The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1896-04-11
SHE RODE FOR FUN.
BY WILLIAM II. CAMERON.


stood under the rain-spout till I got wet
clean through
CThen Sal stuck her head out o. the win
der an says
Jim! Come in out o. the rain.D
Says my old girl. don't care II T."
"Jim," said /, breaking in upon his
,ditty, what was the yarn you were
going to tell about the time you en-
gineered that English hunting-party
through the Bear Paw mountains?"
We were riding along the trail, which
stretches its serpentine length ut the
feet of the eternally grand old Rockies
between Forts Mcleod and Calgary, on
bright, warm afternoon in January.
When they have a Chinook" out there,
sporting in its rude, boisterous, yet
withal genial fashion, through the deep
.defiles of the mountains from over the
Pacific, with n rumble like Niagara at
n distance and a force which makes
you button your coat up tightly to keep
it from blowing off, the snow soon van
ishes, even in midwinter; and the Their
mometer jumps from 40 below" to
temperate" so suddenly that you won
der il the sun has not wheeled himself
several degrees out of his normal course
mt such a season, or the breath of an
approaching prairie-fire is not tanning
your cheek.
The singer gave the wad Of tobacco
in his jaw II twist with his tongue and
aimed an amber jet ut n bulldog" on
his horses ear before turning upon me
n pair of glistening eyes, with black
points set in saucers of milk, short,
impudent nose and a rather weak
mouth, round the corners of which
lurked n musing smile. Then, after
pause, he said: -
ooh, yes. Well, Lttlefield was the
chief of the outfit, an he he'd his wife
nlong-fne, spanl<in' woman, good to
look at. There was another English
MANA great shot-called Wells, an
n niger cook-a big, slashin' buck, but
with no moe sand in him than n pusil-
luminous jack-rabbit. Lord!-how we
did scare that poor critter! His teeth
used to chitter like squirrels; it's a
wonder he didn't shake 'em out of his
big woolly head. 'Fraid of his own shad-
der after night, an he'd make one any
time, even if it was pitch dark, he was
so infunal black. You might as soon
git this here buzzard-head I'm a-ridin'
to stand OH one leg as coax that niger
to moscy outside the flare o. the camp
fire after shutdown fer a pail o. water,
or fer any other pu'pos', fer the mat
ter o. that. You see, he was pilgrim
never been on a layout o. this sort
afore, an he was that blamed tender
= goat would nibble him.
But, l bleeve, to talk Christian,
was partly responsible fer his being so
extray-ordinary sl<ittish. He stated,
"oncet or twicet, fer water after night to
n crick quite handy, sho'tly after we
went into camp. l jest stepped off Is
PAGES into the pines an let 'Yee-ow'
or two out o me, an Jumbo, he throwed
back his ears an yelled-tee-riffic, tell
-yeh-an' come prancin' up to the camp
fre-jest techin' high spots, you under
'stand-with his two sighters stickin'
out like the knobs on the horns of a
ornery freight-oX, shakin' like sick
cow in north wind, an dern a pail in
sight.
After that Quaker meetin' ner n
cyclone wouldn't bulge him; an if YOU
asked him to put q tree between him an
the blaze afterdark he'd weep like wolf.
An that woman! No-she
didn't laugh none-o-oh, no-o!" And
Jim lay back in his saddle, and sent n
peal echoing up among the foothills
which shook the few lingering traces
OF soft snow from the branches of the
.spruces.
That Jim was "mule-skinner" does
not imply that he was expert at remov-
ing hides-in toto. Simply that he
belonged to that select bunch of
frontersmen whose superlative boast
is that they can drive or ride anything
that wears hair"-that he was past
master in the craft of teamsterism.
He adjusted the pistols in his belt
gave forward tilt to his broad-rmmed
oucksltin hat and hitch to his fringed
leather chaps" and kicked his big'iinc-
ling Mexican spurs against his causes
Hanks before resuming:
But l was a-goin' to tell yeh bout
Mis- Lfrfield. She was a mighty fine
woman, as l said before, an we'll put up
fond O. out-o'-door sport, an of ridin'
IN particular. Well, one bright, warm
mornin' Li'ffield an Wells went Off
huntin', an got orders Il was teamster
an guide to the outfit yeh know to
move camp across the 'Divide'-about
20 mile-in the meantime. So, after
breakfast an the dishes he'd been wiped.
we packed up the outfit an struck camp:
but 1t was well on in the day before we
pulled out.
"Now. Mis- Li'rfield he'd spankin'
bay boss specially fer her own use. I
hedn't no objections to her ridin', of
corse--not commonly. But yeh know II
aint Jest nice to be rollin' down a
Ainmed. co'kscrew mount'in trail after