The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1910-06-01


formal note to her bosom. weeping
and calling out name that pride
(either In one or the otherl had keptS
from her lips many day. or did sha$
file the letter In her business why, re-
tanning her royal balance and strength
Wonder. If you will. but royalty
sacred, and there is a veil But this
much you shall learn: Ea
At midnight Santa slipped softly OUT
Of the ranch house, clothed in some
thing dark and plain She paused for
moment under the live oak trees
Santa turned her face to the south
east and threw three kisses thither
ward. for there was none to see.
Then she sped silently TO the black
smith shop. fifty yards away, and what, i
she did there can only be surmiseda
But the forge, glowed red, and there
was faint hammering such as Cupid
might make when he sharpens his ar
row points.
Later she came forth with a queer
shaped handled thing in one hand and
a portable furnace such as are seen in
branding camps in the other. To the
corral where the Sussex cattle were
penned she sped with these things
swiftly in the moonlight
She opened the gate and slipped in
side the corral. The Sussex cattle
were mostly a dark red, but among
this bunch was one that was milky
white-notable among the others.
And now Santa shook from her shout
der something that we had not seen
before-a rope lasso. She freed the
loop of it, coiling the length in her left
hand, and plunged into the thick Of the
cattle.
The white COW was her object. She
swung the lasso, which caught one
horn and slipped off.
Again she made the cast, while the
aroused cattle milled around the 1our
sides of the corral in a plunging mass.
This throw was fair; the white COW
came to earth again, and before it
could rise Santa had made the lasso
fast around a post of the corral with
a swift and simple knot and had leap
ed upon the cow again with the raw
hide hobbies.
In one minute the feet of the animal
were tied. She ran swiftly 10 her fur
mace at the gate and brought the
branding iron. white hot.
The below Of the outraged white
COW as the iron was applied should
have stirred the slumbering auricular
nerves and cOnsciences of the nearby
subjects Of the NopaIito, but it did not.
And it was amid the deepest nocturnal
silence that Santa ran like a lapwing
back to the ranch house and there fell
upon a cot and sobbed- sobbed as
though queens had hearts as simple
ranchmen's wives have and as though
she would gladly make kings Of prince
consorts should they ride back again
from over the hills and far away.
In the morning the capable, revolv-~
cred youth and his vaqueros set forth
driving the bunch Of Sussex cattle
across the prairies to the Rancho Seco.
The beasts arrived at Rancho SecO
one evening at dusk and were received
and counted by the foreman.
The next morning at O'Clock a
horseman loped out of the brush to the
Nopalito ranch house. He dismounted
stiffly and strobe with whizzing spurs
to the house His horse gave a great
sigh and swayed foam streaked, with
down dropping head and closed eyes.
But waste not your pity upon Bel
shazzar. the flea bitten sorrel Today
in Nopalito horse pasture he survives,
pampered. beloved. unridden, cherish
ed record holder of long distance rides.
The horseman stumbled into the
house. Two arms fell around his neck,
and some one cried out in the voice OF
woman and queen alike, 'Webb-oh.
Webbr
IL was a skunk" said Webb Yeager.
Hush! said Santa. Did you see it?'
81 saw it, said Webb.
What they meant God knows, and
you shall know if you rightly read the
primer of events.
BE the cattle queen" said Webb,
''and overlook 1t II you can. was a
NANCY. sheep stealth coyote"
Hush" said Santa again, laying her
fingers upon his mouth. There's no
queen here. Do you know who | ann
| am Santa Yeager. first lady Of the
bedchamber. Come here"
She dragged him from the gallery
into the room to the right. There stood
cradle with an infant In tia red,
ribald. unintelligible. babbling. beauti-
full infant. sputtering at life In an UNI
seemly manner.
There's no queen on this ranch"
said Santa again. Look mt the king.
He's got your eyes, Webb. Down on
your knees and look at his highness."
But jingling rowels sounded on the
gallery, and Bud Turner stumbled
there again with the same query that
he had brought year ago
"Mornin'. Them beeves is just turned
out on the trail Shall drive 'em to