Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1916-07-13
AHA the sun sat In the aaeF.
He sWaated seps Of sunshine.

LOOK up at purple pinkS,
Nor purple roses rival
The cheeks of purple mink.
Alas! for purple city
And its purple-peopled halls!
Alas! for me and mangoes.
On the purple city's walls.
Gerry looked upon his guest with
new wonder as he handed back the
clipping. Kemp put it away carefully.
rolled fresh cigarette. and blew a
! thick puff Of smoke out into the moon
hight. Cant say its po'try and |
can't say it amt. All l know is if
roped me. [ know that writer Teller
never munched no mangoes, cause
man"aes don't MUNICH | know he nev-
er sat on no wall an heerd catfish call
In cause catfish don't call. But he
seen it all, stranger. jest the way he
writ 1t down an / ben dreamin' pu'nle
cities ever sence | read his screed.''
did you start right out to look for
themt' asked Gerry gravely.
NAV" said Kemp, Il didn't have
nothin' TO go on. But one day a drum
mer Teller tibet | was stagin' across
the White mountains give me plant
magazine, and 1t had an article on
commercial orchids with pictures il,
'oiors. They was mostly kin3er
publish an reckon it was that what
got me started. 1t was the foreman
poin1n' out my mount to me an
didn't lose no time. drapped my rope
on him an I've been ridin' him ever
sence"
Found any purple cities?"
mot rightly. | seen 'em-more'n
once. But guess purple cities is al
ways yon side the mountain. You
can't jest ride up an put your brand
on 'em. They're born mavericks and
they die mavericks. An | say, good
luck to EN-" Kemp rose, tossed away
his cigarette end and stood leaning
with crooked elbow and knee against
a veranda pillar. His keen aquiline
features and deep-set eyes were lit up
by the moonlight and seemed scarcely
to belong to his great, loose-jointed
frame. He was loose-jointed but like
a iail-strong and tough. There's
one thing about the purple cities" he
added, 1.-THE daylight always beats you
to 'em jest like in the POM" He
turned and went off to bed.
Gerry sat on liz the moonlight seized
by strange sadness-the sadness the
spirit feels under the troubled hover
Ing Of the unattainable and the mi
rage. Life had queer turns. Why
should a cowboy start out to look for
purple cities? It was grOtesque on the
face of it but beneath the face of 1t.
1t was not grotesque.
Margarita stole out to seat herself
beside him. She slipped her hand into
his. She was worried. She was al
ways worried when Gerry's thoughts
were far away. "The Man." she said,
for thus she had christened her buby
boy from the day of his birth, she
Man sleeps. He cried for thee and
thou dfdst not come. So be slept, for
he Is a man."
Gerry's thoughts came back to his
little kingdom. He sighed and then
he smiled smile Of content. at is
late then, my flower?' He put bis
arm around her. LET us go to bed,
for tomorrow there is work"
Tomorrow there is always work."
said Margarita. 81 Am not afraid Of
work, Geree. The end of work never
comes. 1t is the things that end that
make me afraid" She, too, had felt
the futtering wings of the unattain-
able. Unknowingly she stood beneath
the shadow of the strangers purple
citys walls.
The next day Kemp tried honestly
to help Gerry with the filling of the
soil but the effort was still-born. Kemp
had almost forgotten how to walk and
his high-heeled boots fell foul of every
hummock. He wandered off to the
house with solemn face. When Gerry
came In to the midday meal, he found
him with a saddle propped on the
arm Of bench giving the delighted
swaddled heir to Fazenda Flores his
first lesson in equation.
That night they sat again on the
veranda steps but Kemp was not talk
alive. He whitfield stick until 1t dis
appeared In final curly shaving and
then Immediately started on a fresh
one.
KNOWN Lieber long?" asked Gerry
at last
Coin on two years." replied Kemp.
''Does he live off his stock?
Kemp looked up. Haven't you ever
ben up to Lieber's?"
'No," said Gerry, Its two years
since | came here and I've never been
off the place. Liebers been down here !
a couple of times
Kemp grunted but asked no further |
question. "Lieber," he said, Certainly |
don't live often his stock-he plays |
with 1t. Lieber Is the goatskin king. |
Ships 'em by the thousand bales. If |
you CT any other man in these parts |
was to sell a goatskin away FIN Lie
Der, you'd be boycotted Lieber on
this range is God-you're fer him or
you're ag'in him an there amt ben
any one ag'in' him for some spell
now"
"Oh," said Gerry.
"As fer KNOWN him." continued |
Kemp, Everybody on this roundup
knows Lieber but there amt anybody
knows why he is. Lieber holds ques
lions and smallpox about alike. He
amt thar when they happen"