TALES OF A TENDERFOOT. 



TOLD BY 



ANGUS HEREFORD. 



' ' Then play the fife slowly, 



And beat the drum sadly, 



And play the Dead March 

 As ye bear me along. 



Take me to the churchyard 



And lay the sod o'er me, 



For I'm the brave cowboy ;' 

 I know I've done wrong." Cowboy Song. 



OOK out there, son! You'll 

 trip over that there switch. 

 Takin' a little stroll after supper, hey ? 

 Well, this North Dakota twilight is 

 hard to beat for pretty, if she is a little 

 cool, and the moon is just a-comin'. 

 Did you and the boss have any luck 

 with the prairie chickens? Well, that 

 was discouragin', for sure; but you try 

 that quarter of wheat stubble up on Sec- 

 tion Three about four o'clock tomorrow 

 afternoon, and you'll get all the shootin' 

 you want. 



' Jump up here and smoke one of 

 them funny smellin' cigarettes, and I'll 

 tell you a little story. Turkish, you 

 say? No, thanks. I'll stick to Bull 

 Durham a while yet. 



" Sure, it's right comfortable up here 

 on the top rail. You better lean back 

 against that post and smoke and hang 

 your laigs off, and I can keep one eye 

 on the corral and look away down the 

 track besides. There's fifty head of 



steers in here that I had the boys cut 

 out of the herd this afternoon, and 

 Fifty-Six is due to take 'em East in 

 about an hour. Them three cars on 

 the side track are the ones. They're 

 all bedded down and the racks full of 

 hay. We water 'em jest the last 

 thing, and we don't have to begin to 

 load till we see the headlight comin' 

 out of Dawson. That gives us plenty 

 of time. I'm goin' to take Fred Graves 

 down with me. 



' ' Chicago ? Hell ! no. Not unless the 

 bottom falls out of the St. Paul market. 

 These cows are only what we call feeders. 

 Some commission-house will buy 'em 

 and then sell 'em again to the grangers 

 down in the corn belt. They may kick 

 around six months yet before they see 

 Armour's. 



" The story? Oh, it ain't much of a 

 tale, but the sight of you city boys always 

 reminds me of a tenderfoot we had up 

 here once two years ago. He was a 



(So) 



