The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1897-05-21

| dred plunging and plodding cows
mingled with the whistles and pecu-
| liar cries and calls of the attendant
| COWBOYS, who in wide felt sombreros
| and picturesque attire, rode at each
side of the moving mass of tossing
horns and rough-coated bodies.
| Miss u dropped her garden tools
and went up the steps to the porch.
1t was the way she paid herself for
the expense and trouble of setting up
| the drinking place-this quiet enjoy
ment of hers in the eagerness and
satisfaction of the poor creatures,
weary with the travel of many miles
over dusty roads.
| As she sat thus, looking out across
the cypress hedge upon the surging
crowd of cattle, a panic-stricilen child
| pushed open the gate and ran up the
| walk. "Oh, Miss p" she cried out
shri!lv, "let me come where you are !.
I'm afraid of the cows
| Miss P. rose and went down the
| steps. How womanly and tender she
| looked as she reached a hand down to
the little girl and smiled assuringly.
| The cattle were crowding around the
| long, stone trough and a dark-eyed,
| weather bronzed cowboy leaned from
| his mustang and helped himself to a
| drink from the fountain. AS he did
so he heard the child's frightened cry
and saw the pretty womanly little
picture. AS he drank he studied thewo
| mans face furtively from the shadow
| of his wide sombrero and a sudden
! look of wonder seemed to come into
his deep eyes. But he assisted the
others in keeping the struggling herd
| under control and finally, after all
were satisfied, helped to start them
moving again, in wide, dark stream
of hoofs and horns, red backs and
switching tails, down the dusty road.
Then, with word to the cowboy
nearest to him he turned his horse
and rode back to the fountain.
AS Miss p, standing at the gate with
| the child, glanced up at him he lifted
his sombrero and sprang from his sad
die. BEG pardon, madam" he be-
gan courteously, but want to thank
you for the great privilege we have
| enjoyed It's rare thing in Califor-
mia to find a watering place along the
| road
You're entirely welcome, I'm sure"
| responded Miss p. cordially. This was
nothing new. Dozens of grateful pass
, ersby had paused to thank her for pro-
| viding such refreshment for man and
| it was only a simple act of courtesy in
| this particular cowboy to do the same.
| So she wondered little why he did
| not take his departure now that his
| errand was done Perhaps he enjoyed
| the hade of the mighty fig tree which
spread its great limbs and dense foil
| age far out over the fountain and into
| the street.
Why should he look at her so ? Why
| didn't he go? Oh, whom did he look
| like and who was he?
At that moment her startled eyes
caught sight of long scar across the
mans forehead, for his head was bar
ed. and in another instant she found
herself leaning against the cypress
hedge quite weakly and feeling as
| though it must all be a dream. Then
she gathered herself together and
spoke in a quiet voice which trembled
| little:
"Horace-Horace, is it you, or am
j dreaming p
s1h'You are not dreaming, Nellie" the
i1fian replied as quietly-''it is Horace
\ e,id you are Nellie, come together at
4 last in this strange way
\ 70 Miss p suddenly lost her hold upon
| vous, sobbing cry-and murmured
| something brokenly which the stran-
| ger accepted as an invitation to come
in. So he tied the mustang to the
ring in the tig-tree's trunk and follow
ed Miss p. into the Louise, while the
open-nouthed child went on her way
schoolward, stopping often to walk
back ward a few steps and wonder at
what she had seen.
But old Mrs Green behind her win
dow blinds called eXcitedly TO Maria
and told her all about it. Depend
upon it, Maria" she quavered, that
old maids got history and know it,
and haiu't It mite of doubt in my
mind but what that's her beau come
back. But a cowboy-my sakes
alive :"
1t was the same old story with which
everybody is SO familiar lover S
quarrel, a hasty parting, hot-headed
Youth flinging himself away from the
quiet New England home out into the
world, to be swallowed up in the
yawning jaws of the wide, wide west;
! a young girl left to eat her heart out
in proud, unspoken sorrow and refuse
her various suitors because she had
no love to give them. The old, old
story again, but this one at last had a
happy ending.
ALL says old Mrs. Green, as she
cackles forth the romantic story of her
next door neighbor, for he owned all
them cattle and was just a-passin'
through to look after 'em. And he's
worth considerable, they say-got a
big stock ranch up north, and Miss
P.'s rented her house for six months
and went up there with him till he
gets things in shape to leave 'em and
come down here to live. She says she
amt never going to leave that there
drinkin'- fountain and waterin' trough
and / don't knows l blame her when
it surely was the means of bringing
her husband. Oh, yes. she's mar
ried. He came back in a1dGY. Or twos
looking as slick as you pleAse aud they
was married by Elder SGe#aff We'd
nesday evening a week ago. sDnaA I,
"Well, hope that mani MAKE her
happy, for she is good, kinashearted
woman, and call that qdeefffeakiof
hers-setting up that watering trough
in front Of her house, sai =, regular d deed
Vi merry Il ytaswa isai sdt 1oi 1sttsd ON 4
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