"Boss," I says out loud, "they's a little, empty rockin'-chair byside yourn t'-night. Wal, I'll never come back this way no more 'less you' baby gal is home at the ranch-house again t' fill it." Then, I picked up my satchel and hunted the day-coach. A-course, when I reached Chicago, the first thing I done was to take a fly at that railroad on stilts. Next, I had t' go over and turn my lanterns on the lake. Pretty soon I was so all-fired broke-in that I could stand on a street corner without bein' hitched. But people was a-takin' me fer Bill Cody, and the kids had a notion to fall in behind when I walked any. So I made myself look cityfied. I got a suit--a nice, kinda brownish-reddish colour. I done my sombrero up in a newspaper and pur_chased_ a round hat, black and turrible tony. I bought me some sateen shirts,--black, too, with turn-down collars and little bits of white stripes. A white satin tie last of all, and, say! I was fixed! Wal, after seein' Chicago, it stands t' reason that Noo York cain't git a feller scairt so awful much. Anyhow, it didn't _me_. The minute I got offen the train at the Grand Central, I got my boots greased and my clothes breshed; then I looked up one of them Fourth of July hitchin'-posts and had my jaw scraped and my mane cut. "Pardner," I says t' the barber feller, "I want t' rent a cheap room." "Look in the papers," he _ad_vises. 'Twixt him and me, we located a place afore long, and he showed me how t' git to it. Wal, sir, I was settled in a jiffy. The room wasn't bigger 'n a two-spot, and the bed was one of them jack-knife kind. But I liked the looks of the shebang. The lady that run it, she almost fell over when I tole her I was a cow-punch. "Why!" she says, "are y' shore? You're tall enough, but you're a little thick-set. I thought all cow-boys was very slender." "No, ma'am," I says; "we're slender in books, I reckon. But out in Oklahomaw we come in all styles." "Wal," she goes on, "they's something _else_ I want to ast. Now, you ain't a-goin' to shoot 'round here, are y'? Would you just as lief put you' pistols away whilst you're in my house?" I got serious then. "Ma'am," I says, "sorry I cain't oblige y'. But the boys tole me a gun is plumb needful in Noo York. When it comes to killin' and robbin', the West has got to back outen the lead." You oughta saw her face! But I didn't want to look fer no other room, so I pretended t' knuckle. "I promise not to blow out the gas with my forty-five," I says, "and I won't rope no trolley cars--if you'll please tell me where folks go in this town when they want t' ride a hoss?" "Why, in Central Park," she answers, "on the bridle path." "Thank y', ma'am," I says, and lit out. A-course, 'most any person 'd wonder what I'd ast the boardin'-house lady _that_ fer. Wal, I ast it 'cause I knowed Macie Sewell good enough to lay my money on _one_ thing: She was too all-fired gone on hosses to stay offen a saddle more'n twenty-four hours at a stretch.