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PECK'S BAD BOY WITH THE COWBOYS

By George W. Peck.

Author of Peck's Bad Boy Abroad, Peck's Bad Boy with the Circus, etc.

Relating the Amusing Experiences and Laughable Incidents of this
Strenuous American Boy and his Pa while among the Cowboys and Indians
in the Far West. Exciting Hunts and Adventures mingled with Humorous
Situations and Laugh Provoking Events.

Fully Illustrated

Chicago

John R. Stanton Co.

Publishers

Copyright 1905

By Joseph B. Bowles

Copyright 1906

By Joseph B. Bowles

Copyright 1907

By Thompson & Thomas

Made In U. S. A.




ILLUSTRATIONS (not available in this file)


"Got Any Trailing Dogs?" Frontispiece

Pa Kicked the Dog

The Grizzly Looked as Big as a Brewery Horse

They Gave Pa Three Cheers

The Squaws Seemed to be Worshipping Pa

The Horse Stumbled, Throwing Pa Over His Head and Killing the Wolf

He Looked Like Moonlight on the Lake

The Chiefs Knees Knocked Together

Pa Only Touched the High Places

A Boy Dinosaurus Reached Out His Neck and Picked Up a Steer

We Were Captured by the Curry's Gang

Pa Told Them About the Wave of Reform

Say to the Engineer--"Charley, Turn Her Off and Stop Her"

One Day the Robbers Came Back From a Raid With Piles of Greenbacks

Drank to the Health of Their Distinguished Guest

The Robbers Guided Us in the Dark Through the Valley

The Pony Tossed Pa in the Air

Pa Swung His Ax Handle

Pa Was Alive to His Danger

The Buffaloes Licked Pa's Bald Head--Pa Began to Pray

A Couple of Bouncers Took Pa by the Elbows and Fired Him Out

"Dog Does Kinder Act as Though He Had Something on His Mind"

"Jerusalem, But You Are a Sight," Said the Old Groceryman

Dad Said, "Good Shot, Hennery"

"It Rained Bananas and the <DW55> Came Down on His Head"

"The Farmer Had Grabbed Hold of a Wire Sign Across the Street"

"Hennery, This Attempt on Your Part to Murder Me Was Not the Success You
Expected"

"Dad Sat in the Parlor With a Widow Until the Porter Had to Tell Him to
Cut it Out"

"I Got a Gambler to Look Cross at Dad"

"Dad Was Up On a Limb and the Wild Animals Were Jumping Up to Eat His
Shoes"

"Hennery, I Feel as Though Your Dad Was Not Long For This World"

Dad Among the Cowboys

"Dad Began to Pose as a Regular Old Rough Rider"

Dad On a Bucking Broncho

"That's a Prairie Dog From Texas"

"Dad Heard Something at Night and Rose Up in Bed"

"Dad Stepped On My Prairie Dog and Yelled Murder"

"We Left Under Escort of the Police"

"Arrest That Boy With the Rattlesnake," Said the Groceryman

"Each Oyster Was As Big As a Pie Plate"

Landed With His Head in a Basket of Strictly Fresh Eggs

"You Ought to Have Seen Dad's Short Legs Carry Him to a Tree"

"Studied the Bears for Awhile and Let Dad Yell for the Police"

Come to Present Arms

When the Fireworks Went Off in the Grocery

"Dad Said if Rockefeller Could Raise Hair by the Sunshine Method, He
Could"




CHAPTER I.


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?"

The cowboy looked at pa's stomach, and said: "Well, Mr. Man, if you are
going to blow yourself for a second Buffalo Bill, I am with you, at the
salary agreed upon, till the cows come home, but you have got to show me
that you have got no yellow streak, when it comes to cutting out steers
that are wild and carry long horns, and you've got to rope 'em, and tie
'em all alone, and hold up your hands for judgment, in ten seconds."

Pa said he could learn to do it in a week, but the cowman said: "Not on
your life." The hunter said he would be ready to call pa B. Bill when he
could stand up straight, with the paws of a full-grown grizzly on each
of his shoulders, and its face in front of pa's, if Pa had the nerve to
pull a knife and disembowel the bear, and skin him without help. Pa said
that would be right into his hand, 'cause he use to work in a slaughter
house when he was a boy, and he had waded in gore.

The Indian said he would be ready to salute Pa as Buffalo Bill the
Second, when Pa had an Indian's left hand tangled in his hair, and a
knife in his right hand ready to scalp him, if Pa would look the Indian
in the eye and hypnotize the red man so he would drop the hair and the
knife, turn his back on pa, and invite him