O. Oh, no, Mr. Mildini didn't mind their riding along with the
troupe. He was glad of the company. They could have dinner with them,
too, if they liked. And perhaps they wouldn't mind helping with the
stock, if they didn't make the ranch that day, and had to camp.

Sometimes they had trouble with the wagons; they were old. Sometimes
they got stuck in the mud. You never could tell. Yes, the show business
was fascinating, but very uncertain. Mr. Mildini was chatty and not a
bit stand-offish, as one might think a talented person would be.

So, when that old fall sun sank down toward the west, it outlined two
shabby wagons, crawling along the lonely prairie. Near one rode an eager
white boy, occasionally leaning over and drinking in the wisdom that
fell from the lips of a little Irishman; near the other, a pink-shirted
Indian lad, stolid and silent, but in his breast burning the fever that
stirs every boy who is going to a show.

CHAPTER XVIII

WONDERS

Perhaps if you were born in, or have visited, a great Eastern city you
have sat in an enormous amphitheater, a fifth of a mile in length, with
tiers and tiers of private boxes, and rows and rows of seats. In the
sawdust arena you have seen three circus rings, a performance going on
in each; acrobats, bare-back riders, trained animals, what not; and
around the edge of it all a procession of clowns, doing their merry
stunts. And you have craned, strained, and twisted your neck, trying to
take it all in. And that is your idea of a show.

In such a place sat Whitey, for that was what a show recalled to his
mind, but when he opened his eyes, and came away from that mind circus,
he was in a very different place.

Large it was and barren, with rough-boarded sides; with lofts, and
stalls, and racks, and farming implements crowded into corners, and an
earthen floor, and--well, perhaps you have seen a big Western barn,
which answers the purpose of housing many things and animals. Such was
the setting in which the Mildini Troupe performed; the Pride of the
West!

Each individual of the audience sat on whatever he, or she, could get to
sit upon; a saddle, a blanket, a box, a rare chair or two. Perhaps that
audience would have proved to you almost as interesting as the
performance, for it was made up of many sorts of men that the threshing
had brought together--farm-hands, cowpunchers, store-keepers,
blacksmiths, bartenders, hold-up men, but no sheepherders. Sheepherder