The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1892-07-06
Selected Sturp.
A Whole Man.


the desert. He will get prodded every
where. If he take offense at rough ban
ter, Lord help him when he gets into
mining camp. If he wear his heart
upon his sleeve, let him steer clear of
the Mexican towns and their pretty sem
oritas. If he would know any peace,
let him keep away from the cattle
range, for the cowboys jests are as keen
and cutting as the spurs at their heels.
Frank Robbins was beginning to find
out some of these things. But if you
gave him whole decade he would not
find them all out
"What the boy wants is toughening,"
said Mart Selby.
Mart was big and tough, and he saw
no good reason why anybody but child
or woman should be tender.
"He's young colt that wants Mex
lean bit showed into his mouth, and then
to be ridden through the cactus"
AT Lucin's ranch the boys joked and
irritated Robbins, but it did not seem to
tougher him. They cared nothing for
whisky that didn't scratch as it went
down, and when he put water in his
they called him a perfect lady and
laughed loudly.
"Stand their joshing," said Mart to
Robbins, land you'll get along better.
They'll always make it hot for man
that don't josh back
ooh, don't mind it, said Robbins,
badly OVERRIDING his effort to look I'M
concerned.
1t had been the same everywhere he
had been in the west. He was one of
those men who are never anything but
tenderfeet. He simply would not take
men as he found them, though they
were perfectly willing to take him so.
And the absurd ideas that had Judgment
In his headl Chief among these were
that he must have friend-a chum-
who should be a man after his own
heart. He had been looking for such
man for two years. He picked him out
occasionally, but he never found him to
suit. This one was not truthful, that
one was not temperate and the other
was not nice in his speech. There was
something lacking in each one.
"What l want is whole man." he
these half made fellows. But it is not
30 easy. Even when l find man that
is temperate and intellectual he turns
out to be selfish. What would l not
give for whole man for friend and
companion-a whole mani"
He would not take up with Mart Sell
by, though Mart saw "the young fell
low sorely needed friend and helper,
particularly one who would tougher
him. He kept on looking for his made
to-order man, but he never seemed to
hit upon him. Few such men as he was
looking for are to be found within a
thousand miles of Lucin's. In fact, at
Lucin's you would be at a loss to dis
cover single man who did not like to
take observations at Old Ashbys cloth
and paper ceiling through the bottom of
a whisky glass, and if you heard voice
l will give you my word of honor it was
no cherub's
One day the boys outdid all their
little meannesses to Robbins by getting
him hopelessly drunk. Of course it
was no killing matter, but he had never
been drunk before, and he took it very
seriously and resolved to leave camp
next day.
Mart did not like this. His heart had
warmed toward "the young fellow"
and he hated to see him leave the place.
Finally he resolved to go with him.
They agreed between them that they
would not go on the range again. They
would go prospecting for gold.
And thus it was that they camo to
make the journey over the desert to-
ward Dead Horse gulch. Now, as every
body in that country knows, the wealth
of Dead Horse gulch is great, but it is
very hard to reach. Miners, who have
lived out the awful heat of the alkali
plain that lies all around the buttes
wherein the gulch makes its cash, have
come back with full belts, but none of
them has ever gone second time.
In suggesting this journey Mart Selby
had double object First, he wanted
to tougher "the young fellow" and
Mart knew that Robbins had come out
west to make enough money to marry a
nice girl who lived in Delaware, and he
knew, too, that "the young fellow" had
found money making very slow work.
From Lucin's to the great alkali plain
that lay before the buttes in which the
gold was hidden was long and toll.
some journey. But the real work only
began with the crossing of the alkali
desert.
White and naked lay the dead land
before their aching eyes. The eye Of
heaven shone down with most unrelent
ing tierceness. No breath Of air wa:
stirring, and the whole world was tC
them as dumb as death.
Mart had counted on the journey be
ing hard one, but not so hard as this
He had not dreamed that the water
would give out so soon, nor that the
horses would sink down and die as they
did.
Still they staggered on, their forms
bent under their heavy burdens, stand
ing out sharp and raw above the Whit
earth, on which their clearly defined
shadows fell with inky blackness.
In that cloudless mistless air distanc,