At first they stopped and killed them, but there were so many, after they had killed fourteen or fifteen, they gave up the work of extermination, and passed a great many, which rattled saucily at them.

Laing had many of the charming characteristics of his native land, his accent was delightful and perfect, and he was a good entertainer. He fixed up a crate, and loaded the two pigs for the women folks, and they returned. Laing's were the first hogs on the North Platte river, and Ash ford's were the first on Pumpkin creek or into the territory later embraced bv the boundaries of Banner county.

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

THE VIRGINIAN -- ARBUCKLE'S RANCH -- ROMANCE OF PARENTS OF MADE- LINE FORCE-LINGLE OF VALLEY VIEW -- CONNOLYS OF THE "PF" -- NEW RANCHES -- HANK INGHRAM'S NARROW ESCAPE

A few years ago, a book called "the Virginian" had quite a run in the western country. Many of the incidents contained therein were from experiences in the Panhandle of Nebraska, and eastern Wyoming. One of the stories told was that of the pranks of two cow punchers at a dance. While the mothers of a number of sleeping infants were dancing, the boys changed the wraps which the babies wore and changed their positions, to the end that when the dance broke up, most of the parents started home with the wrong baby. As the discoveries were not made until the parents were at home, in some cases twenty miles from the scene, it took considerable time to straighten out the tangle of who was who in Babyland.