The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1901-11-05
eeeNNAe
!: BILLY BRAG;


but we boys at the 'HX' ranch called
him Billy Brag for reasons which ten
minutes conversation with him would
make obvious even to total stranger
To say that he was opinionated is
drawing it very mild, and to state that
particularly excellent one he held of
himself is superfuous.
Those were humdrum, monotonous
days at the 'HX," and there was scant
opportunity for Billy to exhibit the
courage, prowess, skill, ability and so
forth which-we had his own oft re
peated statements for 1.-THE possessed
to remarkable degree.
| Once in awhile something would
happen to relieve the monotony, but
Billy somehow or other was never on
! deck to show what he was worth. He
always turned up afterward with:
HUH Ye galoots jes' make me ache
all over! wy any bloomin' tenderfoot
cd "a tor We better'n thatW or, "That
wuz a fool trick. Now, eff I'd been
thar I'd "a did so an so;" or, Huh!
Dye call that anythin' ter menshun?
| Wy, back thar on tn Keya Paha we
used ter let tn kids an wimmen do
that kind O. work.
And so it went for nearly a year,
and, though we invented many plan
to give Billy an opportunity to show
his worth, he managed on one preteXt
OF another to keep out of our snares.
One day Gale Smelling who was out
| looking up some stays, fell in with a
maverick steer feeding in couiee and,
thinking at first that it was an "HX"
critter, rode toward it. But the beast
was what is known as bad un,"
and, horns down and believing with
rage, he turned and charged on the
startled cowboy Gale tried to turn his
pony and run, but the animal was
green and only reared and snorted.
/ Gale thought he was about to take
place herding clouds, but he yanl;ad
his gun and let go, catching the steer
right between the eyes and dropping
/ it not more than ten feet away.
Gale was a bit new in the business,
and he was rather pale when he rode
up to the ranch and related his expert
ence, but there was a triumphant tone
/ in his voice as he told of his successful
shot from the back of bucking pony
Billy listened with a superior air.
''Huhr' he remarked disdainfully,
''What We wanter kill i'm fer? Ye cd
jes y well creased an roped i'm. Some
folks never hev no r'gard fer propty.
Waste not, want nothin'."
We all groaned and proceeded to con-
graduate Gale on his luck, but Bill did
not seem to care. He was getting used
| to our irreverence. 1t may be noted,
however, that when we tried next
morning to get Billy to take galloping
shot at the stripe in a blanket nailed
on to shed door, to see how near he
could have come to "creasing" a mad
steer from the back of fool pony, our
proposition met with scorn. "There We
go ag'in," said Billy. whats tn blame
use O. wastin' er whole lot O cartridges
jes' ter convince er mess O. gabblin'
egiots that er thing kin be did? Aw, go
off an try poundin' SAN in er rathole
fer yer wits Bet We carn't even do
that" And he rode off, much offended.
When Joe Fleming, brother of the
boss, and Hank Barr had brush with
half a dozen Indians and just escaped
with their lives, leaving bunch of fat
cattle to be run off by Uncle Sans
dear, sweet proteges, Billy's opinion
was at once forthcoming. "Huhl Ye
mout jes' y we'll saved mos O. tn crit
tiers. an got them thievin' red cusses
too. wy didn't We, wen We seed 'em
ridin' down on ye, jes' kill three or four
critters an pile 'em up fer er barricade.
That'd ben better'n losin' TIL hull
bunch"
When Bob Hall, a cowboy from the
'3 Bar" the next ranch-one of the
meanest, ugliest, most quarrelsome bull
lies who ever flourished a gun-got kill
ed at the hotel in town by an unoffend-
ing tenderfoot whom he had tried to
compel to take drink, Billy, as usual,
had something to say. Huh! That's
them tenderfeet all over They think
eff er man tries ter hev fun with 'em
hyar that they've got ter shoot, an
shoot quick TIL galoot oughter've jes'
took Bob Hill by tn scruff O. tn pants
an kicked or throwed i'm out an Bob
'id've pollygized too quick. Bob Hall
never had no sand"
All the same, there was an old story
to the effect that once when Billy had
been unaccountably absent from the
ranch for three or four days, he had
been in town. devoting considerable at
tention to keeping out of the belligerent
Mr.. Halls way.
But Billy's opportunity came one day.
He had been laid up a week and was
still lame as the result of being on the
side next the ground when his pony
stumbled and fell one day and was sit
ting at the door one morning about
II: 80 when the stage came along. Sew
eral of us were in the ranchhouse and
were somewhat surprised to hear the
wheels outside, for the stage road was
two miles from the ranch. AS we
crowded to the door we saw "some-
thing was up" for Dyer, the driver,
looked excited.
"Mornin', gentlemen" he said. And
then to Boss Fleming: "Fleming, l ex-
pect to be he'll up over by Five Mile
creek Kin one O. the boys go with me?
I'll get another man at Parker's, an
rackon three'll be 'nough."
"Why, yes, of course" was the reply.
"You can have more if you want 'em.
I'll go myself. But why didn't you
bring guards if you're carrying any val
uables?"
Dyer explained. The night before he
had noticed three suspicious looking
characters in town and observed that
they eyed him considerably. This morn
ing he had started early, hoping to pass
all the places favorable to ''hold up"
before the three tough looking gentle
men had time to get located, He had
felt bit backward about bringing
guards, as he did not like to appear
cowardly, and besides his suspicious
might be groundless, and the laugh
would be on him. There were no valua
bles except the mail bags.
But the three strangers had passed
him mile back, evidently in hurry
to get somewhere; hence his visit to the
"HX"
Fleming turned to get ready to 60
he was not the man to send somebody
else into danger-but he was met at the
door by Billy, "heeled" with two re-
volvers and a Winchester.
"Hello, manr' calculated Fleming.
didn't you hear me say was going?"
Don't care eff We did," answered Bill
ly CURLY. "Thar's plenty work ter do,
an my laigs is too stiff ter straddle any
blame broncho." And he climbed pain
f,,llr nm ON the drivers seat and the