Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1901-08-01
The Safety Of Numbers.
MRS. DENNIsoN had begun life h,
BY Gwendolen overton.


MRS. DENNISON had begun life by
II choosing the wrong man. In the
resulting misery, the fact of having
plenty of company gave her no con
ISOLATION. She had had many suitors,
Goth because she was the onIy girl
within a radius of 10 miles, and be-
u she was a very nice and pretty
one. But only Leslie and Dennison
had ever stood a chance, and Dem
nlson had won out-no one could
quite tell why, Maggie herself least
OF all, probably. Leslie would have
been the better match, viewed fnan-
Cially, and looks were in his favor
very decidedly.
But Maggie chose Dennison with
the usual wisdom of her kind; and
having no particular religious prefer
ences one way o. another, went with
fim to the nearest adobe town and
had herself married by a padre, as be-
ing the easiest and quickest wal out
o5 it. And thereafter for three years
Dennison had treated her abominably.
He made nothing whatever of beating
her; ne oyerworked her; he drank.
His conduct was the scandal of the
surrounding country. knowing Mag
gie's p~rogenitors and her own dispo-
sition, the wonder to every one was
that she did not shoot Dennison and
have done with it. Since nothing of
the kind happened, the only possible
conclusion was hat she loved him.
Which h did. If he had neglected
her she might perhaps have had re-
course to a six-shooter; but it is at
least having some notice taken of you
tc be knocked down, and Maggie fire.
q~uently was.
The treatment told on her good
looks after a while, the more especial
" as they were of the sort hat are
OF youth alone. The plains and hard
usage age a woman early. So when
Maggie was "a she looked ten years
older than that.
Then Dennison left her. He found
somebody he liked better, one day
when he went over to the railroad
town IS miles away, and took her
away with him. Maggie had no no.
ton where he had gone, else she
would probably have followed him.
Instead, she STAYED on the ranch and
hoped and pinned. She carried on the
ranch alone. it being one of those
plains ranches having no especial
boundaries, no especial fields or crops,
and only a scrawny mich cow or two
and a few chickens. There were a
couple of hundred head of stock, cat
tie that roamed the country and were,
TO all intents, wild. and some broncos
Of much the same sort. These re-
CURED no care, so Maggie spent most
of her days sitting on the sill of the
back door of The adobe and staring
off toward the mountains and think
ing about DennisOn.
The Mexican woman who lived with
her ~squatted on the ground-in the
SHADE in summer, in h sun in win
ter-with a black tapalo over her
head. smoking cigarettes until h
hard soil in the neighborhood was
strewed with straw paper stumps.
She had II children. Maggie had
none. There had been a baby, but it
died. A whitewashed board fence
upon the top of a knoll that was to
he seen from the back door marked
where the grave had been before the
COYOTES had torn it up. Besides the
woman and the II children there were
two .'greaser" vaqueros, whose duties
we're not burdensome, who ate jerked
beef and frijoles, and helped Maggie
wait for Dennison to come back.
But though she sat day after day
with her fading eyes looking toward
the mountains beyond which was the
railway and from which came the
road, no Dennison appeared. Other
people came by at long intervals.
Twice Leslie had ridden up. There
had been a years space between the
visits. And at the second one Maggie
had seemed no nearer consolation or
common sense than at the first. Then
he had let Is months elapse.
When he came down the road this
time he saw Maggie, from afar off,
sitting on the door sill with her chin
in her hands, the Mexican woman
hueVing a narrow strip of shade. for
If was near noon, and some chickens
and children variously disposed. He
dismounted with a clanking of spurs
and led his broncho to the water
trough.
Maggie rose without haste and went
over to him. She might hav seen
him five minutes before from any sign
OF surprise or pleasure she made.
Hers was the apathy of the woman of
the frontier rancho, to whom life is
as her outlook upon the world-dead,
fruitless and dry. She took him into