The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-12-20
Copyright.
MARRIED THE PARTNER
A story Of Life ON u Dakota Ranch, by
Victor Sims. G

Victor Sims. &
Tho YaIs man tilted bncl IL. his chair and
knocked tho ashca from Il cigar thnt had
been patriotically rolled from Connecticut
tobacco. .'Yes," he sale, when / road
about the opening Of these resersaticns and
the hardships Of the boomers, I think Of my
own experience out there in Dakota. pio-
neering Is d rough business, and far west
farming ID q romance that n man who ID
built with anything like ordinary capacity
for human enjoyment doesn't care to keep
any longer than he Inns to.
mot but that | had u pretty reasonable
sort Of time. but hustling at a high pressure
with q level stretch of landscape is a lone
some form of felicity, and after n time you
get ready to mako a bad break for liberty
How did you come to do it2"
"Weli. / got reckless in the east, wasn't
making money aast enough, and rather felt
as IL / would like to sample the woolly west.
/ don't know that / thought Of going out
and growing up with the country. I'm
afraid / expected quick profits in mining,
and / felt that / would let the thing last rs
long as it might. / struck up a partnership
with another eastern man and We went out
tlcL0 AGflI olhho AtNGE au0 hDuEAD VIZ wv
acres about fifteen miles from q town.
ut was q rather neat ranch VIC started in
ON. We put down $40 acres in wlleat, $50 in
corn, and kept ten acreg faIlow each reason
for seed stock the following Season. You
may 10 sure this meant hustling. In the
planting and gathering times we had a big
gang Of men working for us and wb couldn't
wear boiled shirts very much ourselves. We
had to do all sorts OF unexpected things.
For rae the MOST unexpected thing was the
cooking" @.I&.
did you cook:e q w.
EYES; and that's what I started out to tell
you about. 1t wasn't a very hard job when
only my p artner and / we're on hand in the
middle Of the summer; but in the heavy
season, when we had fifteen or sixteen men
there it was rough on me-and a little
rougher on them.
"Of course we started out TO hire a cook.
But we soon discovered that t his was going
good ways from any other ranch, and the
women were timid. They heard that two
bachelors were keeping house there and
they fought shy of the place. No amount of
wages Was any inducement, and WesbeRan
to get discouraged. About the time we we re
I6auy To give uD DORc Ok RobblHk Z. OoCA q LA
maid OF all work, my partner, who was O
guileless man of no sagacity whatever as
regards women, drove down from the town
with a cook. He was radiant with satisfac-
tion and helped her out Of the wagon with
an ELUSIVE galiantry that amused me.
Now, / had necessarily spent a few days in
town and | had kept my eyes open; and
when I was introduced to his cook | reoog-
nized her as a young lady whom l had
caught sight of before.
II took my partner aside. Bill, ; I said,
don't you know any better than that7'
"'What do you mean?' he asked with o.
puzzled look.
do You know anything about her?'
"'Not much, he said, but ! guess she
can cook we'll enough
"sBill,' I SAID, take her back. She
| won't do. It's hard to live on my cooking,
but we must at least try to be respectable
here.'
att was a blow to him. for he had been
much elated at the homelike prospect. And
he drove her away again over the fifteen
miles of prairie road.
AFTER that we buckled down again to the
reality of things, and | went on with the
cooking. Before left the east | had made
keeper and successful cook, my cousins
wife, and had entered up in a little book
certain recipes that ingenious lady had
| given me. At the time of writing these
things down l had thought of no
particular difficulty in executing the
inst Instructions seemed A aeyona tns 50 nrespp s-
bility of confusion. The worst I thought
of was, even by any chance, having to make
use of the recipes. After the incident
which i have just told you about ! got out
this book and looked it over. Then ]
started in On some things a little fancier
than the hard fare we had been having.
Ir .,,n,,>A 4tooriua thu foat that rulaJ-
lated upon astonishing my partner and the
men. / said nothing about tbs book, and
started in one morning on a certain kind %
cakes, with which I remembered thai my
cousins wife always made u great hit.
With the Instructions before me | proceeded
When 7 had reached what seemed to me
about the middle OF the job 1 realized that
i was stuck-hopeiessly stuck. ! read the
recipe over again, tried it backward and
forward, made u few experiments and gave
the thing up in despair. Something OF
other had been left out of the recipe, and
of course ii was utterly beyond the pale OF
probability that would find out what that
something was,
"At this innoture L heard a voice outside,
and vent to the door. There 1 saw a farm
wagon and horse. AT the horse's head was
a woman. She was giving tho animal a
drink. When the saw me she
1 koAACN IA Lax AAN WG5uGAA - ~sAss 1-ANf
Can you give me a little help with this har-
ness?' They dressed this beast up down
there indicating tho southern run OF the
road, but somehow the darned thing seems
to be getting himself undressed.'
"'Are you going to town. | asked.
eyes said she; got aome things to buy
for the farm &
"'Can YOU copk?' said /.
"Considerablo,' said she, looking at me
int~errogativelv.
"'Well,' said l, I'm in a regular hole
here about some cooking, and IL you co uld
iust give me a lift on ID I'll drive to town
Tor YOU and got these things
Its a bargain she said, and so the
thing waa arranged. ! fixed tho harness,
drove to town, did her buying, and when !
came back that blessed woman had brought
order out OF chaos, and finished up by Civ
ing me some mighty valuable pointers on
the general topic of cooking. 1t seema
there was q little something left out OF the
cake recipe. hut | had also turned some
process upside down and seriously modified
tho proper sequence Of the process.
1.-The woman got into her wagon and
drove away to the south. | saw her again
tho following week or 80 and then 1t began
to dawn spon me that she was a worry pretty
woman. and when / became IA much in
totestea in hor as this conclusion may I'M
ply, I was glad that abe atopped long enough
to give me omle more points on cooking. In
fact, once or twice after that she pianneo
to stop and oook for mo while / drove tt
town for her and did buying"
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