, 1890-12-25
AN IDYL OF THE HT.
kansas city Times.


supper. The Mexican cook has just
begun his fragrant task, so hal
hour must elapse before these Arabs
are fed. Their ponies are turned
into the wire pasture, their big Colo
rado saddles repose astride the low
pale fence which surrounds the
house, and II Is evident that theil
riding Is over for the day.
Why are they gloomy? Not n boy
of them can tell. One is from
Princeton, too. They have beer
partners and companeros and
"worked" the HI cattle together
for months, and nothing ever came
in misunderstanding or cloud. Th'
ranch house Is their home, anC
theirs has been the unity of brothers
A week ago pretty girl, the
daughter of one of the owners, came
to the ranch from the East. Sh'
was protected in this venture by al
old and guarded aunt, watchful as
ferret, sour us a lime. Not that thu
pretty girl needs watching; she II
indeed In every move proprlety'i
climax. No soft or duleet reason
woos her to the West, she comes on
no love errand. She Ia elegantly
and profoundly tired Of the East,
that is all, and longs for Western air
and Western sights. She has been
at the HT ranch week and the
boys have met her, every one. The
or meetings were marked
with awk kwardness as to the boys,
utter indifference as to the pretty
girl. She met them as she met the
ponies, cows, horned toads and other
domestic and Indigenous
to Eastern New Mexico. While
every cowboy was blushingly con-
scious of her, she was purely and So
renelv guiltless of giving him a
thought.
Before this pretty girl came, the
boys were friends and the calm
tenor of their relations with each
other had never q ripple. She was
not there day before each drew
himself insensibly from the others
and q vague hostility shown dimly
In their eyes. 1t was the instinct of
the fighting male animal aroused
by the presence of the pretty girl.
She, however, proceeded ON her
daily way, sweetly unconscious OF
the sentiment she had awakened.
Men are mere animals; women are,
too, for that matter, but they are
very different animals from men.
The effort the race makes to be
other, better or different than beasts
fails. 1t always failed; 1t will al
ways fail. Civilization--culture-
Is the veriest veneer and famously
thin. A year ON the Plains cracks
this veneer-this shetland leaves
the animal exposed. This Is by the
growth of all that Is an
in a man; these attributes
Of the physical being fad and PAM
pered by plains existence.
The dark, vague, impalpable dit-
ferences which cut off each of these
creatures from his fellows and in
spired him with an unreasoning
and unmeasurable hate had grown
with the brief week of their exist
tence. A philosopher would look
for trouble soon on the HIT.
"What did you go take my saddle
for, yesterday, Bill?" said Jack
Moore to boy by the name of Bill
Watkins.
~Cause 1 allows I'll ride it some,"
says Watkins. "Thought 1t might
like to carry u high-grade, cow
once"
"Well! don't take it no more"
said Moore, moodily, ignoring the
gay insolence in the reply. Least
wise, don't come a-takIn' of it an
sayin' nothin'. You can palaver
can't you? When you
aims to ride my saddle agin. ask for
1t; II you can't talk, make signs, an
If you can't make signs, shake N
bush, but don't go 70 Injunin' off
no saddle of mine no more"
"Whatever do you allow is liable
to happen If take it again to-
morry?" inquired Bill in high scorn.
Bill was of more vivacious
temper than the gloomy Moore.
"You takes 1t agiD an L mingles
with you whole lot. mighty
prompt replied Moore in u tone Of
obstinate injury.
These boys were brothers in nfiec-
ton before that pretty girl came
and either would have gone a-foot
all day to lend his saddle to the
other. Going a-foot, too, is the last
thing, let me assure you' a cowboy
will do.
"Well, don't you fail to mingle
none" said Bill, with cheerful
ierocity, ION account of it's being
me. / crosses the trail of the short
horn like you, over on the Pau
handle onct, an puts him in the
fire an has plenty of fun with
him."
stop the play now, right yere,"
said Tom Rawlins, the HT range
boss, who was sitting close at hand.
"You ali spring trouble round yere
an I'll be in 1t. Whatever's the
with all you people anyway?
You'er like passeI of sore.'head'
dogs for more'n Il week now. You're
shorcly too many for me to sabe an
/ cl'ar gives you up"
The boys started some grumbling
reply, but the cook called them to
supper just then, and, one animal
Ism becoming overshadowed by an
other. they forgot their rancor and
animosities in thoughts of
their hunger. Toward
the last of the repast, Ra~lins arose
and going to another room began
some entries in the
ranch books.
The pretty girl did not eat at the
ranch table. She had little banquets
Ia her own room. just then she
was In her own room and began