176 THE ITINERANT HORSE PHYSICIAN 



thing like that was would certainly be considered 

 "buggy" in any civilized country outside of South 

 Dakota ! Each wheel on it was different ; one of 

 the front wheels was as high as the two rear 

 wheels and the two rear wheels were not quite 

 mates either. The dashboard was gone, and the 

 thills were about as heavy as those they use on 

 brewery carts. And not a joint in the whole 

 machine but what was all bound 'round with hay 

 wire. 



Then, to cap the grand climax, "old Chip" had 

 on a brand new Shears- Storebuck harness. 



And I suppose you have got all your brain cells 

 busy trying to figure out whether my brother and 

 I drove that outfit around the country or not. 

 'You bet we did! We were glad to get it, too. 

 Our funds were exhausted and the only means 

 we had of replenishing them so that we could get 

 away was by driving around in search of any 

 work there might be for us to do. "Old Chip" 

 and "Lizzie's Buggy" didn't cost us a cent for 

 hire and we were too hard pressed to look a gift 

 horse in the mouth. 



We drove "old Chip" around that part of the 

 country for about a week and during that week 

 my brother and I were the "joke" of the region; 

 every farmer we tackled for a job in the veteri- 

 nary line had some sort of remark to make about 

 why we didn't fix our own horse first, or some- 

 thing of a similar nature. At last it got on my 

 nerves and I made it a point to start the talk 

 about "old Chip" of my own accord; in that way 



