph 9 create a strange and mysterious image, the mood before the lightning struck was not one of mystery or suspense. Instead, these descriptive words are used to indicate Wade’s faint ability to see the herd moving in the dark.
Question analysis
In this question about mood, students read four long sentences from Dallas Lore Sharp’s “The Spirit of the Herd,” taken from paragraphs 3, 5, 6 and 9, and decide which best reveals the mood on the drive in the hours before the lightning. Each sentence carries some atmosphere of its own, so the answer depends on close attention to word choice.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Grade 7 students often name the words that create a mood, and this item asks for little more. The challenge is mostly reading: four long sentences of 1914 prose, set side by side, must be compared for the feeling their words carry.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Hard words minor
- A lot to read minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 8, 1160 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 171 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A detail in the explanation that the excerpt does not contain was corrected.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Only one quotation names a feeling outright, and a student who spots “dreaded silence” and “tension” finds the question easy. Points are lost to sentences with an atmosphere of their own: the “ghostly shapes” of paragraph 9 suggest eerie mystery, and the cool, moist wind of paragraph 6 suggests relief. Neither matches the strained waiting that hangs over the night until the lightning.
Hard words minor Understanding the question
The sentence that names the feeling is also the hardest to parse, since “dreaded silence” and “tension” sit among “preempt” and an old saying about soothing “savage breasts.” (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
A lot to read minor Understanding the question
Three of the quotations run 37 to 44 words, and all four come from the hours before the stampede, so each must be read for words that carry feeling rather than events. (Kintsch, 1998; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Before reading the choices, describe in one word how the night felt before the lightning, then find the quotation whose own words, not just its events, create that feeling.
Traps
- Wrong tone or attitude: Misjudges the tone, attitude or point of view, such as reading admiration as criticism, or taking a character's or subject's feelings for the author's.
- Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
The wrong answers, classified
A Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Senses danger in a “perpendicular fall of about three hundred feet,” but the sentence states where the herd stood and contains no word of feeling.
C Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads the mood from the “cool breeze” and “fresh, moist wind,” which feel like relief, but the night was tense, and that wind is what stirs the thirsty herd.
D Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Is drawn to “gray-coated, ghostly shapes,” a phrase with an eerie mood of its own, but it shows how dimly Wade saw the cattle through the dust, not the riders’ tension.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook’s explanation of Option C speaks of “the refreshing scent of rain.” The excerpt has no rain: Wade catches “a breath of fresh, moist wind with the taste of water in it” (paragraph 6), and the cattle lift their faces “to drink the sweet wet breath that came over the rim” (paragraph 7). The site now says “the refreshing scent of moisture,” as it corrected the same detail in the 2026 printing’s explanation of another question on this excerpt.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about mood, the feeling a piece of writing gives you. Which sentence best shows how the drive felt before the lightning struck? Look for words that name or carry a feeling, not just events.
Read the sentence from paragraph 5
Paragraph 5 says “It was not to soothe their savage breasts that the riders sang to the cattle, but rather to preempt the dreaded silence, to relieve the tension, and so to prevent the shock of any sudden startling noise.”
Work out what it means
“To soothe their savage breasts” comes from an old saying that music calms wild feelings. To preempt something is to act early to stop it. So the riders were not singing to calm the cattle with a nice tune. They sang to fill a silence they dreaded, or feared. They also sang to ease the tension, the nervous strain. Paragraph 4 says the herd’s tension was “at the snapping-point.” The mood is tense and nervous.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. It tells where the herd stopped and how far the drop was. Those are facts about the place, with no feeling words.
- B fits. The words “dreaded” and “tension” name the feeling of the night.
- C does not fit. A “cool breeze” and “fresh, moist wind” sound pleasant, like relief. But the night was not relaxed. That wind, with “the taste of water in it,” stirs up the thirsty herd.
- D does not fit. “Ghostly shapes” sounds spooky, but it only describes cattle seen dimly through the dust.
Watch out: D pulls hard because “ghostly” has an eerie feel of its own. But the question asks for the mood on the drive, and that mood was tension.
Choose the answer
Only one sentence names the tense, nervous feeling of the night. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong choice, because “gray-coated, ghostly shapes” sounds eerie. But those words only show how the cattle looked in the dust and dark. B names the feeling outright: a “dreaded silence” and “tension.” That is the mood on the drive before the lightning struck.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd”” as printed (page 41)
