Custer County Republican. (Broken Bow, Neb.) 1882-1921, 1908-01-30
CHAPTER ~.
Louise.

1t was raining when she left Wind
City, but the rain had soon been dis
tanced Perhaps the Judge was right
when he said it never rained north
or west of Wind City. But the Judge
had not wanted her to go. Neither
had the Judges wife.
Full 90 minutes, only day before
yesterday, the judge had delayed his
days outing at the mill where the
Jim river doubles right around on it's
tracks, in order to make it perfectly
clear to her that it was absolutely
outside the bounds of her duty, that
it was altogether an affair on the side.
that she could not be expected to 60
and that the prosecuting attorney up
there had merely asked her out of
courtesy, in Difference to her position.
or course he would be glad enough to
get her, but let him get some one
nearer home, or do without. 1t wasn't
at all necessary for the court report
er to hold herself in readiness to an
swer the call of anything outside her
prescribed circuit duties. To be sure
she would earn trifle, but it was n
hard trip, a hard country, and she
had much better postpone her initial
journey into the unknown until the
regular term of court when he could
be with her. He had then thrown his
minnow seine over his shoulders,
taken his minnow pail in one hand
and his reel case and lunch box In
the other. and walked out to the road
wagon awaiting him at the gate, and
so of to his frolic. leaving her to
fight 1t out for herself
The judges wife had not been so
diplomatic, not by any means. She
had dwelt long and earnestly, and NO
doubt to a large extent truly, on the
unciviiized condition of their neigh
bors up the line; the roughness OF
accommodations, the holiness and
license of the cowboys, the daring
and insolence of cattle thieves, and
cunning and dishonesty of the Indians
and the uncouthness and viciousness
OF the half.breeds. She had ended by
declaring eloquently that Louise would
die OF ionesomeness If, by Gods good
providence, she escaped a worse fate
at the hands of one or all of the many
evils she had enumerated Yes, II
was very evident Aunt Helen had not
wanted her to go. But Aunt Helens
real reason had been that she held
1t so diZzily unconventional for he,
niece to go to that wild and unholy
land alone. She did not actually fear
for her niece's personal safety. and
Louise more than half suspected the
truth.
She had heard all the arguments
before. They had little or no terrors
for her now. They were the argu
ments used by the people back in hei
eastern home. those dear, dear PEG
pie. her people-how far away sh,
was!--Wben they had schemed ant
plotted SO pathetically to keep he
with them. the second one TO breal
away from the slow, safe, and cain
traditions OF her kin in Inc plac,
where generation after generation o
her people had lived and died, ant
now lay waiting the great judgmen
in the peaceful country burying
ground
She had listened TO them dutifully
half believing, swallowed hard an,
followed her uncle, her father
youngest brother. to the Land of tn,
Dakotahs"
Now, that same dear uncle was
man OF power and position in the new
land. Only last November he har
been reelected to his third term OF
the bench OF his circuit with a biz
heart-stirring majority. In the da,
OF his prosperity he had not forgot
ten the little, tangle-haired girl VIII
had cried so inconsolably when h
went away, and the unaccountable hol
ror In whose eyes he had tried /
laugh away on that neyerto be-forgo
ten day when he had wrenched hi
heartstrings from their safe abiding
place and gone forth In quest OF tn
pot OF gold at the rainbow's end