Favor told me to come in and get my hat. I told him no,
that I would not take it now, but let it go until next spring when
I returned. He said to call and get it any time, saying: "You won
it fair."
After we had ridden but a short distance I told Uncle Kit how I
came to win the hat, and he said: "I think them St. Louis men are
gentlemen, but I don't propose to have any one write up my life. I
have got plenty to keep me as long as I live and I do not like
notoriety." And just here I would say, that to a man that roughed
it out on the plains in those days as we old frontiersmen had to
do, they did not feel that a history of their lives would be fit
to go before the public, for as Uncle Kit said: "A man on the
frontier had to undergo many hardships, that if written up true,
just as they occurred, people in the civilized countries would not
believe them when they read it."
On my arrival at Taos I bought ten Mexican jacks or burros to use
for pack animals on the trip that we were about to start upon.
After that we started for Bent's Fort where we joined Buffalo Bill
and Col. Bent and struck out for the "Picket Wire"--Purgatoire--on
a buffalo hunt.
Here we found buffalo plenty and enjoyed two days successful
hunting, and I must say that a more jolly crowd I was never out
with than those three men were on a trip of this kind.
Pages:
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344