Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1884-04-03

| Tue rain beat on us IN Suuucu SuSl,
and the "white ladies" foamed over the
sides of the scow and INFO our laps with
a rude familiarity to which no genuine
white lady should descend. After thai
the deluge! Yes, our Heaven ordained
Nurse was flirting round some invisible
corner with the elements, after the fash
ion of earthly maids and tangible police
men, leaving her panic-stricken charges
to the mercies of the cruel, gree ~
waves! l think even Baby Dixie real
lied that water up to our knees meant
sinking. and that sinking meant death
and so there was nothing to do but
shrek for poor dear daddy, with 9
childish faith that he could save us,
and, falling him, to make up our sever
small minds to sink the very best we
knew how, and all 60 to Heaven in 6
bunch
1t was quite plain the crazy old tub
had made up its mind to 20 to the bot
tom, and the beautiful persistency with
which she settled to her work would
have sent us down with sickening swift
ness, only that Providence, remember
ing us at the very last moment. rushed
to our rescue in the shape of Captain
Dan!
TO say we adored our ncxt-door farm
er but shabbily expresses the devotion
with which we assailed the preserver of
our useless little lives. All along, we
had known him simply as the man with
n beard, and bothered no more about
him. but ROU!
Tin cans of my childhood, how full 70
stopping we kept you with bait! Oh,
soft crabs, quivering like unto live poul-
tees in dingy nets! Oh, fat, purplish
angle-worms! Oh, brOwn-snOuted CLAIMS.
We beat up cartridges from the russell
hedges, and while his gun was smOk-
ing, hunted the stubble to bring them
to him warm and wet and dead. We
let him into the secret of every nest and
burrow in the chafly pines, and bis
tered ourselves in the cOrn-feld fighting
marauding crows. We even extended
our love to the old mare that had come
home from the war with him all ribs
and horsehair-- and to the rusty little
fishing smack that had helped to save
our lives,
He never made us feel, God bless
him! that we were not delightful to
gaze upon, or that we might be less ag-
Sressive in the way of teeth and nails
and heels. There was always bright
sort of welcome in his brown freckled
face when we scampered across fields or
along roads to meet him, and his was
always the first CHEEKY word, always,
at least, until that unlucky evening
when we met him cantering from the
village with the alarming announce
ment that Cousin Till had come.
Cousin till meant mas niece. She
was one of those big, gorgeous looking
young women a body calls stunning be-
hind her back--a young woman with
lots of bronze hair in a demoralized
aate of puff, bang and frizzle, with
cheeks like peach-blooms all pink and
vaxy, and lips as red and tempting as
mas bush of scarlet sage.
Sue was rich, too, in q mild sort of
way, dressed in milk-white frocks and
blue ribbons for breakfast. and had a
beau, ma said, for every day in the
week. For the rest, she owned big
farm ten miles above It's, visited ma
when there was nothing better going
on, and always went off In a huff. She
treated us children fairly enough, con-
and all we knew or cared
about her was that she sleptin mittens
to keep her hands white, carried her
trunk key with exasperating consistency,
never tasted coffee on account of her
and wished her name was
Maud instead of Matilda-all we cared
at least, until that unlucky evening
when Captain Dan would bulge no
nearer than the garden after which l
am bound to own we hated her with
hatred too genuine to put in print.
the house--even when we chung to his
saddle flaps and swarm ad about his
legs, and tugged and coaxed and scold-
ed, we could get no better satisfaction
than playful flip of his riding whip as
he gave his horse the bride and slowly
rode away That was the beginning Of
it. We rarely saw our preserver after
that, and never once at the house-how
we hated her for it, and how we wished
to goodness she would have the sense
to go!
At last, when things had become so
desperate that Captain Dan never even
scudded by in his fishing smack, nor
turned his old mares head into our
road-and Cousin Till kept on being
sweet as peaches we held an indgna-
ton meeting on the back piazza and
vented our wrongs in speech.
Cut her throat and bury her in the
pines" suggested John, our harmless
eldest. who was addicted to uncOmfOrt-
ably vivid dreams 81.
IVY tant we put ard trabs in her
BID AMI dwown her wifi a wope!" lisped
Aggia. our Borgia of six.
.'Better shave that head. of hers!'
advised Jim. who really gave brilliant
promise Of being a first-class villain
only he died, poor little lad. before he
had time to work out his VOCATION.
And to shave our Cousin lilly we de-
cided
We were very jubilant at the tea-tabfe
that night-so jubilant that ma moaned
at us through her bedroom door, and
papa and Cousin Till frowned at us
down from their end of the table-and
when at last she had retired early by
reason of mas headache, and papa had
catechised us from ''Who made .you?"
What became of Cain?' we, too, filed
up> the crooked old stairway to the
rooms allotted to our sway.
We had cast John for the barber in
our thrilling version of the Grape OF the
Lock-" but being overwhelmed with a
conscience at the trying moment, Jim
assumed the part at the usual five min
utes' notice and doubtless would have
performed his role with perfect salts
faction but for tableau not down in |
the bill
The harvest moon was shining like a