ut of school, and at odd moments clapped Joe on the
back, crying, "By George! By George!" with the relish of a cannibal
reaching into the pot for a second joint.

She tried to treat him like the city man that he looked, but he
promptly put a stop to that.

"Just use me like one of the boys, Mrs. Ferris," he said decisively.
His words sounded sincere; but, being a shrewd-minded lady, she
wondered, nevertheless.

She did not know him when he came down to breakfast next morning.
Vanished was the "dude," and in his place stood a typical cowpuncher
in shaps and flannel shirt and knotted handkerchief. And his clothes
revealed that they had not been worn only indoors.

He gave an exclamation of delight as he entered the dining-room. "A
white tablecloth in the Bad Lands! Joe, did you ever expect to see
it?"

There was no more ice to break after that.

XXII

"Listen, gentle stranger, I'll read my pedigree:
I'm known on handling tenderfeet and worser men than thee;
The lions on the mountains, I've drove them to their lairs;
The wild-cats are my playmates, and I've wrestled grizzly bears;

"The centipedes have tried and failed to mar my tough old hide,
And rattlesnakes have bit me, and crawled away and died.
I'm as wild as the wild horse that roams the boundless plains,
The moss grows on my teeth and wild blood flows through my veins.

"I'm wild and woolly and full of fleas,
And never been curried below the knees.
Now, little stranger, if you'll give me your address,--
How would you like to go, by fast mail or express?"

Buckskin Joe

That spring of 1886 Roosevelt had a notable adventure. He arrived at
Elkhorn on March 19th.

I got out here all right [he wrote his sister "Bamie" the
following day] and was met at the station by my men; I was
really heartily glad to see the great, stalwart, bearded
fellows again, and they were as honestly pleased to see me.
Joe Ferris is married, and his wife made me most comfortable
the night I spent in town. Next morning snow covered the
ground; we pushed down, in a rough four-in-hand (how our rig
would have made the estimable Mrs. Blank open her eyes!) to
this ranch which we reached long after sunset, the full moon
flooding the landscape with light.

It was like coming home from a foreign country to see the Little
Missouri once more, and the strangely fascin