Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1908-09-18
'CORINNA'S
'BIG.HORN
By MARY WAKEMAN BorsRoRp
(Copyright.)

The valley of Surface creek occu.
pies as yet a vacant space in the
southern corner of the MAP of Colo
RADIO. Ten years ago the Uncom.
paghre Utes left it to the staccato of
a quick-step with a regiment of sol.
diers at their heels.
The decade has brought few
changes to the little valley. Its sunny
levels Of sage and cactus lead up
through cedar and scrub oak to the
summit OF the Grand Mesa, where
even In the heat of August the quak-
ing aspens SILVER and shadows of the
spruce make twilight out of noon.
The salmon trout finds its way
through a thousand silver streams to
the lakes strung like pearls along the
mountains top, where the eagle, STOP
ping his wing an instant to catch his
image IN their cloudless calm. hears
the clumsy fall of a black bears
cushioned foot, or the far cry of an
elk borne on the resinous breeze.
Perhaps the echo of these caught
Corlnna's ear as she studied her maps
and folders, for on the square whers
Surface creek should have been. she
paused with pencil poised.
Il will go there" she said. And so
II came that the valley knew her.
Corinna's mother was a fragile little
lady with the coloring of Sevres. In
the forests which mother and daugh.
ter had. traversed together by mule,
horse and burro, on foot and in canoe,
from ocean to ocean, there was moth
ing Corinna feared and nothing that
Mrs. Clarke did not fear.
Yet in despite of her fears, the for.
ests withheld no secrets from CORN.
mas mother. There was an irritating
irony in the fate which ordained that
to her, the most timid and injurious
OF her kind, should have been vouch.
safed the sight of more big game than
her adventurous daughter might ever
hope to see, though she should live
to twice her mothers years.
Corinna was tall and brown and
shapely. She lowered above her
slender, petite mother like an oak
over an anemone. There was only
one other person with her mother IL
the drawingroom, John Chester
Brown, a round-faced, portly gentle
man who had occupied the adjoining
house ever since his boyhood, and who
had adored Corinna's mother years
before Corinna was born, and for that
matter, adored her now.
1--WE star on Monday" Corinna OBJ
served. "The big-horn won't wait"
What is big-horn? Where do you
propose to go for it? And why won't
it waltz" Mr.. Brown asked, addressing
Corinna's mother.
"Corinna!" Mrs. Clarke exclaimed
in soft dismay. Her gentle blue eyes
turned from her daughters merry
brown ones to meet, by kind Of help.
less instinct, Mr.. Browns steady gaze.
through his gold-rimmed glasses. Mr..
Browns eyes were gray. They said
as plainly as eyes could: You bit Of
thistle-down, where out my sight is
that whirlwind of daughter of yours
going to carry you now?'
Corinna became serious. Our sort
Of big-horn grows in inaccessible
places, like the Edelweiss. You stalk
it over mountain crags, and it escapes
you by jumping head foremost and
landing on its horns. l have three
cinnamon bears, four mountain lions.
six elk and not single big-horn. So
nanny and | are to get one this
autumn. But sh-sh-not a word to
anyone, Mr.. Brown! It's against the
law to shoot one, and if You do, you
are liable to $1,000 fine!"
For years Mr.. Brown had silently
worshiped his fair neighbor, who
famed across his sky like a shooting
star in the orbit Of her eccentric
daughter. Each time that he babe her
farewell, he resigned her to some un-
imaginable fate, and upon her reap
pearance, welcomed her back as one
miraculously restored to him from the
dead. His wooing, such as it was,
had all been done on the fly.
Just as he fancied he might be max
ing some Roadway, whisk, she would
be spirited of to the tropics or the
frozen north, according to the season
and as Corinna's fancy turned to
sharks or polar bears.
He did not confide in Corinna or her
mother when he accompanied them
and their suite, consisting Of Wilson,
the late Mr.. Clarke's valet and his
wife Susanna, Mrs. Clarke's maid, 10
the train to say goodbye. But the
smoke from the limited still fingered
In the vaulted glass dome of the Grand
Central station when he entered his
coupe and told the coachman to drive
to his tailors.
81 want a golf suit inside of three
days, with stockings and a visored
cap. Send your man down as soon as
you can to fit me-"
From the tailor's he drove to CORN.