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