Thomas County cat., 1889-02-21
ALTERED INTENTIONS.
How the Cowbows Came to Ex-
hibit the Circus Elephant.

Ever since sunset the prairie breeze
had famed a fever-hushed little face.
Bolt upright in a splint-bottomed chair
by the bedside, a man had fallen asleep
again and again, in spite of his de-
termination to remain awake. But,
Notwithstanding his weariness. he had
slept lightly, and had often awakened
at the sound of faint moan, or the
touch of the night wind as it softly
stirred the erect and unruly wisps of
his mop OF tangled hair, and often
seemed to him, half waking, like the
soft, caressing touch of childish
fingers. Every time he woke with an
anxious start he saw that the fever
bright eyes of the sick child were fixed
longing upon the pictured handbill up
on the wall, as it fluttered in the gentle
night wind. And, each, time when the
man had cooled the parched lips with
water or patted the scanty pillow, the
child had piped:
Tell me more bout the ole elephant,
pappyr'
And the man had told again of the
old elephant-how he was almost as
big as the ''shOck," and was dirt-col-
ored, and had long, white tusks and
great big flappy ears, and had a trunk
that he swung from side to side as he
walked.
An he likes little boys-don't he?"
'.Likes 'em first-rater' the man
would answer. Thinks a heap of
'em!"
And the fever-bright eyes of the
child would be bent more eagerly up-
on the long bill that futtered on the
wall, and, in spite of his loving anxi-
ETY., the man would nod, his head
would slowly sink forward on his breast,
and he would be asleep from sheer
WEAKNESS.
Presently, as the candle burned al
most out, the east grew gray. then
lighter. A turtle-dove, that had
winged her way through the misty
half darkness to resting-place upon
the topmost strand of the settlers
piece of barbedwire fence, greeted the
coming morning with her soft, solemn
''coO-wOo!'
If they had looked from the window
of the - shack" and the gray of the
morning had turned a little more to
gold, the settler and the sick child
might have seen a novel procession
passing along the section-road. quar-
ter OF mile away. There were queer,
canvas-wrappedv vehicles and queerer
blanketed animals that looked strange
enough in the coming light, but which.
denuded OF their wrappings in the
glare of the sunlight and on the main
street OF Range City. would blossom
out into the more or less gorgeous
chariots. cages and curiosities of a
circus-parade.
This last crawling end of the process
sion was dimly discerned by a little
squad of broad-hatted. jangle-spurred
horsemen, whose galloping cayuse
ponies had carried them swiftly across
the prairie in the direction in which
the circus was slowly taking its way.
Thar" cried one of the COWBOYS,
as they reached the forks where the
httle-worn by-road that passed the
settlers cabin left the section-road.
Ihar they air! Come onr'
The squad seemed on the point oi
dashlng along the section-road in the
wake of the circus
"Hold on thar. Scotty!- cried the
Oldest man of the group. We've
got"
but thar's a elephant. Slader' in.
terrupted the first speaker, with an al
most boyish enthusiasm. ..Ketched 1
glimpse Nv him among the wagons
; jist as"
'.Never mind the elephant" brok,
In old Slade. We've got other busi
ness on hand jest now. Got to ketcl
. glimpse Nv granger. stead of q,
elephant, an sorto-n
s'6orto start granger procession!'