The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1896-01-31
CHAPTER N.

ii there was ever q man who repre-
scented In q worthy and stalwart fash
lon the bone, the sinew, the pluck, the
perseverance and indomitable courage
of the hardy English yoeman, driven
from q Staffordshire home by hard
times, and a harder landlord, that man
was Dick Ashland. His father. and
grandfather before him, had farmed
some meagre lands ut Chauncey
Green, In South Staffordshire, and
when the old man died an elder broth
er claimed possession Of the farm.
There was an. aged mother to support,
and Dick Ashland shared that duty
with his brother, though he did not
share the latter's Inheritance. Dick
tried little farming Of his own, and
was uniformly unlucky. Rent accrued,
and for Its payments, goods, chattels,
Implements and stock were seized and
sold, until Dick Ashland, sick at heart,
and despairing Of success at home,
went to seek fortune in q freer and
less iron-hearted country. Fortune did
not smile very broadly on Ashland,
even when he reached the vast prair-
les. He worked hard, but year after
year passed on, and he was not much
the richer. He was hard witted and
shrewd withal, and in days gone by
he had dabbled q little in coal and
ir0nstone mining. When, therefore, he
built a hut far up the mountain and
lived there year In and year out in
stubborn loneliness, George Maclane,
like others beside him, came to the
conclusion that Dick Ashland was like
themselves, hunting for that fabulous
gold which, according to rumor, the re-
gion teemed, but which no one yet had
been able to find.
He was burly, broad-shouldered,
broad-chested British bulldog, was
Dick Ashland, who, even in the Rock
les, affected the dress, and, as far as
he could, the habits Of the English
farmer. His jovial, round and dorid
face. always smoothly shaver, but for
pair Of small, fair side whiskers,
beamed with honest good-nature, and,
as on that evening, he sat with Her
bert Chauncey, outside his primitive
hut, two finer specimens of the Eng
lish farmer and the English gentle
man could hardly have been found.
Herbert was younger-the young
est son, In fact, Of the earl Of Cleve,
and his lordship had been blessed by
his lady with nine children, which An
SAuSAC0 Ola SASA SAVWA.uP duU LlllIrEl.
ageable but unmarried daughters. His
lOrdship was hard-hearted father,
but six manageable and unmarried
daughters, each Of them engaged in
frantic efforts to enter the holy state
Of matrimony, and each Of them fail
ing repeatedly and decisively, are apt
to sour the tempers among elderly gen.
tlemen, and the result was that Lord
Cleve looked with a less lenient eye
than he might otherwise have done,
upon the escapades Of his younger con.
Herbert had the misfortune of resem-
bling, in q marked degree, his mother,
who had been supremely beautiful,
while his two elder brothers and all
the young ladies were Juvenile produc-
lions of the face and features of my
lord, who was ferociously ugly. A
day of reckoning came, and Herbert
Chauncey, badgered by creditors,
whom he could not pay, denied assist
ance by his father and by his brothers,
followed in the wake Of Dick Ashland,
and packed up his traps to roam and
rove abroad, and to lead a wild and
hardy life on the Western plains,
where his genial bonhomie, his manly
and distinguished bearing, won him
many friends.
While engaged in hunting the buffalo
on the Platte river, where at that time
they were still to be found in huge
herds, a letter Of Dick Ashlnnd's
reached him, begging him to come to
the mountain hut ;sss+5-