The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1909-03-11
CHAPTER III.
ROSE HARTSwICK,

al 1hOo u lex udU COII1e DaCK
from her three years at the seminary,
the life Of the whole valley somehow
a 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 M frolic, but
h had returned a full blown woman,
so changed that her neighbors hardly
chrysalis had turned suddenly into q
magnificent butterfly.
Then all In a moment their surprise
n apprehension vanished, and they
awoke to a new delight. The change
was all in the outward. h squire's
daughter was still one OF them; she
was the same Joyous, unspoiled coun-
try girl as when she had gone away
n she was glad to get back, glad all
through and through; for the hills were
home, and she had been homesick, she
averred. every m Of her stay. Her
Joyousness had overfiowed until the
whole valley had shared II, and the
young fellows had lost their heads like
dandelions on q lawn.
But Rose was not a girl for lovers.
There was about her no slightest trace
OF s~entimentality. She a been for
tunate in inheriting the best traits Of
both her father and her mother. From
the old Squire had come her active,
practical bent, her ~seIf-reliance. 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 she liked to do Il; a girl
who was busy all day and who had no
time for lovers. The anxious SWANS
who sighed and stammered filled her
with glee, They seemed to her mex
pressibly funny, and 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 I'm
w OF her: never 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 n even angry.
Then, before they could collect them
selves or expostulate. she would be Off
on another tack, and they could only
wonder IL all girls were like that.
One saw her oftenest in the after
noon, rafting helter-skelter by on a
long-geared mustang which had been
her chief crony since she was a girl OF
IL. She was no timid rider. 1t was a
sight to thrill n to see her plunge
down a mountain road, or to have her
sweep If mad career full upon one
a sunny ripple OF laughter that made
n feel for an hour afterwards that
the world was good, a clatter of hoofs,
and h was gone, Few there were,
young or old, who would not turn at
the sight. and follow the trim figure,
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 hat crazy way" But they
would smile softly, and the day some
how would seem brighter. 1t became
a saying in the valley hat IL one
wished to see Rose, the surest way was
to sit beside the road for a few days
anywhere within 20 miles OF Hartswtck
Hall. g.. " "...a.
This love OF horses and Of the out |
of-doors had come clearly from her
father, and he delighted in 1t. There
was not n OF all his trotters, not even
the vicious bay stallion, but what he
allowed her to drive alone whenever
she wished. Though she had never
driven in a public race, 1t was the old
mans boast that there was no Jockey
in the region that 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. It 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 what Is possible. She was slight OF
figure, but she was marvelously strong
In her shoulders and arms. And be-
sides this he feared nothing in the
shape OF a horse. Never once in her
life had h failed OF her purpose, or
met with an accident or a setback.
1t was about this time that young
Jim Farthing began to take a new in
terest In horses. Five years before, |
mis- father had given him a colt, a won
1erfully dainty little creature that he
DC of at a bankrupt sale.
There was good blood in the
SO the owner said. The
had been good for 2:1S, and
he sire even better. With proper
handling she ought to develop into a
wonder, and Jim had tried hard to give
he roper handling. She had from the
1rst been the passion OF the young
life. He had trained her early
n h sulky, n when she was three
had won In handsome style a 2.25
heat. Then had come the removal to
he mountains n small chance for
raining trotters. There was a world OF
work 10 do: for the old farm was a
.haos: h little mare had had to md
Ter exercise On the cultivator n the
Norge rake With 0ecanf0nal frina -