The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1886-12-03
BKULE'S GIRL.
BY ROBERT c. V. MEYERS.
The Portland oreponian.

was eolo oy Bob Craddock, who drove
sne wagon, to look out when thew
aeared Alljohn's tavern. Here were
the men in mob; with a shout thew
'prang forward, undid the harness
and dragged the wagon into the center
ot the settlement. Her father came
up.
"Why, Dad" she laughed, display.
ing her fine teeth, elf l amt glad to
Bee you. It's been two years since we
saw each other, amt it? Now Pm
come to stay"
Whereat the men raised a louder
shout and then she sobered up; far
apart fr ON the others, an odd smile
on MS lace, was an out-of-shape man.
one went into her fathers cabin and
SAID she was tired out and out.
she was the glory OF the place; had
she SO minded she might have sat all
day long and received adulation.
wait till they see me with my hair
curled, said she "and a red bow the
wrong side OF my otf-ear.."
She tried the experiment. That day
the men called meeting and handed
over to her keeping the TIN box that
had been stored at Alliohn's.
"My!' she said, | feel like little
girls story book that told of a chap
that had a lamp that he rubbed and
fetched up niger every time; that
Chinese chap you know"
"Don't want no Chinese" grumbled
some one, land what did ne do9"
Now, as she narrated the history OF
Aladdin, looking marvelously beauti-
tul and like some wild spontaneous
growth OF this part of the world that
gave forth soft crumbling gold and
rich metals instead OF perishable flow
ers, she saw the man again.
"Whosei is that worm fence" she ask.
cd.
They told her that was Geordie
Crooks, an Englishman, who had
come from the Lord knows where
like SO many others; that he
had built a cabin for himself a half
mile from any other habitation, near
clump OF stunted trees; that he was
q lonesome sort of fellow, doing odd
jobs and often sick and miserable.
'1Then there's nothing against him
but his weak body?" she uueried.
Except his crooked back" return
ed Sammy Alljohn. "More in his ia
We are powerful on the shakes here,
sissy. ma'am; on account ofthe gulch,
you know. So Crooksnurses us; he's
the only one that can be spared for
that sort OF thing"
bah! | like fighting man myself" ;"
said she, mot a nurse"
Yet from that time she manifested
an INTEREST," in the man. 1t might have
been because he took little or no in
terest in her, and she the only woman
Tor miles around. She was not used
TO such treatment, and who was he
shat presumed to be different from
the other men. Once she saw him
coming down the gulch, his face white
and bitter. "Hes got the heart dis
ease," she SAID, "the nursey."
She took on way OF standing out
side when the men went to and from
the lode, so she saw him t'so or three
times a day.
Sometimes Of evenings he sat upon
the ground outside his shady cab.
in. smoking his pipe, while the
other men were playing their games
In her loiterings she saw him thus time
and again. And at last it became un-
bearable, 30 she went to him. "Why
don't you act like man." she said,
@instead OF sitting here and mop
ing?" He glanced up at her, and ex-
tended his hand.
"Yonder's my old home, lass" he
answered. 81 like to sit and face it
when my days work is done"
"Show me your place." she said.
He took her to his cabin and show
ed her the little neatness he had con-
trived there; he showed her the clump
OF trees of which he was especially
proud, as being the only trees around
until you came to the gulch that
boasted OF few more.
For many evenings after that she
went and talked with him, asked
about his prospects his plans, ques-
tioning him as to his past, trying to
find out something she knew not what.
And when he had answered her and
his answers seemed void of what she
wanted, she would say, "There turn
:, no +oll ,o,r ala hon,ao,d 70 IL,
about it."
Bob Craddock saw her there once.
That night after her father left ALL
Johns meeting was called. They
watched their opportunity and one
day when she was alone, they waited
on her. "Just as though he could be
anything to me-" she laughed, "while
all you fine fellows are at hand"
"We won't have no Chinese and we
won't have no English preferences
Sammy Alljohn said. 1--WE don't in.
tend to tell your old man nothing,
but we're vig,lant committee to keep
Crooks from making afool OF you and
going and marrying you. Your ia.
ther'd mind the man il he knew
After that she made more OF the
men than usual, though she kept III
the house when they went to and
from the lode, and never stirred forth
OF evenings. At the end OF a month
she came out as the men went past
one morning; she was yellow and hag
gard and shivering. "Sissy Brule's
got the shakes, they whispered, awed.' ,
In the early evening she heard
knock on the door; .ler hand up over
4 J.