Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1911-02-09
Cavanagh,
Forest
Ranger
The Great Conservation
Novel
By HAML1N GARLAND
Copyright. 1910. by Hamlin Garland
Copyright. 1910. by Hamlin Garland
Continued from page 81

up there"
Are all the other restaurants in the
village like this?"
..Worse. l come here because it is
the BEST"
She rose. II can't stand this air and
these flies any longer. They're too
| disgusting
He followed her into the other
house. conscious of the dismay and
bitterness which burst forth the in
slant they were alone. what am l
to do? She is my mother. but I've lost
ALL sense of relationship to her. And
these people. except you and Mr.. Red
field. are all disgusting to me. 1t isn't
because my mother is poor. it isn't
because she's keeping boarders; it's
| something else" At this point her
| voice failed her.
LET us go out into the air." suggest
| ed the ranger presently. THE noun
| tain wind will do you good"
She followed him trustfully. and as
she stepped from the squalor Of the
hotel into the splendor Of the morning
her head lifted. She drank the clear.
crisp wind as one takes water in the
| desert.
"The air Is clean. anyway" she said.
Cayanagh to divert her pointed a way
| to the mountains. There is my do
| minion. Up there l am sole ruler. No
| one can litter the earth with corrup-
| ton or poison the streams"
She did not speak. but as she stud
| led the ranger her face cleared. 1T Is
beautiful up there"
He went on. Il hate all this scrap
heap quite as heartily as you do. but
up there are sweetness and sanity. The
streams are germless. and the forest
cannot be devastated. That is why
am a ranger. l could not endure life
/ In town like this"
He turned up the street toward the
high hill to the south. and she kept
step with him. AS she did not speak.
he asked. "what did you expect to do
out here?''
IT hoped to teach" she replied. her
voice still choked with her emotion.
IT expected to find the country much
improved"
And so it is but it is still a long
way from an eastern state Perhaps
lou will find the people less savage
than they appear at first glance"
at isn't the town or the people: 1t is
my mother she burst forth again.
Tell me. woman in the car yester-
day accused my mother of selling
whisky unlawfully. Is this so? Tel
me-.
She faced him resolutely. and. per
ceiving that she could not be evaded
he made slow answer II don't know
that she does but I've heard 1t charged
against her"
who made the Charge"
"One of the clergymen. and then it,
common talk among the rough men Of
the town"
But She's my mother" walled tn,
girl, coming back to the central fact
She has sent me money-she has beef
Kind to me. What am | to do? She
needs me, and yet the thought of stay
Ing here and facing her life brighten.
me-"
|
rookeries. the unshaven. blear eyet
men sitting on the thresholds of tn,
saloons, the slattern squaws wander
ing abroad like bedraggled hens. mad,
the girl stare with wonder and dis
may. She had remembered the tow
street as highway filed with splen
did cavaliers. a list wherein heroic
oeeds We're done with horse and pistol
she perceived In the ranger the maj
VI the new order. and with this in he
nihd she said: You don't belong here
lou re not western MANI
Not In the sense of having beer
porn here" he replied Il am. in fact
native of England. though I've live.
nearly twenty years of my life In tn
States"
Sne glanced at his badge. How dit
you come to be ranger--what does
mean! It's all new to me-"
IT Is new to the west" he answere,
s!nlilngly. glad Of chance to turn he
thought from her own personal griefs
II mas all come about since you wen
east. Uncle Sam has at last becom
provident and is now conserving hi
resources l am one Of his represent
aoVes. with stewardship over som
WOOO acres Of territory. mostly fol
est"
she looked at him with eyes o
changing light. You don't talk lik
an Englishman. and yet you are no
IKE the men out here"
Il shouldn't care to be like some Q
them." he answered. my being her
Is quite logical. l went into the cattl
BUSINESS like many another. and
vent broke. served under Colont
roosevelt In the Cuban war and afte
my term was out naturally drifte
oack. love the wilderness and hav
some natural taste for forestry. and
can - and pack q horse a. well q