St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-11-22
SIMPSONS RANCH.
BY A. A. HAYES.

Smith or Mr.. Jones, but this must have beer
in days which were prehistoric as far as his
fellows in the cattle country were concerned
To them he was, and had always BEEN
',Broncho Sam;" and old Bill Kensett, up Oh
the Divide, whose age was beyond mortal
ken, and who was Stalwart man wher
he trapped with Ruxton and traded with
st. Vrain, was on record as saying that he
allowed that when tibet thar youngstel
come from the states he hedn't no Other
name than Broncho SAM" That settled it.
''Thet thar youngster." was relative, GER
tainly not a positive, characterization; fol
BronchO Sam was veteran, and he looked
it as he sat on rude bench, outside the
ruder log cabin, and facing the west. To
an Eastern eye his surroundings were the
abomination of desolation. The cabin stood
in narrow valley, near the bed, almost dry,
of what might be stream. To the gray
banks inclosing it a few stunted and dis
torted cedars were precariously clinging, and
at distance there were some patches OF
sage-brush. As unwise, indeed. were he
who should look at these things to the eXclu-
sion of distant ones, as he who curiously in
spects the squalid streets of Naples when by
lifting his eyes he could see across the beau
tiful bay to the grand silhouette of Vesuvius,
with Sorrento and Capri in the distance.
Here above the barren outlines of grim
canons. above the sparsely wooded foothills,
above the jagged outlying peaks, rose in its
simple majesty the great range. Across the
exquisite blue sky overhead drifted clouds
as white as the driven snow. and as light and
1eecy as those under which once lay the
Isles of the Blest. 1t was near sunset, after
the radiance of an autumn day, and the all
was deliciously clear, cool, and bracing.
Broncho Sam was not looking at the
mountains or the sky, but at gun which he
was cleaning. His companion younger
man and evidently a disciple, had been
watching his skillful manipulation, and
listening to the words of wisdom which fell
from his lips, for famed ranch manager
was this same Broncho Sam; and fortunate
were the employers, far away in 1.-THE
states" whose interests were intruSted to
his faithful care.
Then came voice through the open door
"a fresh, youthful, ringing voice:
"JuSt you wait minute, Sam, and I'll
come out and argue that point with you. !
have not an idea what you are talking about.
but say there is some sense in it. and there
was some sense. and there will be some
sense in it; and what is it all about, any
way?"
Sam uttered an unintelligent grunt. 1t
could not have been one of entire dissatis-
faction, for something like smile showed
itself on his rugged features, and was plainly
visible as he looked up and saw Jack Rey-
nolds standing in the doorway. A hand
some young fellow was he, and a general
favorite in all the region for fifty miles
round. Ever since he came out from
Chicago-whence the doctor sent him after
a long illness-he had added as steadily to
the hardness of his muscles the color in his
cheeks and the figure at which he turned
the scale.
Blame me if he don't lay over any ten
derfOOt ever see" said BrOncho Sam, one
day, as he stood in an admring crowd at the
bar of the Arcade saloon in Pueblo. ''Gimme
show, and allow I'll make him frSt-claSS
ranch hand in year or two"
He amt no SLOUGH of a ranchman now,
according to my idee," said rash new
conner.
Sam looked at him with an undisguised
contempt, clearly shared by the by-standers.
perhaps he is, an perhaps he aint," said
he. 81 allow you oughter know better'n L.
Yes, Jim, yer may gimme another one of
the same SOrt.''
Jack. it may easily be believed, was the
soul of the ranch. He interested himself
in the operations, and made a creditable
figure at the first roundup" He could
soon ride the worst of the ''bucking' horses,
and throw a lariat with many an older man.
He was bit of dandy, too, in his way, and
did not disdain a gilt cord with pendant
tassels around the crown of an expensive
Mexican SombrerO. gay neck-tie loosely
knotted and lying snugly under the rolling
collar of his gray flannel shirt, and pair
of long riding-boots of exceptional make.
All this finery, however. was reserved for
other places than the ranch, and other oc-
casions than the days passed there. The
most cynical of "old-timers' found nothing
to criticise in his display thereof when he
rode into Pueblo for day of combined bust
ness and pleasure; and in way, they felt a
local pride in one who could hold a certif-
cate of competency from such Sir Hubert
as Broncho Sam, and at the same time be,
by the canons of that longitude, a very re-
spectacle swell" More than one young
lady member of some party of personally
conducted" tourists had looked admiringly
at him from the window of the Denver Pull
man as he sat on his horse near the station
platform; and the landlord of the Arcade
saloon was understood to have. in rare
interval OF sobriety. expressed the opinion
that such an exhibition was good for the in
terest of the region. why" said he, thar
amt no two ways about it. When them thar
tenderfeet an fancy tourists sees an outfit
like thet, they'll kind O. think ranchin' is a
boss business, an it III put 'em up to comm
out here an buyin' land, an startin' boom
in ranches, an helpin' trade. Yer see they'll
think all ranchmen is like him, an they'll
git mighty badly left; but thet amt your
funeral nor mine. Say, young Teller, what'u
yer take? Nothin'? Waal suit yourself -
Three miles above the ranch where Jack
lived was another, of rather better character
as regarding its buildings which stood close
to the bed of the creek. 1t belonged to a
man named Simpson. Most people liked
him; few knew him well. There was
vague impression abroad that Simpson had
history, and that his ownership of a
western ranch was but an episode in life
far different from that to which most of his
neighbors had been born; but there was that
about him which repealed inquisitiveness.
His cattle were numerous and in goou con-
diti0n; he was active and efficient in the
roundup, but his patronage of the Arcade
saloon was of the scantiest, and he was
somewhat eccentric in the making of what
in another and more formal state of society
would have been visiting-list. Those,
however, who had enjoyed the hospitallties
of Simpsons ranch had much to say of a
wife who often wore ''stOre clothes. and OF
a daughter of about nineteen, as pretty a
girl, it was reported, as had ever been seer
from Denver down to Cucharas, and as
bright as the sunlight on the plains Not
many had seen her; fewer still knew her;
yet her fame had gone abroad. She was
graciously idealized; she was held to belong,
in sense. to the region:and there was not a
cowboy on the ranch who would not have
broken a lance Tor, what is far more
practical, emptied his six-shooter) as hel
chamnjOn