Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1872-05-24

grew solely out of the fact that he. had
three daughters. The unfortunate con
stitution of the family was the direct
cause of its unwonted thrift Any
white woman in such !. place'is an en-
tlcement not to be resisted by the aver
age plainsman, and 'Sms' gals" were
celebrities over an extent of country as
large as the State of New York. 81.
But as time passed and the small
herds increased, the females became OBJ
jects of a still profounder interest. They
were spoken of as heiresses. Neyerthe-
less, at the pinch no amount of money
could have married either. of the two
| eldest daughters. Theywere tall, gaunt,
and coarse. They were as, ignorant as
Eve, and had performed the duties of
masculinity SO long hat either of them
was near match for cinna-
mon bear. Not so with the
youngest. The most courtly. and pol
ished danes in the land have seldom
displayed as much in the way of per-
sonal endowmentss as. this one rose
among the thistles. Fair-skinned and
blue.eyed, strong and graceful, petted
from infancy and nurtured in compara-
tive ease, healthful in sentiment as in
body, she was special attraction, and
came seldom in contact with the rough
characters who frequented her fathers
house. And she had the mind of the
family. Her Opinions were The law of
the house, and she occupied her auto
cratic position without embarrassment
and ruled without check. Old Sims
was her man-servant, and her mother
was only privileged associate and ad-
wiser. AS for her huge sisters, they
continually rebelled and always obeyed.
There is mysterious law of primogeni-
ture by which children sometimes en-
body the characteristics of distant an
cestors, and discarding the nearer family
traits and circumstances, reproduce the
vices, virtues, and countenances which
have been moldering for a century.
There must have been some rare blood
in the Sims family, for this last scion of
q race which had been subjected to all
the influences of the frontier-hardship
and toll in the Alleghenies ague and
laziness in the Missouri bottoms, and
poverty always-was totally unlike her
family and her surroundings. The sprawl
ing feet, gaunt limbs, great brown hands,
coarse complexions and carroty hair of
| her sisters and her mother. were things
they had apart. Nobodp knew or ever
asked how Chuck had learned to read,
or became possessed of certain we'll
thumbed books and stray newspapers.
No one ever inquired into the mystery
of how her garments came to fit her
round figure with a neatness which was
miracle to the uninitiated, or why the
yellow coils lay so gracefully upon her
shapely head. Finally, the pervading
force which directed all things in and
around the ranch came to be almost un-
questioned. A beauty with will is a
power; beauty with brains and will
is the most complete of despots.
The Sims family had been five years
in this locality. and mainly through the
ability of the youngest child, now a ma
ture woman, aided by the circumstance
of fortunate location, had acquired cat
tie, money and responsibility. The
money and respectability were easily
cared for, because Chuck carried them
both upon her person; but the herd
which was gathered nightly into the
corral was the lure of final destruction.
The charmed circle of safety which was
drawn around the military post was an
indefinite and uncertain one, and the
incursions of Apaches are governed by
no conventionality. After long delay
and frequent smaller thefts, came the
final swoop which took all.
Old Sims and Chuck started to go to
the post. The presence of the latter
was necessary to keep the former from
getting drunk and falling into the hands
of military minions, to be incarcerated
in the guard house. In the perfect
peacefulness and serenity of the early
morning it seemed impossible that dan
ger and death could lie in wait so near.
As the old man dug his heels into the
flank of his mule and Chuck looked
complacently back from her seat upon
a pony only less willful than his rider,
the two little dreamed that it was the
last time they were to see "Sims's
Ranch." AS they threaded their way
along the intricacies of the trail, Chuck
of course in the lead, the old man la
bored diligently to bring out the capac-
itics of his mule wherever the path was
Z wide enough to permit his riding beside
his daughter In truth he had some
thing to say. to her concerning those
matters in which girls are always. inter.
ested and about which they are always
unwilling to talk. A confidential con
Iversation with his daughter was one OF
Sims's Unparalleled ambitions-a thing
which in late years he had often failed
in accomplishing. She cared for him,
was kind and loving, but seemed tohave
no ideas in common with him; and dc
what ne would he could not keep pace
{ with her. When two persons are thus
! together, there is frequently an uncon-
scious idea of the thought of q one in
the mind of the other, and the girl kept
! steadily ahead. But the object was one
which weighed upon the old mans
mind; and despa1ring of nearer. ap
proach, he presently called out from be
hind e g7s4 .-@ 81
4 SD Well. what is it?n came from the
4 depths of the sun bonnet In front.
sEiGsssI want ter know now. honest, what
! yer going to do1 with them two fellers
which air, one or tother of 'em allus
round our house lookin fur YOU II
looks as though Sairey, bein' the oldest
'shud hev some kind of a chance
and she did afore you growed up
] but Irec' on, now, there's no use thinkin
Nv that till you're gone. Now, as atween
these .fellers, I'd like to know'- -zand
! plaintively-s. pears to me like I've q
i right to know which Nv 'em you're
going3to take ! crden't be long 9
choosin'' f,twas me-. W'y1Tom Harris
| is big an hansum, and rides jest. forty
miles every week to git sight avye.
4 kin tell from that feller's looks thathe'd
swim the Arkansaw and fight anything