Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1896-04-16
SHE RODE FOR FUN.
BY WILLIAM b. CAMERON.

The first time went counting ielt rather
shy;
I stood under the rain-spout till got wet
clean through
CThen 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 I, 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 it's serpentine length at the
feet of the eternally grand old Rockies
between Forts Mcleod and Calgary, on
a bright, warm afternoon in January.
When they have 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
a distance and 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 if the sun has not wheeled himself
several degrees out of his normal course
at such q 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, a short,
impudent nose and a rather weak
mouth, round the corners of which
Iurked a musing smile. Then, after
pause, he said: .E
'Oh, yes. Well, Littlefeld was the
chief of the outfit, an he he'd his wife
along-fine, 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 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 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
y goat would nibble him.
But, 1 blecve, to talk Christian,
was partly responsible fer his being so
extray-ordinary sEittish. He stated,
oncet or twicet, fer water after night to
"a crick quite handy, sho'ty after we
went into camp. 1 jest stepped off Is
PAGES into the pines an let a 'Yee-ow'
or two out o Inc, an Jumbo, he throwed
back his ears an yelled-tee-riffic, 1 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 q
>ornery freight-oX, shakin' like 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 tree between him an
The blaze after dark he'd weep like wolf.
An that woman! y No-she
didn't laugh none-o-oh, no-o!" And
Jim lay back in his saddle, and sent
peal echoing up among the foothills
which shook the few lingering traces
of soft snow from the branches of the
spruces.
That Jim was a "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
rs 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-rimraed
bucksl<in hat and hitch to his fringed
leather chaps" and kicked his big 'iing-
ling Mexican spurs against his cayuse's
Hanks before resuming:
But l was a-goin' to tell yeh bout
Mis- Lifted. She was mighty fine
woman, as l said before, an well put uI
fond O. out-o'-door sport, an of ridin
an particular. Well, one bright, warn
mornin' Li'rfeld an Wells went of
huntin', an got orders Il was teamste,
AN guide to the outfit yeh know t.
move camp across the 'Divide'-abou
20 mile--in the meantime. So, afte,
breakfast an the dishes he'd been wiped
we packed up the outfit an struck camp
but it was well on in the day before WI
pulled out.
Now. Mis- Li'l'feld bed a spankir
bay boss specially fer her own use.
hedn't no objections to her ridin'. O
co'se-not commonly. But yeh know
amt lest nice to be rollin' down
blamed. co'kscrew mount'in trail aftc