Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1899-02-06
A ROUGH RIDER.


 when the doctor came for his daily visit aisl crowded around when he ap-. preached the bed, where a white sheet set itself stiffly over all that had re- quired his ministrations. Bud Wilson, eantefing down from the Hill range, caught sight of the unusual throng and llang his horses head up sharply by the side of the house.
 Whats the racket?' he asked of one of the men standing by. Some one hurt?'
 Jim McMiIlan's baby's dead"
 Bud Wilson was q handsome fellow. He sat q horse, superbly and rolled cigarettes to perfection, bending them Ill the Mexican way. In the surprise of the announcement he rolled one now, placing the wisps of paper on the pommel of his saddle while he pour cd the tobacco into it. After q med itated whiff or two that burned tho paper half down to his fingers he threw his cigarette away, and swing Ing down from his saddle tossed his bfidle over the nearest fence post and walked back to the door as softly as his high-heeled boots and swaddling geatsidn ''chaps" permitted.
 Bud Wilson at one time had been very attentive to Lizzie MeAIillan be- fore she was Lizzie McMillan. Certain of the range people had said "it would sure be as match,s' but Billy Howe, Buds most intimate friend i'll the roundup gang, had prophesied that s.ye wouldn't rope Bud fer no such halter yet, and they had not.
 The door was pulled open at the newcomers knock. He paused mom- ont on the threshold, then. walked in with bowed head and stood looking down at the figure in the little white coffin, holding his broad sombrero in both hands, with it's heavy row of buckles giinting around the crown.
 While he stood there the mother, whose silence had at last found voice, sat in the adjoining room looking over the empty field. She was croon- ing to herself softly;
 Yes. My pore child's gone. But it's better off-Ah know it. And never brought it up right Ah'm sinful an worldly, an And a brought it up to daynee an' all such things. An know Ah would. Ah'm not it to have q child, so weak an sinful, an God has taken it back now, an he maght not eff it he'd stayed with me an groWed up like me"
 She sat by the kitchen window, her cloak on as though she were about to go out. and swayed softly back and forth, her fine head and figure mak- ing q superb silhouette against the square of light behind her.
 But An cayn't bear to think of her lyin oat there in tn rain an'snow," she went on. HEf it was only Summer an it was green an there was flowers but to be oat there-Ah eayn't bear to think aboat it. Oh, Ah cayn't"
 Wilson stood looking down at the child while she spoke, not once 1ais- ing his head Then he turned and went out as quietly as he had come in
 "What's she sayin' bout flowers, BiH?" he asked of one of the men on the outside, indicating the direction of the mother with twist of his brows.
 "Liz? Oh, nothin' She's picked out the place for the grave out there on the knoll by the river, where she can see it from the window, and she wants to have some flowers there some time."
 "So she's cryin' for flowers" Wilson unused. Let's see. No up train till , tomorrow, and that's too late. I'll do it. D-n me if 1 don'tw
 The funeral service was not elabor- ate. The one minister at Table Rock, who was also the carpenter, came over for the occasion. There was a hymn by jarring voices, a chapter from the Bible, read while the men, for the most part, crowded bareheaded around the open door or tramped heavily over the faded flower beds that lined the red wall with a starved stubble of greenery-po portulaca sweet Williaman bachelor solution the Springtime reaching out of some soul toward the beautiful, now become, as everything must, but the setting for the common tragedy. Once, while the service was under way, an ore train went pounding by with a sudden roar and chatter of wheels.
 After the service four of the men carried the coffin to the place where the grave had been hollowed out on tho bluff above the river. The sagebrush grew thickly on the sides of the slope, with an occasional yucca lifting it's barred blades. There was quite steep ascent for q dozen yards or more, and the men who were carrying the coffin had to watch their steps. As they reached the top of the rise the leader started then went on amid low mur- mur of surprise.
 The yellow mound of newly turned earth had disappeared under the dazzl- ing bank of fowers-roses, carnations, lilies-a little Drowned at the edges in the chill air, but white and glorious still in the morning light, and hiding as one came up the slope, even the ragged edge of the grave itself.
 No one knew whence they came, and the minister, taking advantage of the wonder, wove into his final words q reference to that promise. of Him who said. .I will give. you beauty for ashes
 Bud Wilson rode home with his cousin Medic after the funeral. You re comin' long over to. stay tonight, ain't. you?" she had asked. "Yes, I'll go over and sleep, he had answered, and then felt her eyes upon him as he had tranped along ahead of her horse