The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1906-05-25

tickled pa, and they smoked cigarettes
and finally saddled up and began to
brand calves aud rope cattle 10 get
them where they belonged, each differ
ent brand of cattle being driven of in
a different direction. and we had the
most interesting free show Of bucking
horses and roping cattle | ever saw,
Pa watched the boys work for a long
time and complimented them, or criti-
cized them for some error, until the
crazy spirit seemed TO get into him.
and he thought be 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 buck
skin pony that n Of the mel was
riding, and show them 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.
| 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
a tell where a fellow will land when
he sets his steer" and l took pas val
uableS and the boys brought up the
buciskin horse, which smclled of pa
and SnOrted, and didn't seem to want
pa to get on. but they neld the horse
by the bride. and pa finally got him
self on both sides of the horse, and
took the lariat rope off the pommel of
the saddle and began to handle it, kind
of awkward, like a boy with a clothes
line, | didn't like the way the cow
boys winked around among them
selves and guyed pa, and | told pa
aboG' 1t, and tried TO get him to give
it IN, but he said. when | get my
steer tied, and stand with my foot ali
his neck, these yinking cowboys will
take off their hats to me all right. l
am Long Horn Ike, from the Brazos,
and YOU watch my smoke
Well, the boys frightened up the clnch
on pas saddle, and pointed out a rangy
black steer in a bunch down on the
fiat, and told pa the game was to cut
thai steer out Of the bunch, and rope
II, and tie it. and hold up his right
hand for the time keeper to record it.
Gee, but pa spurred the horse. and roGe
into that bunch of cattle like a whirl-
wind, and | vas proud OF him, and he
cut out the black steer all right, and
rode up near it, and swung his lariat,
and sent it whizzing through the air,
and the went out over the head
and neck and fore feet Of the steer, and
the horse stopped and set itself back
on its launches, and the rope got
around the belly Of the steer, and when
the rope became taut, and the steer
ought to have teen turned bottom side
up, the cinch of pas saddle broke, the
saddle came off with pa hugging his
legs around it, and the black steer
started due west for Texas, galloping
and believing, and you couldn't see pa
and the saddle for the dust they made
following the steer. II pa had let 90
of the saddle, he would have stopped,
but he hung to it, and the rope was
tied to the saddle. The buckskin horse
relieved of the saddle, looked around
at the cowboys as much as to say,
wouldn't that skin you" and went to
grazing, the other cattle looked on as
though they would say, Another ten
derfoot gone wrong" and as the black
and pa and the saddle went over
a hill, pa only touching the high
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
thea | began to cry for pa.