"This was a little fat Dutchman, with pale blue eyes and a mustache
like two streaks of darning cotton. He had come to town to sell a
pair of beef-steers, but got drawn into the general hilarity, and
now he didn't care a cuss whether he, she, or it ever sold another
steer. He got himself on end and sung 'Leeb Fadderlont moxtrue
eckstein' in a style that made you wonder that the human nose could
stand the strain.

"'Aw, cheese that!' says a feller near the door. 'Come get your
steers, one of 'em's just chased the barber up a telegraph pole!'

"So then we all piled out into the street to see the steers. Sure
enough, there was the barber, sitting on the cross-piece, and the
steer pawing dirt underneath.

"'He done made me come a fast heat from de cohner,' says the
barber. 'I kep' hollerin' "next!" but he ain't pay no 'tention--he
make it "next" fur me, shuah! Yah, yah, yah! You gents orter seen
me start at de bottom, an' slide all de way up disyer telegraft
pole!'

"One of the bull-whackers went out to rope the steers, and Ag gave
directions from the sidewalk. He wasn't very handy with a riata,
and that's a fact, but the way Ag lit into him was scandalous.
When he'd missed about six casts of his rope, Ag opened up on him:

"'Put a stamp on it and send it to him by mail,' says Aggy, in his
sourcastic way. 'Address it, "Bay Steer, middle of Main St.,
Boise, Idaho. If not delivered within ten days, return to owner,
who can use it to hang himself." Blast my hide if I couldn't stand
here and throw a box-car nearer to the critter! Well, _well_,
WELL! How many left hands have you got, anyhow? Do it up in a wad
and heave it at him for general results--he might get tangled in
it.'

"It rattled the bull-whacker, having so much attention drawn to
him, and he stepped on the rope and twisted himself up in it and
was flying light generally.

"'Say!' says Ag, appealing to the crowd, 'won't some kind friend
who's fond of puzzles go down and help that gentleman do himself?'

"That made the whacker mad. He was as red in the face as a lobster.

"'You come down and show what _you_ can do," says he. 'You've got
gas enough for a balloon ascension, but that may be all there is to
you.'

"'Oh, I ain't so much,' says Aggy, 'although I'm as good a man
to-day as ever I was in my life--but I have a little friend here
who can rope, down, and ride that critter from here to the
brick-front in five minutes by the watch; an