the brave great father.

It seemed that they were not going to take much stock in pa's
bravery until they had tried him out in Indian fashion. We were
standing in the moonlight surrounded by Indians, and Pa had been
questioned as to his bravery, and Pa said he was brave like
Roosevelt, and he swelled out his chest and looked the part, when
the chief said, pointing to a savage, snarling dog that was
smelling of pa: "Brave man, kick a dog!"

We all told Pa that the Indian wanted Pa to give an exhibition of
his bravery by kicking the dog, and while I could see that Pa had
rather hire a man to kick the dog, he knew that it was up to him
to show his mettle, so he hauled off and gave the dog a kick near
the tail, which seemed to telescope the dog's spine together, and
the dog landed far away. The chief patted Pa on the shoulder and
said: "Great Father, bully good hero. Tomorrow he kill a grizzly,"
and then they let us go to bed, after Pa had explained that if
everything went well he would hire all the chiefs and young braves
for his show.

[Illustration: Pa Kicked the Dog.]

After we got to bed Pa said he was almost sorry he told the chief
that he would take a grizzly bear by one ear, and cuff the other
ear with the flat of his hand, as he didn't know but a wild
grizzly would look upon such conduct differently from our old bear
in the show used to. Any person around the show could slap his
face, or cuff him, or kick him in the slats, and he would act as
though they were doing him a favor. The big game hunter told pa