The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1918-02-21
CHAPTER v.

NNs @fAAfS
TIME spring had come. and Wolver-
inc canyon, with the sun shining
down aslant into its depths, was
a picturesque cash in the hills, wild
enough in all conscience, but to the
normal person not in the least degree
gloomy. The jutting crags were sun
lit and warm. The cherry thickets
whispered In a light breeze>nnd shell
tered birds that sang in perfect con-
tent. Not a gloomy place surely when
the peace of a sunny morning laid It's
spell upon the land.
Billy Louise. however, did not re-
spond TO the canyons enticements. She
brooded over her own discouragements
and the tantalizing little puzzles which
somehow would not lend themselves to
any convincing solution. She was in
that condition of nervous depression
where she saw her finest cows dead by
bloat In the alfalfa meadows-and how
would she pay that machinery note
then? She saw John Pringle calling
Unexpectedly and insistently for his
"time." and where would she find an
other man whom she could trust out
of her sight? John Pringle was slow,
and he was stupid and growled at poor
Phoebe till Billy Louise wanted to
shake him, but he was STEADY" and
that one virtue covers many a mans
faults and keeps him drawing wages
regularly.
Her mother had been more and more
inclined to worry as the hot weather
came on. Lately her anxiety over
small things had rather got upon the
nerves of Billy Louise. She felt i'll
used and downhearted and as If moth
ing mattered much anyway. She pass
ed her cave with a mere glance and
scowl for the memories of golden days
in her lonely childhood that chung
around ii.
She was in this particularly dissatis-
fed mood when she rode out of the
canyon at its upper end. where the
hills folded softly down into grassy
valleys where her cattle loved best to
craze. Since the grass had started in
the spring she had kept her little herd
up here among the lower hills, and by
riding along the higher ridges every
day OF so and turning back a wander
ing animal now and he she had held
them in a compare lively small area,
where they would be easily gathered in
the fan. A few head of Seabeck's stock
rad wandered in among hers and some
II Marthy's. And there was a big roam
steer that bore the brand of Johnson,
over ON Snake river. Billy Louise
knew them all, as a housewife knows
her flock Of chickens, and If she missed
seeing certain leaders In the scattered
groups she rode until she found them.
Two old cows and one big red steer
that seemed always to have a follow
ing wore bells that tinkled pleasant
little sounds in the alder thickets along
the creek as she passed by.
She rode M the long ridge which
gave her a wide view of . surround
ing hills and stopped Blue while she
stared moodily at the familiar, shadow
splotched expanse of high piled ridges,
with deep green valleys and deeper
hled eanvons between. She loved
mem. every one. But today they fall
ad TO st>ep her senses in that deep con-
.aAt wltl life Whlyn only the great out
aoors can give TO one who has learned
now satisfying is the draft and how
soothing.
Far over to the eastward a black dot
area nr e f stone and slid out of
et. ss1.a4 might be Ward
taAln. = sho.f -. .e4oSs the hill to his