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172 again; but inside of twenty-four hours, he came with just as broad a smile and said, “Well, I’ve got back the big bay.” And it was through that kind of operations, the rake-off, as it were, that went to the kitty, that Uncle Ben got a good financial start. He traded and retraded the horse for years. Every time he passed out he was called “Old Broadfoot,” and every time he came back he was the “Big Bay.”

Silverton kept growing more and more, and traveling men with bigger diamonds began to come to town. I drew pictures for lots of the drummers, and several of them told me they sent to Paris every few months to buy the goods they sold in Silverton. They said that in Paris most everybody drew pictures, and that some day they’d take me. I told father about their promise to take me to Paris, but he only smiled.

It seemed that I ought to be doing something. I was getting pretty big for my age, and still there didn’t seem to be anything that I was just suited for. Finally, McMahan’s circus came,—a one-ring circus,—and they