A Man Sized Pet

Magpie Simpkins, Tellurium Woods, and Bantie Weyman are three mismatched frontier neighbors who turn wilderness isolation into a comic contest of nerve, pride, and bad judgment. Bound together by a card-playing club and by their absurd "pets" — a tame bear and a wolf — they stage a rough-and-ready mountain satire where masculinity is measured less by strength than by who can survive the next prank. At Magpie's cabin, a lively evening of cards erupts into chaos when Bantie steps on the wolf while the bear is dancing nearby, scattering the group and leaving him furious, humiliated, and missing his pants. Magpie and Tellurium treat the disaster as proof that "man-sized pets" make excellent companions, but Bantie quietly plots his revenge. He first appears to favor a harmless kitten, then reveals a wildcat that sends Magpie fleeing in terror. When Tellurium later comes calling with his usual teasing confidence, he too is outmaneuvered and mysteriously disappears, leaving only his sombrero behind. The result is a playful frontier tale of bluff, bravado, and escalating one-upmanship. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.