The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1902-04-22
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Z THAT QUEER OLD LADY. !
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nY IONS II. RAFln nRY.


OF As. with a few hundred dollars sew
ed in her dress. and the fife Of hope IN
her bright gray eyes. mad come into
the strip two years after its opening
or course she got the worst Of it, foi
The choice land was already taken and
the self-satished settlers who watched
ner old gray horse and cIattering bug
e. meander across their fields smiled
pityingly at the tardy boomer.
When at lass she set up her little
tent and staked out her horse on 3
bare and rocky quarter section where
even short grass looks stunted, the
women half-pitied her and some of th'
neighboring men came over to ask hei
IL there was anything they could lenc
her. But she only thanked them, as
she guessed she would get along al
right" so that the women who passed
by her tent every day began to say
that she was stuck up" and the farm
ers who knew that she was on an al.
most barreR claim, only grinned and
muttered: "She won't last morn one
season"
But she fooled them. tiny shacl
was built by half-breed who hauled
the lumber from the railway station in
her buggy. He built a irail little fenc,
around few acres OF her ground anc
left her at home on the desolate hi
she had chosen. Then every morniEl
when the sun swung up from the yel'
lew floor of the dry prairie that
stretched from her door to the hort
Eon, she was out in her little garder
digging. planting. cultivating tn,
small space from which she hoped al
least to wiring living. In the after
noon she would hitch up her aged mas
and, dressed in her best widows weeds
set of for the postoffice FIVE miles
away. She brought home few chick
ems. and in the lengthening evening
hours sat knitting at her low bacl
door. watching the sun drop down into
the pathless. treeless west
When spring had come and gon,
Mrs. Kayanaugh's little garden showed
all the squalor Of it, plnched cabbage.
and sickly vines the passing neighbor!
pitled her. II they had known hel
simple story perhaps they might hav,
helped her develop her poor land. bu
she confded in none. and came at las
t. be known as hsadstrong, cranky
old woman. who would be better Of
back East" with her people. Rain o.
shine. spring, summer. autumn a..
winter, she drove to town, tied hei
horse at the postoffice and asked for 1
letter. The overworl,ed clerk came L
know her at last, and with an effor
at kindly deception, for there hao
never been letter for ner, woulf
shuffls over the package OF ks aui
say softly: Nothing today. Mrs
KaYanaugh Then she woulu drol
the old crepe veil that was growing
rusty, draw a letter from her poclSe
and drop it into the box THAT vas TO
her son. her runaway boy. and it va.
always addressed MIR. Tom Kayan
augh. rwenty-seyenth infantry Man
ila Philippine Islands" Every da,
she sent him a letter, and every da.
she looked for an answer But non.
came, and the nervous old woman
went gravely back in her rickety bugg,
to the lonely shanty upon the desolat
hill to watch the sun set and to hop.
and pray
Her boy Tom had run away from
home before his drunker father ha,
died. He had written her just on
line; Gone TO the Philippines viii
TTenty-seyenth Infantry" He ha,
been gone year when his father died
She had written to him often. bn
knowing what thoughtless boy h.
vas, first attributed his silence to for
getfulness and neglect. When she ha,
told him OF his fathers death she fel
sure OF some answer, ard though nom
came she continued to write gentle
loving warning letters 70 the absen
scapegrace. He had been a youth o
some spirit, and she knew that hi
fathers dishonor in their home town
had driven him into the army. bu
with all her mothers condoning iov.
she could not understand why he di,
not at least send her a word. Sh
hated the town which mad been tn
scene OF her own and her boys dis
slaoe and separation. and when tn
new country" was opened and tn
tories OF its glowing future reaches