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and white.
The bell rang for dinner and in we went, the cowboys and Mitch and I sat on
either side and the Hagers on each end, we had duck, wil duck and only the
breast, they threww away the rest, such a fine meal and as we were eating
and during an absolute silence one of the cowboys looked down at me and
said, "what do you think of this country"? Well I replied, if I had seen a
straw stack I would have stopped and set fire to it and started to wave a
hankerchief. Mitch had warned me that they would give me a hard time, you
will have to get hurt before they will accept you. I had tried to prepare
myself to say the right thing and this was a good start because they knew
what I meant, the country was too big for me or I was too small for it. In
another silence the foreman said "kin you ride a hoss"? Well I reckon the
folks back in Maryland figure the best in the state". This made them gulp,
they had me now for sure and so I let that sink in and then I said I did
all my riding on a merry go round.
I knew that when they have a horse ride the next day I might not get
a really bad one and they did just that, about five oclock Ross threww in
some chaps and a sombreyo, we had a good breakfast and went to the coral
they roped a white horse for me and we saddled up. My horse bucked a bit
but it didnt bother me as I had ridden all my life and then they saw I
had tricked them, the foreman came over to me and said