The daily Alaskan., 1912-12-14
MARY SIMMONS
ByLL BURBANK

I was tne ouly unundEIleu haA AH the settlement and was powerful lone some. When evenin' come on each family got under their own roof and sot around the open adobe freplaces and was comfortable. didn't have no hreslde and # I'd got one I'd had to set by 1t alone, not havin' any wife or children. Consequences was l was thinkIn' O dlggin' out when sumpin happened to keep me.
 1 was rldin' along road when seen a gal on horseback ahead O me. I caught up with her and said, "How- de-" and It's a fine day." and neigh borly things like that She was good lookin' and cottoned to me to onct' askin' me where come from, where was goin' and all that 1 tole her I'd come from the settlement and l was goen arter some bosses that wus need ed there and I'd bought 'spectn' to make a reasonable profit on 'em.
 Waal, we talked a lot, and l got kind a confidential l told her that l was alone in the world and Twin among married people. She allowed 1t was kind a lonesome Twin alone. | axed her if that was her fT and she allowed 1t was. We got thicker and thicker, and at last ! up and fired question at her if she would hitch onter me and set up home with me.
 She said 1t was kind O student, but want a bad idee, and shed think 1t over She was Twin with an aunt on a sheep ranch and was goln' there then. If I'd wait a spell she might decide to double up, and if she dId I'd hear from her. When we come to the cross roads we separated and l went on and bought my hosses
 Comin' back with a dozen hosses, l brought some men with me, well armed, for hoss thieves was mighty thick whereabouts. and | didn't know what might happen. Sure enough, when we got to the crossroads, loOkin' down the road We crossed, we saw lot O men gallopln' toward us, But we was too quick for em and reached a wood before they could sit near us, and In there we had the advantage over 'em, for we could see 'em and they couldn't see us So we got our bosses away.
 The day arter 1 got back Mary Sim mons, the gal oyerhauled on the road, come into the settlement and when she found me said shed been thlnkln' O my proposition and was favorably inclined to it, but It seemed unnatural to make up with a man on such small acquaintance, and she list thort that If she could get some sort of a job in the settlement for awhile sos we could do some courtn' 1t would be all right tole her the only thing l knowed there was plenty of washin', and she said she was good washer and troner, So I got board for her at Mrs. Finnegan's, she payin' her own board and keepin' in- dependent
 There had been so much boss stealth goin' on that we concluded to keep all the hosses in the settlement in one barn when not usin' 'em, and we wouldn't keep 'em in any one barn two nights runnin'. We thort that In that way we'd keep the thieves from fndin' list where the bosses was and they wouldn't know where to go to get 'em. But one night they run in on us and made straight for the barn where the bosses was. There hap pened to be only six hosses in the set clement that night, but the thieves got 'em all
 There wasn't no more hosses token for ten days, and then we lost snoth- CT lot. the thieves goiu', as before, to tbe barn they was in. We knowed that they knowed where the hosses was. cause none O the men near any of the other hosses seen or heered any thing of 'em. How they'd come to find out where we kep' the stock no- body could imagine. There wasn't mo- body in the settlement but owned some stock theirselves, and they wasn't likely to give information to rustlers about 'em.
 I. bein some'at ID the hoss tradin line and havin' lost some hosses, al- lowed I'd go and get some more. l seen Mary the night afore went and got her to promise that when l got back she'd marry me. So l went away feeIIn' better'n I'd felt for a long while.
 Waal, I bought my bosses and start ed back alone with 'em, cause l couldn't get no one to come with me. I allowed I'd sleep ID the stable with 'em til the stealth was over and get bead on one on 'em. When 1 got near the crossroads l sor woman there, and when come near her who should 1t be but my promised bride. didn't have time to ask her what she was doin' there when some men rode up from different places, and Mary said to me, motlOnin' to one on | 'em:
 "Allow me to introduce my hus- band.7
 And allow me-" said the feller, "to relieve you of your hosses." l AL. InN .F faFTn and