"I'm the Mayor."
"Where are the police, judges, and that sort of thing?"
"I'm all that. Yer see, stranger, I'm everything. I elects myself to all offices; but it's mighty poor payin' ones I'm er-holdin'."
"How do you manage to get along, then?"
"Don't, stranger; that's the puzzle. Yer see, there's only fifty cents in the town treasury, and I've been payin' my rent and taxes with it, and collecting my salary as Mayor and all my other offices from it so long and it's been handled so much that the town books won't balance any more. Yer see, I can't find anything to balance the books with fur the wear of the silver off that coin, and I'm out that much. Now, stranger, if yer not goin' ter invest, and want ter boom the town er little, yer might make up that deficit in the treasury, so's I kin balance them books, and make things square for the next Mayor."
[THE VOYAGE OF THE "RATTLETRAP."]
BY HAYDEN CARRUTH.
IX.
The next day was Sunday, so we did not leave the White River camp till Monday morning. We found Chadron (pronounced Shadron) an extremely lively town in which all of the citizens wore big hats and immense jingling Mexican spurs. We had the big hats, but to be in fashion and not to attract attention we also got jingling spurs.