Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1893-04-29

a-pufiing my pipe, ! heard step, and
looking up. saw Big Bill
Il 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 a cough that panied
him terribly He had walked all the
way up from Laramie, and rs he was
pretty well pegged out | didn't say
much 10 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 "A lot Of money, which of course,
was not SO. and that he would pay ii
back now You see. If Bill had offered
to have helped her she wouldn't have
taken n cent. but as long as she believed
Bill owed the money it was all right.
80 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 inst 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, aud 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, bu, she couldn't
} get anything ont of him, though she
+ tried awful hard. She lowed 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 deliriOns, and when he was
} out Of his head he told all about what he
had been doing, and il 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 a while he was n good deal better,
4 but his cough got worse. and by and by
D he didn't pretend to doanything but just
D walk around with his head down and
I his hands behind him and talk about
T Jim and little Bill and Mrs Jim, and he
Q would lay out there in the cold night air
! with his head in his hands, looking up st
Q the star dotted heavens and listening to
1 the wind moaning through the pines.
0 | got letter from Mrs Jim asking il
Bill had come mp here and how he was,
y and managed to write back how he
was Well one morning Bill didn't get
| up and saw that he was pretty bad
and 40 didn't go out with the sheer
e but Just left them in the corral while
10 att ended to Bill Along about noon
d hea rd Shep bark, and looking out saw
a carriage coming around the mountain
there, and | thought il was a docto
y which the old man had sent up. bu
l. when it drew mp Mrs. Jim and little Bill
n got ont
n Is there anything the matter? II,
10 isn't dead is he: she asked me. i hav,
g come and will take him back where b,
is can have the best of medical attendance
Y, can never forget what he did for Bill,
70 and /, Just for Jim's sake
to IL didn't say anything, but just pointed
T. into the little cabin, and she and the XII,
ID went in and leaned over him. III
ly opened his eyes, and when he saw her IN
ID tried to raise himself, but he couldn't,
re Am deady he asked.
ee No. said Mrs Jim, Billie and
ig have come up here for you. and we viii
SO take you back with us to Omaha, wher
I'd you will soon get well.
I'd lyon are very kind he said, an
er then smiled softly, drew heavy sig
and died Mrs. Jim leaned over hir
in and her tears fell upon his face as sh
,h kissed him. and little Bill and me wer
at CRYING too We buried him next day
~ when the men came up from the ranch
lie ont there under the tall pine, where h
m and Jim used to lie so much, and wher
IN he spent SO much Of his time after b
en- got back from Omaha, and few day
Ir, after Mrs. jim came mp in carriag
1d from Laramie. acting as the guide for
ed man who brought up "A stone for Bill
er grave.
IN There were tears in the eyes of the oil
IF sheep herder when he finished, and W
he arose aud went over TO the grave. Tn
all wind was signing requiem through th
nd tall pine tree, and the little stream wa
wv murmuring the sweetest music as 1t ra
ais along over the rocks. In the moonligl
nd | read ON the plain marble slab the sin
lis Pile inscription: