Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1901-03-17
HOW A STORY ENDED.
Copyright, 1900, by Daily Story Pub. Coz
BY Annie Shannon Monroe.


Miss Miramon still sat at her desk,
thinking.
"a Thanksgiving story and a jolly
one," was the order. She smiled as
she remembered the emphasis the edi-
tor put on those last two words.
You must write of the brighter side,
he had said more than once. People
want to laugh; they have troubles
enough"
But i write of life as I see it," she
had answered. Il can't be true to life
and make my stories end right"
Stuff! Nonsense! Miss Beal does it,
She is the brightest writer l know of.
If she dives
But she had not lived. The wan lit
tie ~consumptive had died too o to
fill the order for a regular Jolly
Thanksgiving story" and the task had
fallen to Miss Miramon. "How in
congruous of her-to die at such a
moment" she said.
"But she was ever homogeneous
always could laugh when there was
really nothing to laugh about. And
now she is dead and l must write the
story. / wonder if she laughing now,
from somewhere in the beyond-laugh-
ing at me trying to be funny"
Suddenly out of the past a picture
leaped and blotted out the dismal
musings or a young girl full of faith
n love, and the picture brought with
1t an overwhelming odor of crushing
sage brush.
Memory led her. back to a certain
black night on the great plains. The
child was living with her two uncles
who had settled on a lonely section of
desert sage. She had a pony and
from morning till night she rode over
the valley and the hills.
One day she had climbed up hills
and through ravines till she stood on
the top of the ridge and looked over
the wide valley to the Columbia river.
glittering and cleaning like a silver
snake through the miles and miles Of
lowlands. On the other side was her
own great desolate valley; and, oh,
how she loved it all! To ride, with
the pure mountain air blowing against
her FACET was life, life. life!
But on this day as she turned to go
down again into the valley she OBJ
served a horseman, clear-cut against
the evening sky.
Zone of the cowboys" she said. "If
I keep On ahead of him he will think
/ am a man" For she was dressed in
mans attire. So she rode as fast as
the little cayuse could be made to
push his way down the steep descent.
The cowboy rode fast also until he
was within speaking distance.
Hello, stranger" he shouted.
Might comes mighty early in these
hills and the way is new to me. Let
M join YOU"
The child pulled her big sombrero
closely down over her abundant black
hair and sat erect on her little pony.
Certainly, sir" she answered. 1T
was growing late, 81 l was making
what haste l could
She glanced cautiously at him and
saw he was no cowboy; but she was
not afraid, ever in those lonely hills.
And then they rode on in silence to-
gether threading the long way down
through the ravines; together watch
ing the stars come out in the high
blue sky.
See, there is my start" cried the
child, ecstatically, right over our
j heads. It's the brightest of them all"
But the heaven-lit eyes of the child
interest the man more than the star,
and while she sat erect on the pony,
! the bride dangling over his name. her
face turned ~heavenword, lit with the
wonderment Of youth, he watched her
and drank in her rare beauty. And as
she turned her eyes to the earth again
! che met MS gaze, full, straight, and
their souls spoke to each other. And
thus it was that her bright star came
to earth.
There was no one in particular to
worry about the child. so she arrived
home and crept into bed without hav-
ing excited NJ alarm over her alb
sence. The man rode on to his desti-
nation across the valley.
/ They met often after that, for the
, man was chief engineer of the big land
company digging down through the
| valley, and he often drove over the
work; and the child was always on
| her pony somewhere. Had she ever
, stayed at home she would have heard
| her uneles threaten the engineers in a
way not to go UNDECIDED. There was
| Mexican blood in the Miramon veins;
there was, too, right on the Mexican's
| side.
The company paid no damages and
| gave no water rights; they dug
straight through a mans land; then
demanded full pay Tor . water right
This injustice fred the Mexicans'