Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-12-09
DAILY SHORT STORY
A woMAN's PREFERENCE.
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observant O. the queer doin's of differ
ent kind o. animals. but 1 never SEE
nothin' so unsarten as wimmin. There
amt no Teller can tell jist what a wo
mans goin' to do. Any other machines
built up on certain principles and as
long as kept in repair will grind things
cut the same way. Wimmen won't dc
II. They grind irregular.
One evenin' forty year ago when
was huntin' antelope in the Rockies
was camped in a pass along which
wagon trains was comm on their way
to Californy. 1 see single wagon
lumberin' up the road. and when II
come nigh l noticed a woman was
drivin'. There was three men with
her, aud IL turned out that they was
oil workin' fer her. They camped with
US, and ii wasn't long before we found
that the woman was Il wilder who had
got a lot O money from her husband
and was goin' on some sort of a bust
ness deal in San Francisco. She was
q good lookin' puSSon, sOme'ers about
thirty, and 1t was easy to see that all
the men was tryin' TO git into her ia
one, a Teller named Sheath. was a
measly sort o. chap that didn't seem
to care much about her. But l put
that down to the fac that he hadn't
got no chance. The Teller that l reck-
oned she'd take. If she took any Of
'em, was Nettleton He was about
thirty-fiye and Il thorough man. hand
some as pictur' and brave as lion.
The third man, Jimmie Saunders. was
too young for her. bein' only about
twenty two years old.
We all camped together that night
and the next mOrnin' went over the
divide together, journeyin' in the same
crowd fer n matter of two weeks.
There wasn't nothin' to take me with
'em except that the wilder. who SEEM
ed to have n faculty fer ropin' men in
to her affections, lasSOed me. That
made three of us all, elbowin' one an
other fer the same woman, NettletOn.
Saunders and Inc. LeastawayS Saun-
ders and me was elbowin', fer Nettle-
ton was a proud sort of a man and
wouldn't put i'm n claim. HowsOmever,
the man was most afeard of was this
same Nettleton. He was such a fine
lookin', manly chap. and. though he
wouldn't stoop to palaver over no wo-
man. he was consid'a able polite to the
wilder, and of all her hands was the
most use. But sometimes l thought
Saunders would light in ahead Of the
hull lot of us. He was n lively little
chap. and the only rule I've ever been
able to apply to wimmen is that when
they git along in years they mostly
reaches down fer men below 'em.
Well. one evenin' when we was at
supper Nettleton. who KEEP an eye out
FER safety. saw somepin black on the
horizon 'twixt him and the settin' sun
and knew it was Injuns. You bet we
wasn't long in maxim n corral. with
the wagon fer one side, a log fer an
other and THROWN up dirt fer the rest
Of II. We was rushin' roun' fer things,
not mindin' what each other was dom
and didn't notice till we'd got the stock
into the corral and was all ready fer
the redskins that Sheath was missin'.
The mis'ablc coward, not relishin' n
siege. had left us to hold the Injuns
" Litt Nv NdlIoOStn- bt WoiSt VI II
was that he took one of the bosses.
You oughter heered that woman lash
him with her tongue. She was so mad
hat she forgot the Injuns.
The fight amt got nothin' to do with
he story. Nettleton took command
Ind handled us so well that we killed
most o. the Injuns and drove of the
est. see that Nettleton had got the
,etter OF me with the wilder. and IL 1
iidn't do somepin TO balance up I'd be
eft clean out. So as soon as we'd got
id o. the trouble l mounted the best
loss in the team and lit out fer Sheath.
caught him ten mile away and
brought him back.
When / rode inter camp with him
vas disappointed to obsarve that the
wrath was cooled. Instead
, beratin' him, as / supposed she
would. she didn't take no notice OF
hin. / aNed her what punishment she |
bought was best fer him. and she said |
hat she didn't think he was worth |
Consequence is he didn't |
,it no punishment onless the fac that |
lone OF US men would speak to him |
vas SIGH.
Now. the onsartainty o. wimmen that |
m tryin' to show up by this story Is |
his: AS soon as we men showed the /
old shoulder To Sheath the wilder be-
,un To treat him respectable, and ii L
wasn't long before it was plain that Il
he was takin' his part agin us. We II
ut ii down 10 a natural propensity O.
TO sympathize and excuse any
ody In trouble. maxim 'em on that ac-
cunt entirely omitted fer jurymen. II
70 we didn't pertest or anything like
hat, jist shown our own contemp' II
er Sheath and lettin' her have her own
ray.
But the worse we sat down on Sheath
he more the wilder warmed TO him,
nd ut last we noticed that they was
good deal together. whisperin', and
re begun 10 suspec' that the wilder
Tas goin' to try 10 help him out and
ersuade us to stop sittin' down on
i'm. III
About this time we went down inter