El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-03-23
The Honorable Senator Sagebrush
FRANCIS LYNDE
Continued from yesterday

'That was Hathaway himself" was
J the instant decision. 'sHis company
has been cutting timber In the Lost
river reserve, and he probably thought
you were chasing him. You didn't
I know Honoria?''
mo; l wasn't expectfng-I-you may
remember that had never met her. .
stammered the young man, who had
risen to his elbow among the pillows.
The father walked away to the win
| dow and stood looking out upon the
distant mountains for full minute
before he turned to say gently: I'VE
may as well run the boundary lines on
this one time as another, son. You
don't like Honoria. You've made up
your mind not to like her. I'm not
going to make it hard for either of
you If can help it. This is her home,
but it is also yours, my boy. Do you
reckon you could
Evan Blount made haste to stop the
half pathetic appeal
Don't let that trouble you," he in
terposed 'I-Mrs Blount is a very
different person from the woman 1
have been imagining, and If she were
not / think we are both sufficiently
civilized not to quarrel" Then: Have
you breakfasted yet-you and Mrs.
Blount? But Of course you have long
ago."
"Breakfasted? without you? Not
much, son. And that reminds me 1
was to come up and see If you were
awake, and If you were I was to send
Barnabas up with your coffee"
you may tell Barnabas that 1
haven't acquired the coffee in bed
habit yet" laughed the lazy one, sit
ting up. And you may make my
apologies to Mrs. Blount and tell her
I'll be down 'pronto' There, doesn't
that sor6,d as If 1 were getting back
to the good old sagebrush idiom?
Great landI 1 haven't heard anybody
say pronto' since 1 was knee high to
a hoptoadr'
In all his forecastings Evan Blount
had never pictured a homecoming like
this. In each succeeding hour OF the
day the edges Of the chasm of the
years drew closer together, and when
finally his father put him on q horse
and rode with him to corner of the
vast home farm, corner fenced off
by sentinel cottonwoods and watered
by the small irrigation ditch of his
boyhood reeollections, rode with him
through the screening eottonwoods
and showed him, lying beyond them.
the old ranch buildings of the Circle
Bar. untouched and undisturbed, his
heart was full, and a sudden mist
came before his eyes to dim the pic
ture.
I've kept it just as it used to be
Evan. his father said gently ~
thought maybe you'd come back some
day and be sure enough disappointed
if it were gone
The younger man slipped from his
saddle and went to look in at the
open door Of the old ranch house.
Everything was precisely as he re-
membered 1.-THE simple, old fashion
ed furniture. the crossed quirts over
the high wooden i1antel, his mothers
rocking chair-that was the final
touch. He sat down on the worn door
log and put his face in his hands, for
now the gaping chasm Of the years
was quite closed, and he was a boy
again.
Later in the day there were am
bling gallops along the country roads,
and the father explained how the
from cattle raising to
agriculture and fruit growing had
come about; how the great Irrigation
dam in Quaretaro canyon had put
thousand square miles Of the fertile
mesa under cultivation; how with the
Of the new population had
come new blood. new methods. good
roads. the telephone. the rural mail
route and other ciVillzing agencies.
Evan groaned. 81 know" he said.
'I've lost my birthland. It's as ex-
tinct as the megalosaurian lizards
whose bones we used to find sticking
in the gully banks on Table Mesa. By
the way, that reminds me. Are there
any Of those giant fossils left? l was
telling Professor Anners about them
the other day, and be was immensely