The Topeka state journal., 1897-10-13
WEDDIN UP AT LEES.

that awful homeS1ckneSS which a man
feels who hasn't home. However, that
was a deficiency which he meant to rem
edy without delay, having thought over
number of matters up on the range when
he was keeping guard.
The cattle were to be rested at Bryson
for a couple of weeks, and Carrot Jim was
in sight of the place when his pony went
down somehow and got JiIn's leg under
him and fractured it neatly in two places.
Jim got up in the saddle and rode on, like
good cattleman as he was, though he
couldn't see the road or the horse for the
faintness from the pain, and had somehow
missed the reins, but he hung on the name
till they got in town and some one pulled
him off and sent for the doctor. There
wasn't vacant bedroom in the hotel, for
the place was full of cattiemen driving the
beasts down for the spring fattening, and
they laid Carrot Jim out on the hotel desk
and proceeded to mend him.
Thought you was just in time to go to
the weddin, Jim, - said some one.
"What weddin?" asked Jim, glad TO
speak and save himself from groaning.
1.-The weddin up at Lees. Everything's
open. Got a spread for any goin that
way. Ole Lees orders was for any
wishin to come up today, but it looks kin
of threatenin. It's about time for the
equinoctial and this is a bad country for
man to git caught out in when there's
weather from the northwest. -
"At Lee s?'' cried the sick man, sit
ting up. (which girl is gOin to be married
kit or Nell?'
Don t know. Ole man Lee was down
here yesterday and said there was gOin to
be aweddin up at his place and f'r folks to
come round. He didn't say any more"
Carrot Jim got up on his elbow and
looked over the crowd.
"What man s here that will do a service
for me?'' he asked. That it was not a
triAing service which he was about to ask
was apparent from his manner. His face
was strained and white with physical pain,
but in his eyes was a look such as physical
pain cannot give.
II guess I'm your man, young Hig-
gins said, coming around from behind the
big base burner. What the jOb?' He
was a strapping young Irishman with
round, blue eyes, and Carrot Jim got him
out of a stampede on the range the year
before. Every one had forgotten it except
Higgins himself. "It's little slow, 3" he
said apologetically, $50 III be glad to git
out of here What do you want me to do?''
Carrot Jim saw everything black before
him and his voice as he spoke sounded far
off and like the voice of another man, but
he managed to say:
"Ride to Lee ee's-now, now, nowl Git
back before the weddin and let me know
whether it's Kit or Nell
"Well?" said young Higgins. ''Well?'
"Well," cried Carrot Jim, gesticulating
violently with his fingers like a man in
the wheat pit, eff it's Nell come back here
and let me know and I'll set 'em up for the
hull crowd, and if it's Kit-why, if it's
Kit
"Then, - said young Higgins compre-
hending, probably you'd rather not see
me at all. "
Don t be a fool, Jim, " said the hotel
oil s- = -,
stopped. There's a storm comm up.
wouldn't want anybody was consarned
about goin far today
But Carrot Jim turned frantic eyes on
young Higgins, and Higgins nodded to
Jim and went out
1t was is miles up to Lees and the road
lay in the open country. 1t ran, in fact,
the length of a treeless mesa, and the pull
verified dust of the highway, poisoned
with alkali, was a torture to the nostrils,
binding to the eyes, agonizing to the
throat. Higgins got a cayuse, because
they have the souls of Indians in them and
will go their journey no matter what
comes. He was blithe, because he was a
romantic cub, and not being able to go on
Il love message of his own was willing to
go on one for another man as the next
best thing. So he wouldn't look at the
copper colored northwest, or heed the
crying of the wind in the short, brown
grass, or be warned by sudden screams
from the canyon over south, where the
wind got a big sweep down a tortuOus
path He went on and felt from time to
time of his sprouting mustache, or sang
sweet old Irish love songs, or wondered
when he d care about a woman like that,
and rather envied Carrot Jim for caring.
But by and by there was a yellow whirl
of dust all about him, and the little cayuse
was blown out of the road, and then sud
denly the wind seemed blowing from the
heart of Glacier bay and there was an aw-
full iciness that seemed to freeze his heart
and great swirls of yellow sand going up
to heayen-splendid moving spirals won
derful to see-and a noise as of great angry
waters, though there were no waters.
But the cayuse, mind you, had the soul
of Indian in him and would go TO his
journeys end, no matter what came. So
he put his nose to the ground and stood
there with his rigid legs planted firm. and
the young Irishman lay fat on the horses
back, and they stuck together like two
brave fellows who knew when the fight
came and weren't going to run away.
In few moments the dramatic part was
over, the thermometer had fallen 2S de
grees and a northwester was beating on
them Then they took UP the road again
and pushed on When they got to Lees,
the horse whinnied, and some one came
out and lugged Higgins into the fire, and
after drink or two he was all right. And
then what with having the cold in his
brain and the memory of pretty victory
in his heart-for he liked to be hero and
was glad he was alive-he sat up and
whooped like an Indian, so that the cayuse
out in the stable heard it and lifted its
ears as if his old masters were calling him
For the bride was NeIl-it was Nell,
with the china blue eyes and the silly yel-
low hair, and Kit, who had lovely eyes of
brown and a brow like a Madonna sand
whom Carrot Jim had been thinking of all
those awful solitary nights up on the
range-Kit was asking Higgins how he
felt and why Carrot Jim hadn't come
with him