Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1909-03-13
CHAPTER III.
ROSE HARTswICK.

since Rose hdrtSWlCK nau come DaCh
from her three years at the seminary,
the life of the whole valley somehow
had 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 ull-blown woman,
so changed that her neighbors hardly
dared to speal; TO her. The little brown
chrysalis had turned suddenly into
magnificent butterfly.
Then all in moment their surprise
and apprehension vanished. and they
awoke to a new delight. The change
was all In the outward. The squire's
daughter was still one Of them; she
was the same joyous, unspoiled coun-
try girl as when she had gone away,
and she was glad to get back. glad all
through and through; for the hills were
home, and she had been homesick, she
averred, every moment OF her stay. Her
joyousness had oYerfiowed until the
whole valley had shared IL, 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 sentimcntality. She had 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 Self-rClianCe, and
from her mother, her tender heart and
her sunny, laughing soul. She was
girl with enthusiasms, spontaneous and
magnetic; a girl who helped her moth
er because she liked to do II; 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
prcssibly 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 We're ludicrouSly in
awe OF her; never for 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 even angry
Then before they could collect them
selves or expOstulatc she would be off
on another tack, and they could only
wonder II all girls were like that.
one saw her oftencst in the after
noon, rattling helter- skclter by on a
long-geared mustang which had been
her chief crony since she was girl of
~. She was no timid rider. 1t was a
sight to thrill one to see her plunge
down a mountain road, or to have her
sweep in mad career full upon one
around a sudden bend. a CHEEKY hail.
sunny ripple of laughter that made
one feel for an hour afterwards that
the world was good, a clatter Of hoofs
and she was gone. Few there We're
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 u.s." they would chuckle
that girl will break her neck galiop-
ing in that crazy way" But they
IN do
how would seem brighter. 1t became
saying in the valley that II one
wished to see Rose, the surest way was
to sit beside the road for a few days
anywhere within 20 miles Of HartswiCk
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 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, it 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 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 what Is possible She was slight of
figure. but she was marVelously strong
in her shoulders and arms. And be-
sides this she feared nothing in the
shape OF q horse. Never once in her
life had she failed of her purpose, or
met with an accident or setback.
1t was about this time that young
Jim Farthing began to take new IN
terest in horses. Five years before.
his father had given him a colt, n Won
derfully dainty little creature that he
had bid of at a bankrupt sale.
There was good blood in the
colt so the owner said. The
mother had been good for 2:lS, and
the sire even better. With proper