Peck's Bad Boy with the Cowboys

The Bad Boy and His Pa Go West--Pa Plans to Be a Dead Ringer for
Buffalo Bill--They Visit an Indian Reservation and Pa Has an
Encounter with a Grizzly Bear.

Well, I never saw such a change in a man as there has been in pa,
since the circus managers gave him a commission to go out west and
hire an entire outfit for a wild west show, regardless of cost, to
be a part of our show next year. He acts like he was a duke,
searching for a rich wife. No country politician that never had
been out of his own county, appointed minister to England, could
put on more style than Pa does.

The first day after the show left us at St. Louis we felt pretty
bum, 'cause we missed the smell of the canvas, and the sawdust,
and the animals, and the indescribable odor that goes with a
circus. We missed the performers, the band, the surging crowds
around the ticket wagon, and the cheers from the seats. It almost
seemed as though there had been a funeral in the family, and we
were sitting around in the cold parlor waiting for the lawyers to
read the will. But in a couple of days Pa got busy, and he hired a
young Indian who was a graduate of Carlisle, as an interpreter,
and a reformed cowboy, to go with us to the cattle ranges, and an
old big game hunter who was to accompany us to the places where we
could find buffalo and grizzly bears. Pa chartered a car to take
us west, and after the Indian and the cowboy and the hunter got
sobered up, on the train, and got the St. Louis ptomaine poison
out of their systems, and we were going through Kansas, Pa got us
all into the smoking compartment.

"Gentlemen," he said, "I want you to know that this expedition is
backed by the wealth of the circus world, and that there is
nothing cheap about it. We are to hire, regardless of expense, the
best riders, the best cattle ropers, and the best everything that
goes with a wild west show. We all know that Buffalo Bill must
soon, in the nature of things, pass away as a feature for shows,
and I have been selected to take the place of Bill in the circus
world, when he cashes in. You may have noticed that I have been
letting my hair and mustache and chin whiskers grow the last few
months, so that next year I will be a dead ringer for Bill. All I
want is some experience as a hero of the plains, as a scout, a
hunter, a scalper of Indians, a rider of wild horses, and a few
things like that, and next year you will see me ride a white horse
up in front of the press seats in our show, take off my broad-
brimmed hat, and wave it at the crowned heads in the boxes, give
the spurs to my horse, and ride away like a cavalier, and the show
will go on, to the music of hand-clapping from the assembled
thousands, see?"