Warren sheaf., 1903-07-09

# ora;+;as :. !, Il e u, i "a e 3S5 g q: s ,tS :, &
f;cers ana ID yl,,ol, o,,,d
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witness in two inn portant cases. The
captain and his good wife went sby.
stage; Esther and Beverly rode every
inch of the way in saddle, camping
4 over night with their Joyous little
81 party at LaBonte. Then came love
. " week at Laramie, during which
Mr.. Field had but little to do but de-
3 vote himself to, and dance with, Es-:
ther, and when his final testimony
was given and he returned to his sta
! tion, and not until then, Esther Dade
ae discovered that life had little interest
or Joy without him; but Field rode
back unknowing, and met at Frayne,
. before Esther Dade's return, a girl
who had come almost unheralded,
making the journey over the Medi-
cine Bow from Rock Springs on the
Union Pacific in the conf ortable car
riage Of old Bill Hay, the post trader,
escorted by that redoubtable woman,
Mrs. Bill Hay, and within the week of
her arrival Nanette Flower was the
toast of the bachelors mess, the
talk Of every household at Fort
Frayne. .
Hay. the trader. had nrosnered IN
his long years on the frontier f;rst : s
trader among the Sioux. later as snr-
Ter. and finally. when CONGRESS ahol-
ished that title. substituting therefor
the euphemism. without ma terial clog
upon the perauisites. as post trader
at Fort Frayne. No one knew how
much he was worth, for while appar-5
emily most open-hearted. whole
souled fellow, Hay was reticence it.
self when his fortunes or his family
were matters of question or com
.ment. He had long been married,
and Mrs. Hay, when at the post, was
social sphinx kind hearted, chari-
table, lavish to the soldiers wives
and children, and devotion itself to
the families of the officers when sick
ness and trouble came, as come in
the old days they often did. It was
she who took poor Ned Robinson's
young widow and infant all the way
to Cheyenne when the Sioux butch
cred the luckless little hunting party
down by Laramie Peak. It was she
who nursed Capt. Forests wife and
daughter through ten weeks Of
typhoid, and, with her own means,
sent them to the seashore, while the
husband and father was far up on
the Yellowstone, cut off from all com
manication in the big campaign Of '76.
It was she who built the little chapel
and decked and dressed it for Easter
and Christmas. despite the fact that
she herself had been baptized in the
! Roman Catholic faith. It was she who
!, went at once to every woman in the
garrison whose husband was ordered
out on scout or campaign, proffering
aid and comfort, despite the fact long
{ whispered in the garrisons Of the
Platte country, that in the old, old
days she had far more friends among
the red men than the white. That
could well be, because in those days
3 white men were few and far between.
Everyone had heard the story that it
was through her the news Of the.
U massacre at Fort Phil Kearney was.
made known to the post commander.
,. for she could speak the dialects Of
/ both the Arapahoe end the Sioux, and
she had the sign language Of the
. plains veritably at her fingers ends.
There were not lacking those who de-
clared that Indian blood ran in her
veins that her mother was an
Ogallala squaw and her father =
-~-- F 4