The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1891-05-09

srarUea out over the hills for the ranch.
He drew all the money coming to him,
and didn't see or hear anything from
him until along toward the close of the
summer, when one evening, as Shep and
me were sitting out here, and l was
a-pufing my pipe, heard step, and
looking up, saw Big Bill.
~ didn't know him at first. He had on
store clothes. His hair was short and
he only wore mustache. He looked
like corpse. His cheeks and eyes were
sunken, and he had cough that panied
him terribly. He had walked all the
way up from Laramie, and as he was
pretty well pegged out l didn't say
much to him, but just got him some
thing to eat and put him to bed, He
used to sleep like an OK, but all night
he was restless, and pitching backward
and forward on the bed. Next day he
told me that when he got in Omaha he
went up and saw Mrs. Jim and the kid
and that she was all broke up. You see
Jim had spent money pretty freely and
when his debts was paid she didn't have
a cent, and Bill told her that Jim had
lent him lot of money, which, of course,
was not so, and that he would pay it
back now. You see, if Bill had offered
to have helped her she wouldn't have
taken cent, but as long as she believed
Bill owed the money it was all right.
$50 Bill got a job working on the
grades, but he told her he was just rest
ing in Omaha, and every Saturday night
he used to give her nearly all his earn
ings, and just starved himself and slept
in tent with the horses out in the
suburbs at night in all kinds of weather,
and breathing the dust and dirt all day
and the stable at night, and not eating
at all regularly, his health broke down
and he was taken to a hospital. About
this time an old aunt of Mrs. Jim's died
and left her pile of property. Mrs.
Jim kinder suspected something was
wrong with Big Bill, but she ,ouldn't
-a-a-----c-.
tried awful hard. She flowed to tell Bill
the next Saturday night when he came,
but he didn't come, and she couldn't
guess what was the matter until she saw
by paper that he had been taken to the
hospital. She went up there to see him
and he was delirious, and when he was
ont of his head he told all about what he
had been doing, and it liked to have
killed Mrs. Jim. When he got better she
used to take him out driving, and said
she would pay him back, and she did
make him take about hundred dollars,
and she was just bound he would be paid
in full, and so he skipped out and came
back up here.
"For while he was a good deal better,
sbut his cough got worse, and by and by
he didn't pretend to do anything but just
walk around with his head down and
his hands behind him and talk about
Jim and little Bill and Mrs. Jim, and he
would lay out there in the cold night air
with his head in his hands, looking up at
the star dotted heavens and listening to
the wind moaning through the pines.
got letter from Mrs. Jim asking if
Bill had come up here and how he was,
and managed to write back how he
was. Well, one morning Bill didn't get
up and l saw that he was pretty bad,
anu oO i 0A0h ~ O0U W4OL bllC buCCp
but just left them in the corral while I
attended to Bill. Along about noon 1
hes I'd Shep bark, and looking out saw
q carriage coming around the mountain
there, and I thought it was a doctor
which the old man had sent up, but
when it drew up Mrs. Jim and little Bill
got out.
is there anything the matter? He
isn't dead, is heY she asked me. Il have
come and will take him back where he
can have the best of medical attendance.
I can never forget what he did for Billie
and I, just for Jim's sake
81 didn't say anything, but just pointed
into the little cabin, and she and the kid
went in and leaned over him. He
opened his eyes, and when he saw her he
tried to raise himself, but he couldn't.
IAN. deadY he asked.
have come up here- lin, Billie and
take you back with us to Omaha, where
you will soon get we'll
"'You are very kind he said, and
then smiled softly, drew heavy sigh
and died. Mrs. Jim leaned over him
and her tears fell upon his face as she
kissed him, and little Bill and me were
crying too. We buried him next day.
when the men came up from the ranch,
out there under the tall pine, where he
and Jim used to lie so much, and where
he spent so much of his time after he
got back from Omaha, and a few DAYS
after Mrs. Jim came up in carriage
from Laramie, acting as the guide for
man who brought up a stone for Bills
grave"
There were tears in the eyes of the old
sheep herder when he finished, and we
arose and went over to the grave. The
wind was signing a requiem through the
tall pine tree, and the little stream was
murmuring the sweetest music as it ran
along over the rocks. In the moonlight
I read on the plain marble slab the sim
pie inscription: