Arizona republican., 1905-04-16

mas when we was riding fences-keep- ing the line up against the snow, and running the cattle back if they broke the wires and got across-l got t0 thinking of the holiday dances at Striped Rock, and says I: Heres for a Christmas as near home as l can get and a sight of Susie"
 The boss let me off, and I made i- in on Christmas Eve. The dance was going on down at Forester's Hall. I fixed up and took it in.
 And there she was-I didn't know her for the start she'd got. Her hair that sine used to wear in two molassey- colored braids hanging down her back and shining in the sun the way candy shines when you pull twas done up all over head. She was all pinky and whitey in the face the way she used to be when she was a little girl She lad on a sort of pink dress, mighty pretty, with green wassets down tn. front and a green dingbat around the bottom. and long-not the way it wal when I saw her before. She was rush ed to the corner with every Seezer in the place piled in front of her. I broke into the bunch. Everybody seemed to see me except Susie. She treated me like any other maverick in the herd. She hadn't even a dance left for me. once, in "Old Dan Tucker" she called me out, but she'd called out every other tarantula in the White River country, so there was no hope in that. If ever a man didn't know where he was at, was the candidate.
 All that winter riding the fence, thought and thought. I'd been so dead sure of her that I was letting her go. Here was the principal of the high school. and young Mullins that worked in the Rancher's Bank and Biles that owned stock in the P L, all after her, like bronchos after a marked steer. and I was only the "Four-eyed Cow puncher," $30 and found. And I got bluer than the light on the snow. And then says I to myself, if she ain't mar ried when spring melts, by the Lord, I'll have her.
 I'm one of those that ain't forgetting the 18th of February, 1898. Storm over, and me mighty glad of it. Snow all around, except where the line of fence rails peel1ed through and the sun just ! binding I on the bronco breaking through the crust, feeling mighty good both of us Down in a little arroya,
 where a creek ran in summer, was the end of my run. Away of in the snow
 I saw Billy Taylor, my side-p partner
 waving his hand like he was excited
 I pounded my mule on the back.
 ''The Maine's blown up,' he yells i "The Maine's blown uDi"
 .The what?" says I, not understand l inG.
 -.The Maine-TIavara Harbor-yvaI ] sure" he says. I tumbled off in the snow while he chUcked me down a 1 bunch or Denver papers. There it was
 I went as loco as Billy. Before l got l back to camp I had it Ill figured out 1 sage brush and the mountains away l what I ought to do. I got to the fore man before noon and drew my pay and ] left him cussing. Lickety- split, tn 1 cayuse-he was mine-Sot me to tn i station. I figured that the National | Guard would be the first to go, and 1 figured right. So I telegraphed to old ! Captain Fletcher of Company N, al i Range City: Have you got room fol me?" And he answered me, knowing
 just how 1 stood on the ranches: Yes ] Can you raise me twenty men to fiji
 my company" He didn't need to asl for men; there were plenty of then anxious enough to go, but he did nee ! the sort of men I'd get him. Snow b | darned, I rode for four days signing III | twenty hellaroos that would leave tn
 rough riders standing. Into Range Cit, I hustled them. There we waited ci
 the town. doing nothing but live on ou
 back pay and drill while we waited
 nineteen for glory and Spanish blood and me for glory and the girl.