The pioneer press. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 1893-190?, 1896-01-23
i I.
II was a pretty face.

from underneath the p~ink-fOwered
sunbonnet: Il smile danced over the
dimplcd cheeks and drew apart the
kissable lips. 4 provoking face-hr
came very nigh saying to himself, Il
cheeky little facp-and yet he was in
love with it already.
He was a handsome young fellow.
tall and straight. Those shoulders of
his would. in time. broaden. and that
chest would expand hugely, but. just
then, he was rs thin as Il rat and as
1.-THE as a panther.
His dark eyes flashed with conscious
pleasure and he twisted and twirled.
with a brown hand. a little mustaSche
in which he seemed to take a youth
full pride. His face. dark as a berry
with continued he2lthrul exposure
to the sun. wind ana rain, fairly beam
cd AT the girl. and he shook the wavy
name which fell over his shoulders. as
in playful Gliding.
She had folded her rounded arms
across her breast, and, in doing so. the
sleeves of her cotton gown had turned
up just n trite and showed the parts
which the sun had not touched. pink
and rosy. No corset trammeled that
supple form; her limbs had as free
play as was accorded TO the creatures
of earth or heaven.
He. who had been nurtured among
the dreary luXuries and the CHASTITY
refinement of society civilization, had
never thought woman half as lovely
as he now adiudged the free-DOrn
daughter of the mountains of the
West.
Then you're not afraid to be here
oil oJpnn lilo thnt ~ bo aSL.nl
She looked at him with a hooking,
puzzled inquiry.
"Afeard:" she asked. "Afeard o
WHAT
"If your father leaves you here alone
like that" the young man continued,
AL sorts of things may happen,
There are some mighty had men about
this neighborhood, | can tell you, and
they might carry yen off and make no
bones about it,"
He looked. Al that moment. as if he
would have dearly liked to be one of
those bad men. and as if he would
have made no bones about it, had he
not been heartily afraid Of that frail
beauty.
She burst into a laugh like the rip
pie of silyery chimes.
"Bad men, she exclaimed. with her
arms akimbo, swaying her body by
slightly i~nclfning it to the right and
turning up her witChing blue eyes at
him. Bad men, she repeated; Il
reckon thar'S ShuckS on EN-, an no
small game, neither. Thar's Yutaw
Bill. He bowed the top Of n mans
head off week afore last at the Creek:
an his pardner, BlotchfaCe Frenchy.
he's been strung up twice. an Bill Il
him down agin each time. Bad men!
/ reckon they don't make 'em much
Bladder than them two
And aren't you afraid of themE'
the young man asked, with just a
troubled vibration in his voice.
She laughed again. at her Dightest.
"Afcard o them" she exclaimed.
"Why. they're afeard o me"
If the young lady had read the story
of Hercules and Omphale. and had
felt herself transported into a myth
illogical age to play the part of the
Lydian queen. she could not have
more derided the thought of danger
coming to her from The wild men
whom her fairy beauty enslaved.
why. look here. stranger" she con-
tinued, Il can twist 'em round my lit
tie finger-jest like that" With that.
she twiddled the corner Of her apron
and tied it into a knot. Then she put
her little finger into the round hOl-
low formed underneath the ball Of the
apron corner. and. holding it up. shook
it with it's projecting little cotton
point at the young man. That's
Yutaw Bill" she exclaimed. IAN that's
what I'd do with him if he sarsed
me- With that she smoked the tied
apron corner with her finger, and sent
it flying.
The whole action had beer so full
of youthful innocent charm of playful
defiance that the young man was
smitten by ii.
Who. indeed. in that neighbOrhOOd-
savage ferOcious, INSCRIPTIONS and
murderOus though he were-wOuld
have dared to breathe a harsh word
to Lucy Maclane. much less to raise
n finger against her? 4 ribald jest, an
unkindly word. would have been as 3
seed of dragons teeth from which n
horde of p~itiless, armed avengers
would h~aveSprung. and the injury or
insult would not have been more than
q day old ere the offender wOuld have
swung from the stout limb of some
cottonwood tree, or would have lain
by the roadside riddled with bullets.
Lucy Maclane was the good fairy of
that Rocky mountain side, as she was
it's queen.
Men were murdered among the foot
hills of the Eastern Rockies in those
days of the tifties with a monotonous
frequency. They were iawless times,
and the pistol, the rifle and the Inife
were the recognized arbiters of dis
putes. A man was shot. His corpse
would lie, sometimes for days, tester
ing in the sun. before a kindly hand
could be found to dig an unceremo-