The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-10-24
Selected Storn.
Jim's Romance.

The town of Gibson, in Indian Ter
ritory, is located on the Verdigris
River, an arm of the Kansas. 1t is
also on the border line of the Creek
and Cherokee countries, and is nine
miles distant by wagon road from the
military post at Fort Gibson. A few
miles to the south the town of Mus
kogee furnishes its share of local ex-
element, and is the telegraphing point
of many sensational killings. TO the
east, Just twenty miles, Tallaquah offers
the most decided touch of metropolitan
life that the residents of Gibson and
vicinity can reach with day in the
saddle. Some eight or ten houses, in
Guiding the store that holds the post
office, one or two general groceries, the
hotel and railroad station building,
make the sum total of Gibson's claim
upon the gazetteer.
Duties incident to the writer's asso-
citation with an eastern paper made
stay of several days at Gibson neces-
sary during the early part of last sum-
mer. There was a delightful novelty
in the surroundings and refreshing
vigor in the rude simplicity of things
and people-characte was more rug
ged, truth seemed more direct, and
tenderness held more tears from the
very contrast with its setting. The
great vines climbed and interaced the
walnut timber that skirted the pretty
stream, birds of brilliant colors were
on every side, and the rank luxury of
the grasses seemed in harmony with
the buxom outlines of the Indian girls
that ripened early, unconscious OF the
richness of their health.
The cowboys came to Gibson on their
skittish ponies, and dashed away again
after a bucking start. The Indians and
half-breeds, in their sombreros, shirts
and leather breeches, came lazily up
and moodily departed in the twilight
to the stranger perpeXing enigmas of
the cleaning, themselves the lingering
rays of a great people whose light has
almost gone.
On one quiet evening of that men,
orable week, memorable for its great
quiet, the proprietor of the inn was
standing with the writer on the porch.
The conversation had been upon his
half-breed daughter-the wife was a
full-blooded Creek The girl with a
pan of salt was sprinkling it upon some
big stones that were in the meadow,
Just in front, and the sober cows were
coming up TO lick it.
g Yes, we always give 'em salt when
it looks bit like rain. AM when they
smell the damp in the air they come as
regular as can be to get it. Them
stones is smooth as glass where they've
licked 'em for the las twenty years"
"The girl always does this for
them?"
'Cept when she's at school. Then
Jim tends to it,
Jim was the farm hand, and now he
was sitting at the table whiting.
g | don't know what I'm going to do
with Jim. He used to be one of the
smartes' hans aroun' this country, but
he's gittin' awhy no count drinkin'
and fightin'.
"Drinkin'? Isn't it against your
laws to sell liquors in the Indian coun-
try?"
"Oh, yes; but Jim gets it some
where"
After little further talk, the inn
keeper farmer strolled down to his
stable to turn the horses out for the
night, and the writer joined Jim on
the platform.
JIM
eyes"
'You were not raised in this section.
You have seen considerable of the
world"
"About as much as most fellows OF
thirty-fve."
With the ole man?"
Yes"
"'Bout twelve year"
jim, we've known each other only
afew days, and it isn't my business
perhaps, but your getting tired of youl
life here. The folks say you are not
well-not as steady as YOU used to be
What is the trouble? Tomorrow | am
going back to the states-maybe never
will see you again, and it kind O.
occurred to me that you'd like to talk
about yourself ! believe everybody
feels that way at times"
Jim waited a long time, so long that
the fear presented itself that he was 90
ing to rebuke the questioner by his 81
lence, and then
"Them meader larks-hear 'em?
They make me bluer'n death-them an
that girl there by the cows"
The plaintive whistle of the meadow
lark was all about, and the figure OF
the dusky maiden, darkly outlined
against the evening sky, suggested the
soft treatment of the etching of the
Angelus. No wonder, jim, you fee
blue.
"When / furst came here | wal
twenty-three. My home was in Mis-
sury, but I'd been all over the United
States. I'd been canvasman with
circus. Bella, there, was only six,
little half breed Injun girl, but purt,
as she could be. / taught her letters
to her, an l taught her to spell, an
then to read little, an when she wa
nine she could pick out words in tn
newspapers"
Jim looked up at this for some ap
probation of his work. His lips wer
shut and his nostrils dilated in swell
ing pride at the recolections, and ther
as memory carried him on from tina
time to something that touched hir
deeper, the lines of the face came dow
and the shadow of the evening creu