The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-03-10
A CALIFORNIA MUSTANG.

San Francisco:
sTake the next train, come out to my
farm, and do what you can for my mus
tang"
The doctor went, found an old saddle
horse, long past usefulness, in fact
dying, and returned, wondering what
made the rancher SO anxious about the
animal.
Others wondered, too, until the story
was one day told to a few friends who
were visiting at the old ranch house near
the foothills. There is perhaps nothing
in the affair which marks it as different
from many occurrences on the frontier,
where homes are far apart, and where
life itself may sometimes depend upon a
saddle horses speed and bottom. But,
told as the rancher told it at his own ta-
ble, it was story that long chung to the
memory.
"It was more than thirty years ago."
he said. II was 1S years old, and had
been away from home attending school.
When came back to the ranch in Kern.
near the foothills, my mother came cry
ing to the door to meet me.
my little, sister was very i'll. She
was only 6 years old, my pet and de-
light, and my mother was a widow. An
school; my brother, who managed the
ranch, had gone to Stanislaus to buy
sheep, and mother and baby were alone.
It was eight miles to the nearest village
and stage station, from which place !
had walked, reaching the house at dark
. / went in and found little Mary uncon-
scious; my mother could not tell what
was the matter. ran down to the past
me and called my colt, Major, the best
horse ever owned. He came at once.
and / saddled him and rode off at a
gallop.
''It was early. winter, and rain had
made the road heavy; cloudy all day.
drizzle began before had been five min
utes in the saddle. ! had neither whip
nor spur. Now and then l spoke to
Major, and he knew there was work be-
fore him. Two miles we went without
= pause, the road dead level and so
slippery that l could feel Major slide
like a log on frosted sidewalk; but he
managed to keep to his feet and resume
his wild pace. He took the bit in his
teeth and ran, snortng with excitement;
for year he had not been ridden, and
his muscles were steel, his lungs like
steam engine. I let him walk for a few
moments, then let him have his head
again and again, until he swept into the
village in a tearing gallop.
"'Not here, was the answer, as ham,
mered at the poctor's door. Gone ten
miles into the foothills to the old Be-
mont place
-fThat was east in direct line, and
three miles south was another village
where perhaps a doctor could be found.
II not it was but a few minutes lost,
for another road could be taken to Be
mont's.
Again the wild pace under the clouded
sky and cold rain, thoughts of my lonely
mother and little sister urging me to yet
greater haste. The road was hard, with
= thin coating of mud that spattered me
from head to foot, and the wind blew
sharply in my face. Ilived over in mem
cry every scene of our lives, every word
said to my sister, every act done in the
past-her arms about my neck in thanks
for some simple gift; long days behind
the plow, with her toddling feet in the
furrow; child asleep in the summer
grass, a bunch of wild poppies in her
chubby hand, the calico sunbonnet tossed
back from the curly head. Then l re-
nembered that when 1 went away moth
er wrote me that every day little Mary
asked: Won't brother Tom come home
tonight? want to see brother Tom
'.Well, / reached the village and found
that the doctor, who lived there, was
sick himself. Nothing to do but to start
for Bemont's. Again the gallop, no
longer on level roads, but through roll
ing hills and under darkness that was
Egyptian. We were descending into a
hollow between high hills The road
was narrow, dark, slippery, and the soft
sound of falling rain drowned the noise
of wheels Through break in the east
ern clouds the stars shone out above the
hill crest. Suddenly, instantly, without
stroke of warning, there loomed up
before me, dreadful as De Quincey's
Vision of Sudden Death, vast moving
pile, six mules, a Carson wagoi, ore laden
to the brim, a sleepy driver nodding on
his seat-and tearing into that mass of
wood, iron, stone and animal life was a
tired horse with a heartsick rider.
simultaneously the discovery came
upon us all. The driver. awoke with a
loud, affrighted cry, the snorting mules
sprang back in a wild group; heard
whiffietrees and harness snap, and a sud-
den fash of lightning lighted up the dark
hollow between the hills to the very feet
of the frightened animals. OF myself
could do nothing, SO narrow was the
space between, SO brief the time left for
thought. But the instinct of the horse
rode was my salvation. On one side OF
the road was shallow ditch, on the
other steep wall of rock. Major gath
cred himself up and made a leap side
ways, screaming as he sprang, and we
landed safely below, clearing by few
inches the tangled leaders and the grea.