"wouldn't that skin you," and went to grazing, the other cattle
looked on as though they would say, "Another tenderfoot gone
wrong," and as the black steer and Pa and the saddle went over a
hill, Pa only touching the high places, the boss cowboy said,
"Come on and help head off the steer, and send a wagon to bring
back the remains of Long Horn Ike from the Brazos," and then I
began to cry for pa.

[Illustration: "Pa Only Touched the High Places."]




CHAPTER IV.


Pa, the Bad Boy and a Band of Cowboys Go in Search of a Live
Dinosaurus--The Expedition is Captured by a Gang of Train Robbers
and Pa is Held for Ransom.

When I saw Pa clinging to the saddle, which had got loose from the
horse that he was riding when he lassoed the black steer around
the belly, and the steer was running away, dragging Pa and the
saddle across the plains, I thought I never would see him alive
again. But the cowboys said they would bring his remains back all
right. When they rode away to capture the steer and release pa, I
stopped crying and laid down under the chuck wagon with the dogs,
to think over what I would do, alone in the world, and I must have
fallen asleep, for the next thing I knew the dogs barked and woke
me up, and I looked off to the south and the cowboys were coming