Upside Down or Backwards

Ike Harper and his lanky sidekick Magpie Simpkins run a modest gold placer on the outskirts of Plenty Stone Creek. Their days are filled with colorful dialect, hard‑hat jokes, and the constant search for a patron to turn a few hundred dollars of ore into a real mining venture. When Magpie disappears on a long‑range “capital‑raising” trip, Ike stays put, watching the creek and wondering how long the money will stay buried.

Thirty days later Magpie staggers back, yellow hard‑hat perched and a baffling letter in hand—a shipment notice for a live cassowary from a Chicago pet shop. The bird’s arrival promises a strange new avenue for profit, but also threatens to upend the pair’s simple frontier routine. Listeners are invited to follow their witty repartee and the first scramble to decide what to do with the exotic, feather‑covered surprise.