We got to the cow camp in time for dinner, and our cowboy
introduced Pa to the cowboys around the chuck wagon, and told them
Pa was an old cowboy who had traveled the Texas trail years ago,
and was one of the best horsemen in the business, a manager of a
show that was adding a wild west department and wanted to hire 40
or more of the best ropers and riders, at large salaries, to join
the show, and that Pa considered himself the legitimate successor
of Buffalo Bill, and money was no object. Well, the boys were
tickled to meet pa, and some said they had heard of him when he
was roping cattle on the frontier, and that tickled pa, and they
smoked cigarettes, and finally saddled up and began to brand
calves and rope cattle to get them where they belonged, each
different brand of cattle being driven off in a different
direction, and we had the most interesting free show of bucking
horses and roping cattle I ever saw. Pa watched the boys work for
a long time, and complimented them, or criticised them for some
error, until the crazy spirit seemed to get into him, and he
thought he could do it as well as any of the boys, and he told our
cowboy that whenever the boys got tired he would like to get on a
buckskin pony that one of the men was riding, and show that while
a little out of practice he could stand a steer on its head, and
get off his horse and tie the animal in a few seconds beyond the
record time.

I told Pa he better hire a man to do it for him, but he said,
"Hennery, here is where your Pa has got to make good, or these
cowboys won't affiliate. You take my watch and roll, 'cause no one
can tell where a fellow will land when he gets his steer," and I
took pa's valuables and the boys brought up the buckskin horse,