desirable residence that Will's dreams had pictured it, and as Rome
passed into oblivion the little family returned to St. Louis.



CHAPTER XVI. -- HOW THE SOBRIQUET OF "BUFFALO BILL" WAS WON.

IN frontier days a man had but to ask for work to get it. There was
enough and to spare for every one. The work that paid best was the kind
that suited Will, it mattered not how hard or dangerous it might be.

At the time Rome fell, the work on the Kansas Pacific Railroad was
pushing forward at a rapid rate, and the junior member of the once
prosperous firm of Rose & Cody saw a new field of activity open for
him--that of buffalo-hunting. Twelve hundred men were employed on the
railroad construction, and Goddard Brothers, who had undertaken to board
the vast crew, were hard pressed to obtain fresh meat. To supply this
indispensable, buffalo-hunters were employed, and as Will was known to
be an expert buffalo-slayer, Goddard Brothers were glad to add him to
their "commissary staff." His contract with them called for en average
of twelve buffaloes daily, for which he was to receive five hundred
dollars a month. It was "good pay," the desired feature, but the work
was hard and hazardous. He must first scour the country for his game,
with a good prospect always of finding Indians instead of buffalo; then,
when the game was shot, he must oversee its cutting and dressing, and
look after the wagons that transported it to the camp where the workmen
messed. It was while working under this contract that he acquired the
sobriquet of "Buffalo Bill." It clung to him ever after, and he wore
it with more pride than he would have done the title of prince or grand
duke. Probably there are thousands of people to-day who know him by that