The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1896-04-15
SHE RODE FOR FUN.


BY WILLIAM b. CAMERON.
'''My name Is Jim Vue: mule-skinner am I:
The first time went counting felt rather
shy;
/ stood under the rain-spout till got wet
clean through
(Then Sal stuck her head out o the WIN
der an says
Jim! Come in out O. the rain.o
Says my old girl. don't care If T.
'"Jim," said 1, breaking in upon his
Gitty, 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 it's serpentine length at the
feet of the eternally grand old Rockies
between Forts Mcleod and Calgary, on
q bright, warm afternoon in January.
When they have a chinook" out there,
sporting in it's rude, boisterous, yet
withal genial fashion, through the deep
.defiles of the mountains from over the
Pacific, with rumble like Niagara at
q distance and force which makes
you button your coat up tightly to keep
it from blowing off, the snow soonsyan-
ishes, even in midwinter; and the Their
mometer jumps from $40 below" to
temperate" SO suddenly that you won
der if the sun has not wheeled himself
several degrees out of his normal course
at 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 twist with his tongue and
aimed an amber jet at bulldog" on
his horses ear before turning upon me
a pair of glistening eyes, with black
points set in saucers of milk, short,
impudent nose and rather weak
mouth, round the corners of which
lurked musing smile. Then, after a
pause, he said: ee.
ooh, yes. Well. Littlefeld was the
chief of the outfit. an he he'd his wife
along-fne, spankin' woman, good to
look at. There was another English
mana great shot-called Wells, an
a niger cook-a big, slashin' buck, but
with no moe sand in him than pusil-
luminous jack-rabbit. Lord!-how we
did scare that poor critter! His teeth
used to chitter like squirrels; it's
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 on one leg as coax that niger
to mosey outside the flare O. the camp
fire after shutdown fer pail O. water,
or fer any other pu'pos', fer the mat
ter o. that. You see, he was a pilgrim
never been on layout o. this sort
-afore, an he was that blamed tender
- goat would nibble him.
But, b'leeve, to talk Christian, I
was partly responsible fer his being so
extray ordinary sleittish. He stated,
oncet or twicet, fer water after night to
a crick quite handy, sho'tly after we
went into camp. I 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
fire-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 a sick
cow in north wind, an dern a pail in
sight.
after that Quaker meetin' ner a
cyclone wouldn't bulge him; an if you
asked him to put a tree between him an
the blaze after dark he'dweep like wolf.
An that woman! No-she
didn't laugh none-o-oh. no-o!" And
Jim lay back in his saddle, and sent Il
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
-frontiersmen 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-rimmed
buckskin hat and a hitch to his fringed
leather ''chaps," and kicked his big'jing-
ling Mexican spurs against his cayuse's
tanks before resuming:
'But was a-goin' to tell yeh bout
Mis- Lifted. She was a mighty fine
woman, as / said before, an well put UP
fond o. out-o'-door sport, an of ridin
in particular. Well, one bright, warm