The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-11-07

CHAPTER |.
Riding at ease in the lazy afternoon
sunshine a single troop of cavalry was
threading its way in long column OF
tWos through the bold and beautiful
! foothills of the Big Horn. Behind
them, glinting in the slanting rays,
Cloud peak. snow clad still although 1t
was late in May, lowered above the
pine crested SUBMITS of the range. To
the right and left Of the winding trail
bare shoulders of bluff, covered only
by the dense carpet of bunch grass,
jutted out into the comparative level
of the eastward plain. clear, COD,
sparkling stream, on whose banks the
little command had halted for noon
tide rest, went rollicking away north
eastward, and many. a veteran trooper
locked lOngingly, even regrettully, alt
er it, and then cast a gloomy glance
over the barren and desOlate stretch
ahead Far as the eye could reach in
that direction the earth waves heaVed
and rolled in unreleved monotony to
the very sky line. save where here and
there along the slopes black herds or
scattered dots of buffalo were grazing
unveXed by hunters red or white, for
this was thirty" years ago, when, in
countless thousands the bison covered
the westward prairies, and there were
officers who forbade their slaughter to
make food only for the worthless,
proving coyotes. No wonder the
trooper hated to leave the foothills OF
7 the mountains, with the cold, clear
trout streams and the bracing air, 10
tale to lorg days marching over dull
waste and treeless prairie, covered only
by sage brush. rent and torn by dry
raVines, shadeless, springless. almost
WaterleSs. save where in unWholesome
holloWs dull pools of stagnant water
still held out against the sun. or. fur-
Their still southeast among the breaks
Of the many forks OF the South Chey-
enne on the sandy flats men duS for
water for their suffering horses, yet
shrank from drinking il themselves lest
their lips should crack and bleed
through the shriVeling touch Of the
alkaH.
Barely two years ago a commits
stoned officer. the young lieutenant at
i the head of column, rode buoyantiy
along, caring little for the landscape
since with every traversed mile he
found himself just that much nearer
home Twenty-Five summers, counting
this one coming, had rolled over his
curly head. and each one had seemed
brighter, happier than the last, all
but the one he spent as hard-Worked
''plebe' at the military academy. His
graduation summer two years preVl-
Gus was 81 glory TO him, as we'll as 10
pretty sister, young and enthusiastic
enough to think a brother in the regu-
lars lust out of West Point, something
to be made much of, and Jessie Dean
had lost no opportunity of spelling
her soldier or of Wearying her school
friends through telling of his mani
fold PROJECTIONS. He was manly.
stalwart. handsome fellow as young
graduates go, and old ones wish they
might go over again. He was
fond and not too teasing kind of
brother. He wasn't the brightest fell
low in the class by thirty odd, and
had barely scraped through one or two
of his examinations, but Jessie proud
ly pointed to the fact that much more
than half the class had "scraped off,
entirely. and therefore that those who
succeeded in getting through at all
were paragons, especially Brother
Marshall But girls at that school had
brothers of their own, girls who had
never seen West Point or had the ca
Diet fever. and We're not impressed with
young officers as painted by so indul-
gent a sister Most of the girls h@d
tired of Jessies talks, and some had
told her So but there was one who
had been sympathetic from the start
a far Western friendless sort of girl
she was when first she entered the
ScnOOl, uncOuIHly uIeSSeu' "letCheuly
homesick and anything but companion
able. and yet Jessie Deans kind heart
had warmed to this friendless waif and
she became her companion. her ally,
and later much to her genuine sur
prise, almost her idol. 1t presently
transpired that the Pappoose," as
the girls nicknamed her, because it
was learned that she had been rocked
In an Indian cradle and had long worn
moccasins instead of shoes (Which ac-
counted for her feet being so much
finer in their shape than those of her
fellows, was quick and intelligent be-
yond her years, that, though appar-
emily hopelessly behind in all their
studies at the start, and provoking