The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1909-03-11
CHAPTER III.
ROSE HARTsw1cK.

Since Rose Hartswick had come back
from her three years at the seminary,
the life Of the whole valley somehow
mad been changed. In the old days she
had been simply one of The valley girls.
a freckled, sunny-faced tomboy, the
leader In every prank and frolic, but
she had returned n full-blown woman
so changed that her neighbors hardly
dared to speak to her. The little brown
%chrysalis had turned suddenly into a
magnificent butterfly.
Then all in a their surprise
and apprehension vanished, and they
awoke to a new delight. The change
was all in the outward. The squire's
daughter was stu n OF them; h
was The same Joyous. %unspoiled oun
try girl as when she had gone away,
and she was glad to get back, glad all
through n through: for the hills were
home. and she had been homesick, she
averred. every moment of her stay. Her
whole valley had shared it. and the
young fellows had lost their heads like
dandelions on a lawn.
But Rose was not a girl for lovers.
There was about her no slightest trace
Of sentimentality. She had been for
both her father and her mother. From
the old Squire had come her active,
practical bent. her self-rcllance. and
her instant readiness OF resource, and
from her mother, her tender heart and
her sunny. laughing soul. She was a
girl with enthusiasms, spontaneous and
magnetic: a girl who helped her moth
err because h liked to do 1t: a girl
who was busy all day and who had no
time for lovers. The anxious swains
who sighed and stammered filled her
with glee. They seemed to her mex
pressibly funny. n they aroused in
her instantly a desire to make them
sweat. to torment and startle and en-
barrass them until they were at their
Wits end. They were ludicrously in
awe of her: new for a moment were
they sure of her next move. When
they began to grow serious she would
laugh until they would blush like girls
and grow confused and eve angry.
Then, before they could collect them
selves or expostulate. h would be off
on another tack, n they could only
wonder IL all girls were like that.
noon, rafting helter-skelter by on a
long-geared mustang which had been
her chief crony since she was a girl of
12. She was no timid rider. 1t was a
sight to thrill one to see her plunge
down a mountain road. or to nave her
around a sudden bend. A CHEEKY hail,
a sunny ripple of laughter that made
one feel for an hour afterwards that
the world was good, a clatter OF hoofs,
and she was one. Few there were,
young or old, who would not turn at
rising and falling in perfect harmony
with her mount. until 1t faded in the
distance.
Mercy on us!" they would chuckle.
that girl will break her neck gallop-
ing in that crazy way" But they
would smile softly. and the day some
how would seem brighter. 1t became
a saying in the valley that IL one
wished to see Rose. the surest way was
to sit beside the road for q few days
Hall.
This love OF horses and of the out
of-doors had come clearly from her
father, and he delighted In 1t. There
was not one of all his trotters. not ever
the vicious bay stallion, but what he
allowed he to drive alone whenever
h wished. Though she had never
driven in a public race. it was the old
mans boast that there was no Jockey
In the region hat he would sooner
trust in a critical moment. She knew
horses almost by instinct. She loved to
break wild colts and vicious bakers
and halter-pullers. 1t was a JOY to see
her In battle with a stubborn beast.
One who knows only the type Of female
who drops the reins and screams when
the horse begins to back, knows little
OF h Is possible. She was slight of
AA6uAC, O0l II Was IiitT SeiOuSly SITOIlS
in her shoulders and arms. And be-
sides this h feared nothing in the
shape of a horse. Never once in her
life had h failed of her purpose, or
met with IN accident or a setback.
1t was about this time that young
Jim Farthing began to take n new in
terest in horses. Five years before.
his father had given him a colt. a won-
derfully dainty little creature that he
had bid Off at a bankrupt sale.
There "a good blood In the
colt. so the owner said. The
mother had been good for 2:1s. and
the sire even better. With proper
handling she ought to develop into q
wonder. n Jim la tried hard to give
the proper handling. She had from the
first been the passion OF the young
fellows life. He had trained her early
in the sulky, n when she was three
he had won in handsome style a 1926
heat. Then a come the removal to
the mountains and small chance for
training trotters. There was a world of
work to do: for the old farm was q
chaos: the little mare had had to ind
her exercise on the cultivator and the
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