Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-10-29

far to the south. where her father
captained the caretakers Of a spur
railroad track. The most western sta
ton house in Texas. standing amid
thorny mesquite. was her birthplace
and that of her sister Marylyn. The
gray plateau across which the embank-
ment led was their playground. There
they grew to womanhood under the
careful guidance of their frail north
ern born mother.
And then two casualties, coming
close upon each other. had suddenly
changed their life. Their father was
brought home one night so manned
and crushed by the wheels of fat
car that he could never hope to take
up his work again. and while he lay,
bandagcd and broken, fighting to keep
the soul in his crippled body, their
mother bravely yielded her life to
lingering illness.
Many months later, when Evan Ian
casters wounds were at last healed,
Ben and Betty were unhitched from
dirt laden Scraper on the siding and
put before a white topped prairie
schooner. Then the old section boss,
with his crutches beside him and his
daughters seated in the all but empty
box behind, said a husky farewell to
the men crowding around the wagon
and started the mules along the road
that led northward beside the rails.
He gave no backward glance at the
wind battered house where he had
brought an ailing bride Instead, eager
to leave that plain of flying sand and
scanty grasses, he drove the team
rapidly forward, bound for a country
where there were wells and not water
cars. where rain fell oftener and where
food, both for man and beast, could be
got easily from the earth. But Dal-
las, seated in the schooner's bed, her
weeping sister held soothingly against
her breast, watched. dry eyed. as a
mound by a giant mesquite faded
/ slowly from her sight and saw her
! girlhood's home give way. as light
| house sinks behind a speeding vessel,
until only its gray sprinkled roof
| showed through the scattered trees.
| Then, after pillowing Marylyn's head
on a Navajo blanket beside the swash-
| ing water cask. she climbed forward to
/ the drivers seat and took the reins
| from her father.
1t was April. and when the mesa was
left far to rearward a world almost
| forgotten by the crippled section boss
burst in new, green loneliness upon his
| desert children. a Towering pines and
spreading oaks, lush grass strewn
with blossoms, clear running streams
and gay feathered birds replaced
| thirsty vegetation, salt lakes and how
ering vultures. They Travelled slowly,
each day bringing some fresh delight
| to ear and eye, until one evening in the
! waning Dakota summer they camped
| beside great crooked split in the prai
rie. on fat peninsula made by a
| sweeping westward bend of the muddy
| Missouri.
| Across the river from their stopping
| place, where an amber sun was going
down, the horizon was near. High
! bluffs, like a huge windbreak, stood
| upon the plain, leaving at their feet
| only enough space for the whitewaShed
| frame buildings of Fort Brannon. But
to the east the paralleling bluffs lay at
a distance and broke their ridgeback
| far up the scarlet coulee; from where.
southwark, stretched a wide gap-ten
broad and gently undulating miles
that ended at the slough studied base
| of Medicine mountain. Even Lancas-
ter, as he stood bareheaded under the
unclouded sky, looked about him upon
acres heavy with tangled grass and
weeds, and pleased with the evident
richness of the untouched ground and
with the sheltered situation of the
claim on the bend, swore that the
white topped schooner, with it's travel
stained crew of three, had found or
the yellow pillows of that northern
prairie its permanent moorings at last
The telling and hewing of cotton
woods for the shack had occupied the
first few weeks that followed, either
carpenters from Brannon doing the
heavy cutting and lifting. But wheI
the little house stood, it's square los
room and dirt floor open to the sun
Dallas performed her part of the build
| EAs. dIlu tudtCAcu tnc MP iVOk Will
coarse grass from meadow. Next
the well was dug, and the barn bull
as a lean-to, for the Lancasters knew
little. but had heard much, about tn,
billiards. OF the territory. Then, Will,
the elder girl covered the slanting raft
ers over Ben and Betty's stalls, the sec
ton boss hauled a scanty stock of ha.
and provisions from Clark's, cattl
camp and settlement to the northeast
And finally, when shack and barr
were alike done. Dallas put the mule
to the end of an oak beam and took vi
the task of blowing.
Now she was winding at black ma
that was gradually growing upon. tn
brown carpet of the lprairie. Up an,
down she walked. her whip!ash trail
ing behind her like lively snake. he
hands striving to guide the ,cleavin
share she followed. a look of deep con
tent, despite all fear for bad weather
upon her sun Drowned face.
But while working the morning hour
slowly away she gave full attention t