Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1883-05-09
"You'u never come back" was til,

l
low - continued the girl, kneeling be.
side the PROSTATE giant and stroking bis
dark curls; "you never can support a
wife. You cau't support me now, or you
wouldn't have let me sing at the Alham
bra And Mr.. M@cenas, you know has
promised to take care of mother while I
am away in Italy learning to eng. Come
Jun, be a man -
Jim only groaned in reply, and rolled
his burly form about like huge levia-
than.
A quaint group the parties formed
! he, the incarnation of brute strength,
lying prone and helpless; the girl,
slight and delicate, yet with an express
ion of almost masculine determination
on her childlike features, which glowed
with the light of dawning day.
The sun had not yet risen, but along
the eastern horizon it's coming was her
aided by q band of silvery light. Fleecy
clouds of royal purple, edged with gold,
like mighty banners, announced the ap-
proach of day. Toward the zenith
floated a vast veil of rosy red, from which
islets driftel. In the south where the
blue sky kissed the plain, its color va
ried to delicate green. The night
mist yet fingered on the mountains in
the west, soften,ng their rugged out
lines.
Suddenly, as if by an enchanter's
wand, the scene changed. In the east
the silver melted away, and the entire
orient glowed like molten gold. The
tips of the mountains, all along the
range, began to be tinged with yellow
light, which stole down theirrocky sides,
chasing before it the receding shade.
Coward night fed aehast before the lord
of day, as far away upon the brink OF
the prairie uprose globe of fee which
bathed in radiance plain and mountain
alike aud covered the lovers With gold
en- garment.
"Jim, Jim, I must co." su ldenly ex-
claimed the girl, aroused to action by
the sunrise. cts getting late, and l
have an old life to end and a new one to
begin"
AGO; I'll not hinder yer, answered
Jim, still prone, while the hot tears con-
tinued to dew the hot short grass.
The girl hesitated moment, then. be-
coming reolute, entered the adobe
dwelling and disappeared from view.
Two hours later Jim stood on the
platform of the railway depot wa ching
with haggard eyes the train which bore
further and further from him the woman
lie loved.
"What relation am T to Mountain
Jim ?" said Ida, in response to MIR.
uacenas' questions as the manager
and his protege travelled along the new
~ built branch railway cont Letting Den
yer with the Union Pacific at Cheyenne.
Why, none at all. I have no rela-
tion," continued the girl, sadly. ~
have not even a name. My father and
mother were killed by Indians while
crossing the plalns-it was before the
days of railways-and the only thing
they didn't kin or carry off were me and
Webster's dictionary. Jim's father, old
Mr.. Nymrodd, with a party of blue
coats from Fort Laramie, scared them
away, and he afterward adopted me. l
was poor useless little wretch about
five years OIL. and only know my first
name-lds-so they called ne Ida Web
ster alter the dictionary. Here they
both laughed, and the girl, smiling
through the natural tears that had gath
cred, pratt!ed on more cbeerful!.
"Why am I so superior to Jim and
my surroundings? Old Mr.. Nymrodd
always declared that my father was a
gentleman, for the clothes was found
IN were fine and delicate. Then I went
to school-the first public school in
Denver-and we had real lady fer a
teacher. She came from "the states
an invalid, and grew strong ia tie pure
air of The plains. She did everything
for me. shall never forget what owe
to dear Miss Lee"
TELL you all my story? There is
little to tell, sir. Old Mr.. Nymrodd,
who was trapper like Jim, only stead
Ter, was found one morning frozen still
as enowdrift within q stones throw of
the house. The little money he LETT
was spent IN the course Of time, and we
Mrs. Nymrodd, Jim and I-grew so
poor that year ago, although I hated
it dreadfully, went to sing at the Al
hembra.
"What kind of a man is jim? Why
he's the best shot on the plains and can
play the best game of cards. Poor Jim
isn't as black as he is painted, sir. He
hasn't killed but one man in all his life,
and that was George Cook, the gam.
bier, in front of what is now the Ameri.
can House in Denver; and Cook, they
said, only got his deserts. Jim has
killed redskins, of course, but it was in
fair battle, when he was scouting it with
the blue-coats. Poor Jim," she con-
tinued with sigh, she has never been
able to do anything worth doing; and
yet when gold was discovered at Pixies
Peak, although he was only a lad, he
prospccted away with the best of them
and struck it rich, too. He gave some
of the money at the start to his father
and mother, and the rest slipped away,
as it always does from Jim. 1t was
really an unlucky strike for it got him
used to being idle and extravagant; and
ever since he does little but play cards,
hunt and guide the tourists and soldiers
who come hereabouts."
Her tone was fearful as we'll as tender
when she concluded; and seeing her in
this melting mood, the manager relin-
pushed his fiual question, which was
whether she could ever bring herself to
marry Jim.
Five years from the day when the trap
per had seen the Denver Pacific train
bear away from him his souls delight,
Mountain Jim lay stretched on the grass
of that elevated plateau in the heart OF
the Rocky Mountains known as Estes
Park. He was laboriously reading let
ter which WAGNER had just brought
from Longmont, the nearest post-ofice.
Above him lowered Longs Peak!
crested with snow. A brook-tbat rare
thing in the plain below-babbled ct his
feet, and the scanty foliage of cotton
wood tree shaded his head from the bright
Colorado SUD.
Jim was dressed in apparently the
same costume which be had worn five
years before, and both he and his VEL
veteen coat and leather leggins looked
the worse for wear. His matted locks
hung uncared for from under his bat
tered sembrero, and it did not require the
flask which protruded from his pocket,
to testify that he had undergone moral
and physical deterioration since the con-
okraint ~ 11oSa ,orosonoo ho1 hoo,, ~