CHAPTER XVIII 



"pastures new" 



A brother of mine was practicing veterinary 

 medicine and surgery in the Missouri river 

 country in South Dakota. He had written to 

 me a number of times saying that his state had 

 some fine openings for practitioners and that he 

 would at least like to have me come up and spend 

 a few weeks with him. 



So up I went. 



I found him located in a fine little town, Cham- 

 berlain; and he was doing well. The only 

 trouble he had was a mania for fishing in the 

 Missouri when he ought to be cutting out shoe- 

 boils and filing teeth. So well were his clients 

 acquainted with his weakness for this pastime 

 that they first walked down to the river when 

 they came to consult him; if they did not find 

 him there they knew there was no use looking in 

 the office for him, because he was either out of 

 town or fishing. 



When I arrived, he had a number of odd cases 

 sticking around the country waiting to be oper- 

 ated upon and I induced him, with some diffi- 

 culty, to give the fish a rest until we could clean 

 up some of this work. I was anxious to get on 

 some of the Dakota farms and ranches ; I wanted 

 to handle some of their stock and their diseases, 

 for the purpose of comparing them with methods 

 and conditions in Texas and the Southwest. 



125 



