The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1894-09-21
a SON OF KIT CARSON.

When old Kit Carson died. full of
years and Indian fights, he left a son,
who, resting content with the name
which his father had won. betook him.
self far from the strife of this world and
built him a home under the suns of
southern California. Far up in one of
the canyons Of Santa Monica he cut
down a few sturdy cedars and built his
shelter. Then he covered it with the
mud which he dug from the bed of the
mountain torrent flowing noisily at the
bottom of the canyon. His house was on
the hillside overlooking the stream and
was shaded by a huge live oak. which
spead its branches this way and that for
his half Indian children to sit and
swing upon.
This was the home of Sam Carson,
and just before he built his adobe he
had taken to wife q comedy Indian WON
an whose tribe for centuries had lived
in the foothills of the Sierras Santa
Monica, whence they could look out
upon the blue Pacific, with Santa Gaia
lima rising, q blue hump in the ocean,
80 miles away.
A wanderer up the canyon green I'M
der the warm February sun found Nine.
Carson sitting placidly on a stump in
an onion field, mending her lords jeans.
She was Indian, and ~Indianlike was
wrinkled and worn and bent, though
her eyes were still bright and sparkling.
She looked at least 60 years old as she
sat there, glancing cannily at me and
then pointing out the ravages which
storm and fire had made in past years.
She put hor sewing down on her knee
and in broke English, mixed with Mex
lean Spanish and frequent expressive
little grunts, she told me all their trou-
bles of the past,
The old Indian nm suddenly
turned to watch three little dark proved
children that were chasing one another
along the hills crest, their chubby
bodies silhouetted against the blue sky
beyond.
"Mine-all mine" she said proudly,
"Sam's and mine. / have had seven
children, four grown, three little. See?''
and she pointed her wrinkled finger at
the youngsters, now rolling gleefully
down the hillside.
''T'rantulas, chii'renl" she screamed.
""T'rantulas like the warm earth ON tho
sunny hills and come out and sting
sometimes little chil'ren dead" she ex-
planned, and then she started sewing
again, leaving the youngsters and the
tarantulas to their OWL devices.
"How-how old are you?" the visitor
ventured.
The old woman dug th%oughtfully into
the dirt with one of her brown toes.
Then she drew it back hastily beneath
her skirt and looked over at the moun-
tains. maybe 49," she said, with a
sudden smile.
"Oh, no, not so much as that"
She thought again for a long time,
watching the Pacific cleaning in the
sunlight. well, maybe 80 then" and
she smiled contentedly.
The ocean breeze blew up the canyon,
bringing with it the faint roar Of the
breakers. Occasionally one could hear
the crack of a rifle, at which the old
Indian woman never failed to glance up
quickly. Her sewing was almost done
when Sam Carson, her husband, walked
out of the thickets up the canyon and
stalked lazily across the field, gun i'll
hand and a small yellow dog at his
heels. The wife arose quickly, and Sam
sat down on the smooth stump. He was
as brown as his Indian wife, his hair
was gray, and his beard was grizzled.
He spoke in Il low toned, deliberate fash
ion, as most people do who live long
under a semitropic sun.
"Do you see that little cur?' he said.
"That darned little dog has just killed q
wildcat" and the son of the old scout
wiped his brow and prepared to tell the
rest of his story. He had a reputation
for thrilling and impossible tales.
Me and Baldy-I named him after
the old mountain over thero-me and
Badly, we was a-slyin through the un
derbrush. | thought I'd shoot SOM
gophers just for luck. Well, sir, l wa
standin in front of a big live oak, way
up the canyon there where it gets narrer,
All of a suddin | heard a whirrin noise
in the air. 1 looked up, and bless mt
if there wasn't a big wildcat flying right
down on NE. l gave one jump, but
expected the cat would have me the mex
lick. Oh, she was a big un, I'm telliI
you.
But Badly was there. He just sailed
into that cat. My, how Badly did shake
her." and Sam c~aressingly SHE'D &
lump of dirt at the diminutive ours
nose. 1t would have been an unpardon
able insult to suggest that any wildcat
would have made two mouthfuls of little
Badly.
Ibid Badly kill her.
"As dead as a snail" said Sam.
"Well where is the skin of the cal
anyway" l asked.
"Baldy chewed him all up sale
Sam thoughtfully. "Chewed him al
up. 'Twasn't worth bringin home
and handing his rife to his wife to car
ry Sam walked slowly back among the
onion sprouts and disappeared with hel
in the cabin under the big oak.-Cor.
New York Tribune.