Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1894-01-04
RATA TON

"Just left him-badly oh-typhoid
fever needs careful nursing more than
visits from me, replied the post surgeon
as he drained frothy glass of warm bot
tied beer in the hot adobe clubroom, and
then pushed back his gray campaign hat
to wipe his dusty face
Now this was June and the land Ari-
IONA, whore summer is secure but ice i'm
possible, and trained nurses u haunting
vision of days, unassocated with sage
brush. accomplished in pleasant, eastern
hospitals.
"On a place like this, IL sensible man
would die first and have his typhoid fever
I'm hell aftcrward, where he'd be more
comfortable - growled the post surgeon,
still weltering from 20 mile ride across
the dusty mesa in the face of the hot
morning sun, where lie had gone, after
surgeons call. on II charity visit to liill
Meron. II ranchcr in the Sierra Bonita
foothills
Once he had been mild spoken man,
this surgeon, as he was still mild hearted.
For, even whlc speaking, he resolved to
telegraph for ice and to send n man away
miles across the desert to the station after
| it, His hrusQueness was the shell u sensi-
tive nature had acquired in adjusting itself
to The wear and tear of garrison life in u
superheated climate He wondered at it
| himself. and often, wher he had spoken,
felt startled "a one feels surprised to find
the voice suddenly grown coarse with cold.
\ ct he could have told you accurately why
the skin on the hand thicllens in time of
/ toll to keep the nerves quick within.
"Doc, don't know nuthin bout nurs-
ing, but if | can be any good I'll lend a
hand. My broncho's outside, an i ain t
doing nuthin particular"
The speaker was a young cowboy, clad
in blue cottonade and high heeled boots.
after the fashion of the country. He stood
/ uneasily on one foot near the door Of the
officers club, in the general storeroom
where the MeXicans loiter and the ranch
/ ers buy their bacon and tobacco. The sur
| geon glanced at the boy, and his eyes rest
| ed on him moment without reply.
"Riata Toms all right, doctor. He
cooked for Mccain on the roundup this
spring and is handy as woman about u
place. added a bystander.
Very well, Tom; tell thesteward sent
you to the hospital for Il lesson in nursing
| typhoid fever This evening 20 over to
Sierra Bonita and take charge of Bill Mer-
on. III call tomorrow, after muster
cain t there anything | can send BilI?'
asked the trader.
"No; nothing now, Williams. May
want II little champagne later" He was
thinking of ice, In crossing the hot pa
rade to the hospital, he wondered if the
Pullman car supply could possibly last
across the desert.
In the dispensary he wrote a telegram
and told the steward to send it to the OPP.
orator and to tell Morrisy to put the am
bulance mules in the blackboard and drive
to the Needles. Then he visited the sick
ward.
The next afternoon DR.. Davis rode to
! Meron 5 ranch. The sun shone hotly, and
! the sparse sage tufts plumed the mesa bowl
der mounds in thin, half clad gray. The
Bcrenicc hair tossed in the heat waves. and
the mountain profilos trcmbled. frctting
on II horizon of Unhroken blue. There were
no clouds above, and the glare was in
tense, causing the eye to recoil aud strain
itself in the effort to contract and shut ont
all the light, while the quick, throbbiug
| pulse of the heat laden air felt like fever
breath on the face.
In such strong light. as in great fogs.
the outside world escapes us and vision
| turns inward on the brain. The doctor
was now following that curious chart
memory where details are recorded, then
remembered or forgotten. lie no longer
saw the stretch of trail Immediately be
| fore him; he saw the whole trail-saw it
where it left the post and wandered across
| the weary mesa; saw it span the arroyo
| to enter the broken table land and then
wind higher and higher among I he ascend
| ing foothills. Then he strained his eyes
against the shimmering heat aud fancied
| tho foothills were sWaying with the motion
| of pillows; he could see their crests reach
ing toward the black sCarp of the Sierra,
| like crests of breakers toward Il beach of
frs; while below the Sierra was Rancho
BonitO tossing on a brown billow of this
barren sea. -live-swells more and
the rancho will be dashed in the face of
the Sierra No it is not the sea, it is only
the desert, Vet how like the sea--so mo
| nOtOnOus, so deSolatc.
Here the pillows ceased tossing, and the
map on the brain was folded away. Now
the doctor saw only the rancho. He was
| thinking it So like n bark on an unsailed
ocean, that would meet no other vessel.
| The doctor was an imaginative man, with
poetic nature. Seen in n more inhabited
country, this same poor little ranch would
nave Dcel 10 nm but simple version Of
! poverty, pitful, but all told but here, in
the desert, where the aid which does not
come from self must come from God lin II
| folitude so ininite-ths seemed made
Guato to him; such self imposed Danish
! ment suggested rather than said, and left
the mind cropping.
His horse stopped to drink the cool
water which crept ont from undera blank
ct of sand, where, for Il few yards, "a trap
dixie crossed the canyon and forced the
aqua perdida TO the surface The ranch
was III view, with Tom standing barefoot
ed in the tIall leading from it 10 the water
Glad You We come, doctor Bin'9
mighty loco IN his talk today. Pears
something seems TO be botuerEr him in
his mind From his talk, | Judged his
! life has been strlakyliks-ful O black
/ and white like the wood agate in the Mo
gallons, took my boots aud spurs oil .
Tom continued, looking alphabetically at
his bare feet, bill mistook the spur
| jingle #. the cowbeIl on the range, cause