22 THE ITINERANT HORSE PHYSICIAN 



evidence that I was not entirely wrong about this 

 I had the satisfaction to see him reduced to the 

 rank of ordinary inspector soon thereafter. 



As I said, I resigned and went back to Hous- 

 ton and took up my work where I had left off. 

 I was in a restful frame of mind again and for 

 about two months I was satisfied that Houston 

 just suited me. 



The hot weather kept right up and on Christ- 

 mas day there came a nice warm rain. This rain 

 interfered with the proper Christmas festivities as 

 they are conducted there, which is on the order of 

 our Fourth of July celebration in the north — 

 fireworks and all that goes with it. 



Speaking of Fourth of July celebrations 

 brings to my mind a type of native which I fre- 

 quently encountered in east Texas and who gave 

 me much concern at first. They are "old timers" 

 who do not seem to know that the Civil War is 

 over and forgotten. To them every man from 

 the north is a hated "Yank" and in some of the 

 "back-in-the-sticks" places in east Texas it is best 

 not to speak too plainly about your place of birth 

 if you happen to be from the north side of the 

 Mason-Dixon line. 



The month of February came and I began to 

 get the spring fever. I had now been in Texas 

 four months and I wanted to see more of it. I 

 began to look around for a location with a view of 

 going into practice on my own hook again, and 

 after some casting about, I decided to go to 

 Temple, in Bell County, one of the best farming 

 counties in Texas. 



