The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-08-30
BORROWING A BEAR
ny c. B. LEWIS.

RT C. B. LEWhSs
 Joe whitman, cowooy' roue up ~ old f~,rcle ranch house one day to see otu Colonel Meecham about some lost eal .,a and ten minutes later he had ioN' h,s heart to Miss Rose, the C"ionei daughter, who was then a girl oi .sneteen and her fathers housekeep- er . rarch
 Circle Ranch had been great rancn in it's day, but the Colonel had me. with all sorts of bad luck and eouian nay his debts He had a feW catsie ana one cowboy left, while coloreo ,.,o,,,er, :, assisted Rose about the house. work.
 Rose Meecham had not been educat- ed in the East She had been born m the ranch house and sent to a schooi not 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 good wife. There's nothing of the CO., ouette nor fiirt about her She don know what a filtration means. She's inst A plain girl with her heart set on doing all she can for her old oao- dy"
 That was the coloneIs way of put ting it, and 1t simply shows how little the average father knows of the aver age daughter. Miss Rose was gooo looking and honest-hearted, but she would flirt with a cross-eyed cowooy, 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 tltty coybovs wHhin that distance, and De- sides there was the Fort only rive mites away and soldiers passing on the road every day.
 Toe whitman may have been aooVe the average cowboy in looks and eau cation. Miss Rose had decided wlthih five minutes that she liked him. With- ,n another five she was smiling so sweetly and talking so nicely that sh" had Joe stammering out his words
 That was the beginning of things ue had driven home bunch CT tht Coloners cattle he had cut out or his herd. and though he wanted to finger at the ranch and talk about the prlc" of beef on the hoof, the drop In nldes and the dry Summer, he wasn't equai to the occasion and was almost buckeo off his pony in taking his leave.
 Toe rallied when he got back to ms cattle and began to lay plans, and from that aav on it was a cold day when ne aId not bring in some of the Colonel
 
 stray stock. .,...,o,
 Ii was a puzzle to the old gentleman whV his cattle should wander SIX oi seven miles after pasture when they had better at home, but it was no inys- tarv to Miss Rose. Every time bunch .ka vcissInp cattle came back Joe had I'd stop to explain and to call TOT dri,,k of water, and to hang around Vor q good half hour. and that girl who didn't know what filtration meant 1au~hed to herself after he had depart cd. l.. .ne C-oIonePs employ, wac past iorty. hau a wife somewhere in the East ana was o,,t of the running, but he was no wooSen head. When those lost cattle were driven up he would go to the rsoIoneI and declare that somebody was drivtng them off that he might have inc privilege of driving them pack agatn. and that if Miss Rose were his daughter he would put his foot down. Then the Colonel would look up III ah innocent way and exclaim;
 Lord love us, but you don't thlnk Rosa drives off our cattle ana thea drives them back againT
 seNo. I don't, Colonel, but don't 1t strike YOU that Joe whitman is com ing here mighty oftenT
 s'Is he? Well. he has to bring Dack the strays, you know, and it Is very kind of him indeed. I don't always see him. but I hope that Rosa returns my thanks in a proper way
 Joe was working the cattle business for all it was worth and calling at the Circle Ranch between times with or anges and boxes of candy sent on to aim from Denver. when rival sudden ly entered the field.
 Sergeant Smith, from the Fort came along one day with squad of men and stopped at the house to make some in- auiries The sergeant was a good look ing man. He had a taking way with him. A filtration was started almost at once, and when he took up his line of march again he promised himself the pleasure of another call.
 Three days later he rode out to the ranch and began to make love in earnest He had served Uncle Sam for twelve years. saved up two hundred dollars and was looking for q wife While he continued to be a soldier she could have a place as one of the iaundresses in Company G.
 Before the sergeant got away Joe whitman came riding up. The two men instinctively recognized each other as rivals and glared and Inuttered. but there was no bloodshed.
 when the son of Mars had gone there