the wild west show.

I couldn't do anything with pa, so we stayed at that town until pa
got good and ready to go home. He bucked the faro bank some, but
the gamblers soon found he had so much money that he could break
any bank, so they closed up their lay-outs and began to sell pa
mining stock in mines which were fabulously rich if they only had
money to develop them. They salted some mines near town for Pa to
examine, and when he found that they contained gold enough in
every shovelful of dirt to make a man crazy, he bought a whole
lot of stock, and then the gamblers entertained Pa for all that
was out.

They got up dances and fandangos, and Pa was it, sure, and I was
proud of him, cause he did not lose his head. He just acted
dignified, and they thought they were entertaining a distinguished
man. Everything would have gone all right, and we would have got
out with honor, if it hadn't been for the annual rabbit drive that
came off while we were there. Part of the country is irrigated,
and good crops are grown, but the jackrabbits are so numerous that
they come in off the plains adjoining the green spots, at night,
and eat everything in sight, so once a year the people get up a
rabbit drive and go out in the night by the hundred, on
horseback, and surround the country for ten miles or so, and at
daylight ride along towards a corral, where thousands of rabbits
are driven in and slaughtered with clubs. The men ride close
together, with dogs, and no guilty rabbit can escape,

Pa thought it would be a picnic, and so we went along, but pa
wishes that he had let well enough alone and kept out of the