Lewiston evening teller. [volume] (Lewiston, Idaho) 1903-1911, 1907-12-10

CAI uudJ uc COulu uCNSI Aw3FC " ldhC
up his work again. and while he lay,
bandaged and broken, fighting to keep
the soul in his crippled body. their
mother bravely yielded her ttfe to a
lingering illness.
Many months later, when Evan Ian
casters wounds were at last healed,
Ben and Betty were unhitched from
dirt laden seraper on the siding and
put before q white topped prairie
schooner Then the old section boss.
with his crutches beside him and bis
daughters seated in the all but empty
box behind, said q 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 country
where there were wells and not water
cars, where rain fell oftener and where
food, both for man and beast, could be
kOt OdblIy lIOHl DuL GdA"
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 a light
house sinks behind speeding vessel.
until only Its gray sprinkled roof
al MI oh ho
Then. after pillowing Marylyn's head
on<a Navajo blanket beside the swash.
hg,water ,cask. she climbed forward to
the drivers seat and took the reins
Hom' hef, father.
RwaAApril, and when the mesa was
let far % rearward a world almost
forsotfeff SS the crippled section boss
burst In new, eseef 5oyelipess upon bis
desert children. ~$owering pines and
spreading oaks, LUSH grass streY99
with blossoms, clear running streams
and gay feathered birds replaced
h|Tstg ysgssssttiUsss: saIt tsssss saa boy
erIng y4..dres, Iney Travelled slon.,
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
Sweening westward bend of the muddy
! Missouri. ...------.-----~g,--4sss s~--'
Across the river from their stopping
lulace. 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 al
a distance and broke their fldgebach
Tar up the scarlet coulee; from where
southwark, stretched, wide gap-tel
broad and gently undulatlng miles
that ended at the slough studied bas
of Medicine mountain. Even Lancas
ter. as he stood bareheaded under tn
, | unclouded sky, looked about him upo
acres heavy with tangled grass an
weeds, and pleased with the eviden
. richness of the untouched ground an
. with the sheltered situation of To
claim on the bend, swore that IL
white topped schooner, with its trav'
= stained crew of three, had found Q
the yellow pillows of that northeT
prairie it's permanent moorings at las
The telling and hewing of cotto
= woods for the shack had occupied Il
first few weeks that followed, citizC
carpenters from Brannon doing Il
= heavy cutting and lifting. But wit
n | stood ifG Ii
- room and dirt floor open to the su
70 Dallas performed her part of the bull
y ing. and matched the hip roof wi
" coarse grass from a meadow. Me-
the well was dug, and the barn bu
as a lean-to, for the Lancasters kn6
u little. but had heard much, about
a' billiards. of the territory. Then, VIII
So the elder girl covered the slanting ra
III ers over Ben and Betty's stalls, the 8
'ei ton boss hauled a scanty stock or
Ill and provisions from Clark's, cat
Ell camp and settlement to the northea
iel And finally, when shack and bf
"u were alike done, Dallas put the mu
alo to the end of an oak beam and took
ns the task Of blowing
- that was gradually growing upon
- brown carpet of the prairie. Up
a. down she walked. her whiplash tr
.-H' Ing behind her like a lively snake,
~ hands striving to guide the cleav
&c share she followed. look of deep
tent despite all fear for bad wead
upon her sun Drowned face.
,ros But while working the morning hC
rio slowly away she gave full attention
rad the holding mules and the young
struggling at their head she did
n+v stop to watch the aocks winging
80 above her or to look off to where
hor plains fell away from the pale az
n,,r line of the sky, so she failed to see
go the middle Of the long forenoon
Ia group OF dark figures that came
go sight to the eastward and moved s
Tho ly forward in the direction of the b