The night before his thirteenth birthday, Billy Christmas runs away from home in stodgy St. Louis and rides off to the Wild West, where he becomes Scrib, letter writer for lovelorn cowboys and wild-eyed outlaws.

Here is Scrib's own story, told in bubbling prose and babbling epistles, an ambling tale set in 1863, as Scrib travels his rounds on his horse Gabe, befriending all and running into deadly danger along the way.

This is probably the funniest, most outrageous cowboy story you will ever read. With the cleverness of Mark Twain at his best, the hilarity of a Mel Brooks movie, and the fast-moving speed of a train wreck, this is the Old West as it may not have been -- but should have!