The boys here are very _curious_ about _luxuries_ and _oddities_; and I used to have much sport with them. One time I sent to Kansas City for a keg of pickled pig’s-feet; and when there were a good many _boys_ in I opened it. After the boys found that they were good, I sold half a keg, at fifteen cents apiece, before I stopped. It was amusing to see them running round, each with a pig’s-foot in his hand. At another time I bought a number of large silk _neck-ties_; and after selling _one_, I sold the whole lot the same day for one dollar and seventy-five cents apiece. They tied them round their necks, and used them for hat-bands. Of course the _profits_ were large upon all sales, and I made money fast. This was in the winter of 1878-9,--the time of the great excitement and emigration to Leadville,--and being right on the route, from fifty to seventy-five wagons daily passed my place for a couple of months. The weather was usually bad and the traveling hard; and most every one of the outfits needing something in my line, my sales ran from seventy-five to one hundred and fifty dollars per day for several weeks. I shall leave the reader to _guess_ at the _margins_, and only say that we did not _deal_ in nickels. We were all now located at the same place, and were making money; and many a fine old time we had together in that old Arkansas valley. We and several other persons kept a pack of greyhounds, and we often went out for a chase. When wanting a chase, each boy going would saddle a good pony, and, with the hounds trained to stay close in the rear, we would ride out over the plain, looking cautiously for a flock of antelopes, deer, a jack-rabbit, or a wolf. When a flock of antelopes or deer is seen, the riders take advantage of the hills and ravines and get just as close as possible without being discovered; then, turning the hounds _loose_, away they go with the speed of the wind. If the hounds are well bred, and can be gotten within a _quarter_ before beginning the chase, they will usually be successful; otherwise the fleet animals are likely to escape.