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<h2>Cowboy Life on</h2>
<h2>The Sidetrack</h2>
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<p class="center">Being an Extremely Humorous and Sarcastic</p>
<p class="center">Story of the Trials and Tribulations</p>
<p class="center">Endured by a Party of Stockmen</p>
<p class="center">Making a Shipment from the</p>
<p class="center">West to the East.</p>
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<h3>By FRANK BENTON,</h3>
<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Cheyenne, Wyo</span>.</p>
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<h3>ILLUSTRATED BY E. A. FILLEAU,</h3>
<p class="center">KANSAS CITY, MO.</p>
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<h4>DENVER, COLO.:</h4>
<h4>THE WESTERN STORIES SYNDICATE.</h4>
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<h4><SPAN name="Copyright_1903" id="Copyright_1903">Copyright, 1903,</SPAN></h4>
<h4>By FRANK BENTON.</h4>
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<p class="center">Press of</p>
<p class="center">Hudson-Kimberly Publishing Company</p>
<p class="center">Kansas City, Mo.</p>
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<h2>DEDICATION.</h2>
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<p><span style="margin-left: 24em;">For justice no shipper e'er asked in vain</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 24em;">From George H. Crosby or C. J. Lane.</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 24em;">We go to them, as to our dad,</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 24em;">When on their road our run is bad,</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 24em;">And when we think the freight too large</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 24em;">Ask them to rebate the overcharge.</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 24em;">No matter which road you give your freight,</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 24em;">To both these friends, this book I dedicate.</span><br/>
<br/>
<span style="margin-left: 34em;">F. B.</span><br/></p>
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<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/ill_002.jpg" width-obs="319" height-obs="500" alt="" /> <span class="caption"><i>The Author Waiting for the Train to Start.</i></span></div>
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<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
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<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="">
<tr><td align="left"><SPAN href="#CHAPTER_I">Chapter I.—The Start</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><SPAN href="#CHAPTER_II">Chapter II.—Chuckwagon's Dream</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><SPAN href="#CHAPTER_III">Chapter III.—Grazing the Sheep</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><SPAN href="#CHAPTER_IV">Chapter IV.—Letters from Home Brought by Immigrants</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><SPAN href="#CHAPTER_V">Chapter V.—Eatumup Jake's Life Story</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><SPAN href="#CHAPTER_VI">Chapter VI.—The Schoolmarm's Saddle Horse</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><SPAN href="#CHAPTER_VII">Chapter VII.—Selling Cattle on the Range</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><SPAN href="#CHAPTER_VIII">Chapter VIII.—True Snake Stories</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><SPAN href="#CHAPTER_IX">Chapter IX.—Chuckwagon's Death</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><SPAN href="#CHAPTER_X">Chapter X.—Disappearance of the Sheepmen</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><SPAN href="#CHAPTER_XI">Chapter XI.—Our Arrival in Cheyenne</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><SPAN href="#CHAPTER_XII">Chapter XII.—The Post-Hole Digger's Ghost</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><SPAN href="#CHAPTER_XIII">Chapter XIII.—Grafting</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><SPAN href="#CHAPTER_XIV">Chapter XIV.—The File</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><SPAN href="#CHAPTER_XV">Chapter XV.—The Cattle Stampede</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><SPAN href="#CHAPTER_XVI">Chapter XVI.—Catching a Maverick</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><SPAN href="#CHAPTER_XVII">Chapter XVII.—Stealing Crazy Head's War Ponies</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><SPAN href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">Chapter XVIII.—The Cattle Queen's Ghost</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><SPAN href="#CHAPTER_XIX">Chapter XIX.—Packsaddle Jack's Death</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><SPAN href="#CHAPTER_XX">Chapter XX.—A Cowboy Enoch Arden</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><SPAN href="#CHAPTER_XXI">Chapter XXI.—Grand Island</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><SPAN href="#CHAPTER_XXII">Chapter XXII.—"Sarer"</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><SPAN href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">Chapter XXIII.—Arrival at South Omaha Transfer</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><SPAN href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">Chapter XXIV.—The Final Roundup</SPAN></td></tr>
</table></div>
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<h2>PREFACE.</h2>
<p>To the readers of this little booklet: I wish to say that while some
things in the story seem over-drawn, yet I have endeavored to write it
entirely from a cowboy standpoint.</p>
<p>To the sheepmen of the West: I want to say that I couldn't have written
this story true to the cowboys' character without making a great many
reflections on sheepmen, and I want to tender my apologies in advance
for anything they may consider offensive, as some of my old-time and
dearest friends in the West are among the large sheep owners. But I have
been a cowboy and worked with the cowboys for thirty-two years, and have
written the things set down here just as they came from the cowboys'
lips on a stock train as we were waiting on sidetracks. The names of the
cowboys used are the actual nicknames of cowpunchers whom I worked with
on Wyoming ranges twenty years ago, and will be recognized by lots of
old-timers.</p>
<p>The statement has been frequently made by newspapers that this volume
was written as a roast on the Union Pacific railroad. I wish to correct
that impression by saying that I selected that road for the groundwork
of this story to give them a good advertisement free in requital for the
many courtesies extended to me in times past by the officials of the
road, for whom I have the warmest friendship.</p>
<p><span style="margin-left: 34em;">THE AUTHOR.</span><br/></p>
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<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</SPAN></span></p>
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