The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-11-25
THE WIDOWS Thanksgiving
1rst Louis Globe-Democrat.

ieft Missouri with her husband, pair
of mules, a COW and two small boys
Hebron was a man who was always
nursing a cold, and asking fatuous
questions. On the way to the Prom
ised Land" as the Black Hills country
used TO be called, he acquired fatal
habit of sitting with his feet 10 the
roaring camp fire and his back to the
drafty tent flap.
After the mules were sold to pay the
funeral expenses the widow bowed ner
head, reflected and subsequently gath
cred the COW, the boys, her little re-
naming cash, and kept pIucklly on TO
ward the Mecca for which she had Ieft
the Missouri farm. She made many
long visits at various ranches en- route
where she cooked and served for her
board: and finally. late in November,
the mule train with which she was
travelling, went into camp just at the
edge OF Palmer's gulch.
.sFaro Him" the best hand at a deal
in all the northwest, was postmaster
for the week at Palmers gulch; that
is 10 say, it was Jim's work to saddle
Jenny and hustle down TO meet each
of the passing mule trains. which con-
stituted the Black Hills mail service in
those days.
When in this dull November day Jim
dashed up to the wagon designated by
one of the train drivers as the mail
bag and hastily pulled aside turkey
red curtain, he was greeted with
shrill shrek. and his eyes met, not a
rusty old mail bag, but the charming
widow in the act of combing mass
of shining brown hair and bluShinS
furiously at the intrusion.
Seeing the confusion of the bronze
giant, who seemed too stricken to even
drop the red wagon flap, the little
NKrai
she would pass out the bag, and warned
him in the future to ring the bell in
stead of attempting to crawl through
the window.
Faro Jim was not clever at repair
tee, and his only answer was to seize
the bag and flee precipitately in search
of the aforesaid driver, whom he only
absolVed from the "dandiest kind of a
licking on the cleaning from him
curt biography of the lovely widow.
The camp was electrified with the
news of Mrs. Hebron'S proximity. Fully
to appreciate their enthusiasm it must
be borne in mir that uD TO that date
Palmer's gulch had lacked two essen
tial features of civilized life-women
and a cemetery.
The latter could be safely trusted TO
providence and the expected visit of
Poker Charlie" who was famous for
advancing civilization along this par
ticular line; but the woman question
had been a serious problem, and the
gulch did not propose to lose a ready
made chance of settling it.
in ten minutes a committee of the
best looking men III Planners gulcn
had been selected to wait upon Mrs.
Hebron and urge her to pay the camp
a visit at her earliest convenience, and
remain permanently if such were her
pleasure. Where women have the
IL IL L.
and Mrs. Hebron'S trip, on the follow
ing day, from the mule train to the
gulch, took on somewhat of the air of
a triumphal pageant. The best cabin
in the camp was placed at her disposal,
and Faro Jim not only appointed
himself commissary-in- chief, but ac-
tually MIXED the COW and parted with
a box of his best poker chips that the
smallest Hebron boy might play
blocks to his hearts content.
Dave Holman endeared himself to
every man in the camp except Jim by
suggesting that they indulge in par
ticular layout for the coming
Thanksgiving. "Prunes and canned
oysters and whisky may be good
enough for the camp he said, but
it amt no fifteen grub for women and
children"
Uncomplimentary illusions were rife
as to the right to existence of a store
that didn't keep no women's truck,
nor playthings for kids, nor even
paper collar on draft
But jim brought about peace and
re-established himself in popular favor
by volunteering TO do the shopping at
the nearest trading post, in spite of the
brewing storm and camp gossip that
the Indians were ION the shoot
The day before Thanksgiving the
mule train that had been pressed into
service to deliver Faro Jim'S" various
purchases. drove into Palmer's gulch
and deposited at the widows door
sitting room Garnet of flaming scarlet
and yellow, a. huge mahogany bedroom
set, a box Of playthings for the boys
and an assortment of bric-a-brac that
would have delighted the soul of
Choctaw chief.
Faro jim" the driver said. bad
wa ted to bride the agency cook for
the only two chickens at the post But
he might better not ha' done it," he
added for the kintry is chuck full of
snow drifts, and the redskins are ugly
ar1 making it lively where they can"
Thanksgiving dawned bright and
singing cold. 1t had cleared gloriously
al daybreak. and the gorge for miles
was d fairy landscape, brilliantly, daz-
zlingly white from mountain top to
river bed.
The trading post was half hidden in
the drifts. and Jim wondered, as he
started forth with the chickens firmly
strapped to his saddle, if the boys had
remembered to dig out the widows
cabin, move her woOGDile close to the
door and milk the COW. As he can
tered brislIly over the stretch of prai-
RE which the gale had left bare of
snow. he was conscious of two new
and strange sensations; the irritation of
a stiff paper collar about his brawny
throat, and a peculiar fiuttering, as
he would have expressed it, some
whar down the left shoulder blade"
He flung open his coat and expanded
his chest with a great breath of SPLEEN
did mountain air, and as he settled
back in the saddle his eyes were shin
ing with a sudden rush OF happiness. /
All unconsciOusly he had come unto
his birthright.
Self-analysis he was incapable of.
The greatest joy of his life had come
to him, and he accepted it with the
unquestioning delight Of a child.
AS Jim left the prairie road and
struck the trail that led through the
mountain gorge, the little pony picked
her way gingerly from drift to drift
and over crustinS slopes. Jim did not
notice that the snow had rendered an
always bad road almost impossible
or that the sun was already making
dangerous riffs in the ice-coated
stream Jim was in love Dangers by
land or water, or from the tricky red
man, were not worth considering.
a faint, gurgling sound. like the far
away howl OF a coyote, drifted down
the gorge. The pony shivered, slipped