The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-09-07
TIE EVENING yTOR r


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his heart to Miss Rose, the colonePs
daughter who was then g girl OF -
and her fathers housekeeper.
Circle ranch had been a great ranch
/ IN It's 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 as
sisted Rose about the homework.
Rose Meecham had not been educated
in the east. She had been born in the
ranch house and sent to a school not a
hundred miles away. and her environ
ments 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 coquette
nor firt about her. She don't know
what Irritation means. She's just
plain girl with her heart set on doing
all she can for her old daddy"
That was the colonels way Of putting
II, and it simply shows how little the
average father knows of the average
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 Is miles around, while there
lance, and besides there was the fort
only i've miles away and soldiers pass
ing on the road every day.
Joe Whitman may have been above
cation. Miss Rose had decided within
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.
He had driven home a bunch of the
colonels 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 he 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
colonel's stray stock.
It was a puzzle to the old gentleman
why his cattle should wander six or
seven miles after pasture when they
had better at home but 1t was no
mystery to Miss Rose. Every time a
bunch of the missing cattle came back
| Joe had to stop to explain and to call
for a drink of water, and to hang
around for q good half hour, and that
/ girl who didn't know what a Irritation
meant laughed to herself after he had
departed.
Jim Taylor, the lone cowboy in the
Colonel's employ. was past forty, had
a wife somewhere in the east and was
out OF the running, but he was no
wooden head. When those lost cattle
/ were driven up he would go to the
colonel and declare that somebody
was driving them off that he might
have the privilege of driving them
| back again, and that if Miss Rose
were his daughter he would put his
/ foot down. Then the colonel would
look up in an innocent way and ex-
| claim
Lord love us, but you don't think
Rosa drives. OFF our cattle and then
drives them back againI'' 49,
| zSsNo3asI don't, colonel but don't it
strike you that Joe Whitman is COM
/ ing here mighty often r,
rs he? Well, he has to bring back
/ the strays, you know, and it is very
kind of him, indeed. I don't always
see him, but I hope that Rose returns
my thanks in a proper way"
Joe was working the cattle business
for all it was worth and calling at the
4 Circle Ranch between times with
oranges and boxes of candy sent on to
him from Denver, when a rival sud
denly entered the field.
Sergeant Smith, from the fort. came
along one day with a squad of men and
stopped at the house to make some in
/ quiries. The sergeant was a good look
1 ing man. He had a taking way with
him. A Irritation was started almost
at once. and when he took up his line
of march again he promised himself
| the pleasure of another call
/
ranch and began to make love in earn
est. He had served Uncle Sam for
twelve years, saved up two hundred
dollars and was looking for wife.
While he continued to be soldier she
could have a place as one of the
laundresses in Company G.
Before the sergeant got away Joe
Whitman came riding up The two
men instinctively recognized each 9th
er as rivals and glared and muttered,
! h1If fhara was no hlAadEh ed.
When the son of Mars had gone
| there was quarrel between the two
left. Joe's jealousy made it, al
though when asked what rights he
had he could not define them He
limited that he would bring back no
more lost cattle and was told not to
| put himself out in the future. and he
called Miss Rosa a heartless 7irt. and
rode away with his broncho's heels In
the air
It is just as easy for a man to make
| fool of himself on the plains of the
west as at Newport or Saratoga. When
Joe had cooled down he admitted that
he was in the wrong, but it required
| to ride over and make a confession.
In this emergency he haunted the
spring until he found out from Mar
/ tina, the colored woman, that on GER
1 tain day and date Miss Rosa and the
/ sergeant were to take a two-nile walk
to a certain limestone cave on the
banks of the river.
! Every man has a friend somewhere,
/ If he only will hunt him up. After
/ thinking things over Joe decided to go
/ to old man Barnes, who kept a saloon,
eating house and a sort of menagerie
in town, and when his case had been
stated the old man replied:
Easiest thing in the world. my boy.
You want to run that sergeant off the
ranch and make a hero Of yourself at
the same time"
but he don't look like a fellor who
could be run was protested.
Make no mistake, my boy. You
can run his coat tails out straight II
only you go about it right
.sBut how can make a hero of my
/ seIf2n