Smyrna times. [volume] (Smyrna, Del.) 1854-1987, 1906-11-07

old Colonel Meecham about some lost
cattle, and ten minutes later he had
lost his heart to Miss Rose, the colo
ners daughter, who was then girl of
nineteen and her fathers housekeeper.
Circle ranch had been a great ranch
il its day, but the colonel had met
with all sorts of bad luck and couldn't
pay his debts. He had a few cattle
and one cowboy left, while a colored
woman assisted Rose about the house
work.
Rose Meecham had not been educat-
ed in the east. She had been born in
the ranch house and sent to a school
not a hundred miles away, and her en-
vironments had been of the plainest.
AS the adoring father said of her more
than once after his wife died:
Rosie is good looking and honest
hearted and will make some man a
good wife. There's nothing of the CO.
Quette or flirt about her. She doesn't
know what a Irritation means. She's
Just a plain girl, with her heart set ON
doing all she can for her old daddy"
That was the coloneIs way of put
ting it, and it simply shows how little
| the average father knows of the aver
| age daughter. Miss Rose was good
looking and honest hearted. but she
would fiirt with a cross eyed cowboy.
! Any other girl in her situation would
have done the same thing. There
wasn't another girl for fifteen miles
around, while there were about fifty
cowboys within that distance, and, be-
sides there was the fort only five miles
away and soldiers passing on the road
every day.
Joe Whitman may have been above
the average cowboy in looks and ed
ucation. Miss Rose had decided with
in five minutes that she liked him.
Within another five she was smiling
so sweetly and talking so nicely that
she had Joe stammering out his words.
That was the beginning of things.
lie had driven home a bunch of the
colonel's cattle that he had. cut out of
his herd, and though he wanted to
linger at the ranch and talk about the
price of beef on the hoof, the drop in
hides and the dry summer, he wasn't
equal to the occasion and was almost
bucked off his pony in taking his leave.
Joe rallied when lie got back to his
cattle and began to lay plans, and from
that day on it was a cold day when he
did not bring in some of the coloneIs
stray stock.
1t was a puzzle to the old gentleman
why his cattle should wander six OF
seven miles after pasture when they
had better at home, but it was no mys
terry to Miss Rose. Every time bunch
of the missing cattle came back Joe
had to stop TO explain and to call for 6
drink of water and to hang around fol
; q good half hour and that girl, whC
didn't know what a Irritation meant
d. laughed to herself after he had de
parted
Jim Taylor. the lone cowboy in thu
1 colOners employ, was past forty, hat
T a wife somewhere in the east and wa
> out of the running, but lie was n
3 wooden head. When those lost cattl
I. were driven up he WOULD go to tn
colonel and declare that somebody wa
driving them off that he might hav
the privilege of driving them bac
again. and that if Miss Rose were hi
i daughter he would put his foot dowI
% Then the colonel would look up in a
innocent way and eXclaim:
Lord love us, but you don't thin
L Rosa drives off our cattle and the
- drives them back againP'
- ''No. | don't. colonel, but don't
IS strike you that Joe Whitman is con
ing here mighty often?"
D. rs he? Well, he has to bring bac
3 the strays. you isnow, and it is yer
T. kind of him indeed. l don't alway
te see him. but l hope that Rosa return
. my thanks in a proper way"
Joe was working the cattle bushes
for all it was worth and calling at Il
Circle ranch between times with o
anges and boxes of candy sent to hi
from Denver, when rival sudden
- entered the field.
Sergeant Smith. from the fort, can
along one day with a squad of men al
10 stepped at the house to make some
quiries. The sergeant was good loo
ing man. He had taking way wi
him. Irritation was started almo
N at once, and when he took up his Iii
III of march again he promised himself t
pleasure of another call.
Three days later he rode out to t
an ranch and began to make love in Ell
inf nest. He had served Uncle Sam
le- twelve years, saved up 5000 and W
be looking for wife. While he continu
be to be a soldier she could have pla
ale as one Of the laundresses in Co
rel pany G..
ns Before the sergeant got away J
Whitman came riding up The t
is. men instinctively recognized each o
v, er as rivals and glared and mutter
but there was no bloodshed.
When the son of Mars had go
there was a quarrel between the t
Ia Toosc iaoIor1cv rnoda n alfhof