, 1902-10-24
The Overland EastbOund

q = Err name was Eulaile,' DuI every
III one In Elkton called her Dottie.
oA"Old Man" Lebrun, her father,
had started Elkton. He came down as
4 hunter md trapper In the old days
when the territory was as primeval as
his own Canadian frontier, but when
the wild game was pretty well hunted
out and the white emigrants and the
soldiers commenced to come he turned
ereighter, and later, when the copper
camp started at Goose Greek, he blazed
\ stage route thither and founded the
traf1c that made him rich-for a from
tiersman. When Mrs. Lebrun died
Dcttie was a chubby, big-eyed ED of
( and so the women, who were few.
and the men, who had never more
than. one tender side In their make-ups
In. those harsh days, petted the child
and made life very sweet and radiant
as she grew. Now she was 20, with
the eyes Of a doe, SO lustrous and won
dering; broken skin, peeling a little
from her oval face from the whipping,
sand-spattered winds of the plains. the
form OF a stately woman and the heart
Of a yearning child. She had been
Through school," had taught In 1t for
a term and was. esteemed as the most
learned inhabitant of, Elkton next to
PEARSON Davies and Squire Beeno," and,
perhaps, Professor swinton, who was,
however, a newcomer and therefore
yet on probation.
Professor Swinton stopped" at Le-
bruins. He was a New-Yorker. frank,
boyish, unaffected, gentle and gener.
ous. He laughed deprecatingly at the
professor idea, for he was only a
principal" of the threerroom school,
and he had that admirable desire to
be called by his given name that is
strong In all young, ingenious natures.
Els coming had made quite a differ
ence'' with Eulalie, and they had come.
afono so. we'll in thnir hco-ea-sA4
That she now called him "Mister Mau.
rice,Y, and he said Miss Eulalie." ~ He
had told her many wondrous things
about. New York and the world that
Ties hoNond and apart from the sand
dor and folly, of the %pageantry and
the EAockery, of the ~canon-like streets.
the glories, the squalor, the romance
and the emptiness. of the life he had
left to grow up, as he said, with the
free West. Sometimes he told her love
stories, of which she forgot to ask
him. How do you known" and silent
and eager-eyed, like the child in the
nursery at night, she only listened and
hoped that his legends might never
COME to an end.
Sometimes, when the sun had gone,
they reds their ponies away into the
short grass, endless plateaus, that dip
and rise above the mesa walls of the
little town; sometimes they galloped
through the narrow trails of the re-
moter hills, but always she listened,
smiling half sadly. half raptly, and al
ways he told his quaint jokes, his true
tales of real fairies, and his romances
of the Babylons she might never see.
One day he got a fat letter from the
East, and when he had read 1t and
laughed over 1t, and held up the check
which it brought, he ran into the hall
way and called for Miss Eulalie. She
had ridden into town, her father said.
ito trade" Maurice went to the cor
raj and saddled his pony. 1t was Sat
urday, his holiday. He galloped gaily
down the dusty road, shifting the hot
wind and twirling his quirt like a man
with good news. He met Eulalie in
the main street. just mounted upon her
old white pony, and waved his letter
at her.
Aunt Won Werdon is dead, Miss Eu-
lalie," he said, stopping and looking
at her merrily.
'That one that gave the tea party to
the cats and kittens? But you're sor-
~, amt you, Mr.. Maurice?" she asked,
wondering at his leyity..
"Yes-and no. You see. she had only
two reasons for living-cats and me.
She preferred the cats, and-then she
was old beyond computation-but l
will say that she did better by me
than 1 had a right to expect. See?
She has left me $500! l shall have
money to burn" And his eyes looked
wistfully up the -heat-scourged street,
with Its reeking barrooms, its empty.
wooden sidewalks and its dreary same
ness, Of frame-shanty stores. "Will
you wait till 1 cash this check. Miss
Eulalier' he added; I'D like to ride
home with you"
She rode into the shade of the town
well and let her pony drink while he
went to. the bank. But when he came
back she said: It's train time. Mr..
Maarice." with q pouting little grim
tttD
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