The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1907-03-21

he reached her side. II never knew
how much he was to me. He wasn't
big and strong like other men, but
now I see that he was very dear and
more than I suspected. He was quiet
n always so kind don't remember
that he was ever stern with me once.
And though he suffered from some
great sorrow and from sickness, he
never complained. He wouldn't even
admit he was sick, and he always
tried to smile in that little way he
had, so gentle. Poor, sorry little
father!-and yesterday not one of
them would be his friend. It broke
my heart to gee him there so wistful
when they turned their backs on him.
Poor little man! And see, here's an
other grave all grown around with
sage and the stones worn smooth;
but there's the cross he spoke of. It
must be some one that he wanted to
lie beside. Poor little sorry father!
Oh, you will have to be so much to
mel"
The train was under way again. In
the box of the big wagon, on a springy
couch of spruce boughs and long
bunch grass, Prudence lay at rest,
hurt by her grief, yet soothed by her
love, her thoughts in a Whirl about
her.
Follett, mounted on Dandy, rode be-
side her wagon.
Better get some sleep yourself,
Rool," urged Steffins.
Cant Lew. I amt sleepy. I'm too
busy thinking about things, and I have
to watch out for my little girl there.
You can't tell what these cusses might
do"
There's 80 of us watching out for
her now, young fellow"
"There'll be 81 till we get out of this
neighborhood, Lew"
He lifted up the wagon cover softly
a little later, and found that she slept.
AS they rode on, Steffins questioned
him.
did you make that surround you
was going to make, Rool?'
4NO, ACW, L SOulu11 y. w VI ClCll
was already under, and, honest, I
couldn't have got the other one, any
more than you could have shot your
kid that day he appended the gravy
dish in your lap"
HE'LL"
That's right! I hope 1 never have
to kill anyone, Lew, no matter how
much l got a right to. I reckon it al
ways leaves uneasy feelings in a
mans mind"
Eight days later a tall, bronzed
young man with yellow hair and quick
blue eyes, in what an observant Brit
ish tourist noted in his jour-
nal as "the not 'unpicturesque
garb of a border ruffian,"
helped a dazed but very pretty
young woman on to the rear platform
of the Pullman car attached to the
%east-bound overland express at Og-
den.
AS they fingered on the platform be-
fore the train started they were hailed
and loudly ckered, averreh the journal
Of this same Briton, "by a crowd of
the outlaws companions, at least a
score and a half Of most disreputa-
ble-looking wretches, unshaven, rough
ly dressed, heavily booted, slouch-hat-
ted they swung their hats in a drunk
en- frenzy, and to this rough ovation
the girl, though seemingly a person
of some decency, waved her handker-
chief and smiled repeatedly, though
her face had seemed to be sad and
there were tears in her eyes at that
very moment"
: At this response from the girl, the
journal went on to say, the ruftians
had redoubled their drunken pande-
monium. And as the train pulled
away, to the observant tourists
marked relief, the young outlaw on the
platform had waved his own hat and
shouted as a last message to one
Lew" that he must not let Dandy
get gandered up" nor forget ito tie
him to grass"
Later, as the train shrieked it's way
through Echo canyon, the observant
tourist, with his double-visored plaid
cap we'll over his face, pretending to
sleep overheard the same person.
across the aisle say to the girl:
"Now we're on our own property at
last. For the next 60 hours we'll be
riding across our own front yard-and
there amt any keys and passwords
and grips here, either-just a plain
Almighty God with no nonsense about
Him."
W%hereupon had been later added to
the journal a note to the effect that
Americans are not only quite as prone
to vaunt and brag and tell big stories
as other explorers had asserted, but
that in the west they were ready bias
phemers.
Yet the couple minded not the OBJ
servant tourist, and continued to en-
large and complicate his views of
American life to the very bank Of the
Missouri. Unwittingly, however, for
they knew him not nor saw