Excerpt from A Texas Cow Boy, or Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony: Taken From Real Life I suppose the above would suffice, but as time is not very precious I will continue and tell how the idea of writing a book first got into my head: While ranching on the Indian Territory line, close to Caldwell, Kansas, in the winter of '82 and '83, we boys - there being nine of us - made an iron clad rule that whoever was heard swearing or caught picking grey backs Off and throwing them on the floor without first killing them, should pay a fine of ten cents for each and every Offense. The proceeds to be used for buying choice literature - something that would have a tendency to raise us above the average cow-puncher. Just twenty - four hours after making this rule we had three dollars in the pot or at least in my pocket, I having been appointed treasurer. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.