Grainger County news. (Rutledge, Tenn.) 1917-current, 1919-10-02
The Star Trail
n
BY IzoLA FORESTER

trusting he'd never have answered the
advertisement, but when you've spent
your life In western Nebraska, per-
,onally conducting squads of cattle
rom range to railroad station, and
hereafter riding with them and
punching them into submission to an
lll-wise Providence, you're apt to be
in a receptive condition for romance.
Walt a From the first day when
he found the advertisement he knew
he star path his feet must tread. He
was sitting on a baggage truck in the
.ool shadow Of the Three Bears ex-
press office, peacefully sleeping. Runty,
The agent, laid over his face a copy
Of the Omaha Eagle. When Walt wax
sned his glance wandered idly over its
want columns. 1t was down among
the personals" Walt read 1t over
carelessly at first, then carefully, look
Ing up once to gaze at the demure but
t~orbidding face behind the telegraph
office window. Then he read over the
ad again.
WANTED YOUNG EASTERN WIDOW.
blonde, twenty-four. wishes to correspond
with western ranchman. not over thirty.
Object matrimony.
He held the newspaper firmly In both
hands. There was no reason why he
should not answer the appeal. He
didn't have a ranch all his own, but
Bill and he had been good partners
with the Triple Star outfit. The house
wasn't so bad-three rooms and a
lean-to. He'd fix 1t up for her. chuck
all the old clutter he and Bill had put
up with, and send up a load of mail
order honeymoon things for her to
make her know she was welcome.
Here Walt took a second look at the
unfriendly face at the window, but the
girl lever turned her head or noticed
his existence. Presently he sauntered
around into the station doorway and
leaned over the little partition at the
ticket office. Could he have a tele-
graph blank, please? Cherry did not
glance up at all, just passed one to
him coldly. He spent half an hour
writing his message, took a long drink
from the water cooler and handed the
telegram to her to count up.
"Send it off any time it's handy" he
remarked, trying to be %nonchalant
also. Cherry ran her pencil over II.
Dear Madam: Seeing your ad in Omaha
Eagle am hereby presenting myself with
In partnership with one Bill owens. No
money In bank. but credit hereabouts and
with mail-order Arms, Height six foot one
inch; weight 1so; II satisfactory will wire
WALTER X. RAMsDELL.
might messageT" asked Cherry,
pleasantly, as she drew her pencil
through "Dear Madam"
Walt resented her air of ~aloofness
and lack Of curiosity. He hauled out
q pigskin wallet and extracted a vel
low bill.
Send 1t now and get 1t there this
afternoon. I don't care what 1t costs.
Any corrections to suggest?"
Cherry's blue eyes looked him owe
slowly, in one sweeping summary of
his apparent shortcomings as an ideal
sutton, and shook her head a%ggravat-
ingly, with a certain little curl to her
short upper lip. Some months previ-
ously she had been courted assidu-
ously by Mr.. Ramsdell, and being the
only attractive and desirable girl in a
radius of forty miles she had failed to
take his offer at its proper valuation.
Walt waited grimly until she had dis
patched the message, then rode away
with a new aggressive tilt to his hat
and a sinking feeling In his heart at
the desperate step he had taken.
In the days Of waiting for his an
swer he haunted the telegraph office.
Cherry was likewise postmistress, and
Bill warned him Of his danger.
"It's just as dangerous hanging
around some female you've been once
attached to as it is getting measles the
second time. I wouldn't put 1t past
Cherry a bit to try and get ahead of
the eastern widow and think she's do
ing something mighty smart"
But Cherry held ~serenely to her own
course of action. Instead of being
scornful she became sympathetic and
rather remOrseful. When she found
Walt porting painfully over a mail
order catalogue that guaranteed to
furnish a honeymoon equipment at so
much per oom she aided him instead
of laughing. Walt found himself de-
ferring to her taste in snowflake cur
tains and golden oak sidehoards. 1t
was Cherry who suggested cutting out
the monograph and putting In a studio
willow set instead. and q low book
case. Walt had hesitated over a red
velvet set.
ut isn't becoming to blondes" she
said ~thoughtfulIy.
Waits gaze Travelled to Cherry's
brown, short curls and wide, brown
eyes, alert as a squirrels, and for one
Instant he thought of how she would
look surrounded by the studio willow
set. He leaned over the little wooden
barrier between them eagerly, forget
full of windows.
ITS awfully good of you to tend to
all this stuff for me, Cherry. I'd never
thought of that fireless cooker or the
washing machine or that line of
things. You know there wasn't any
real reason why we didn't-well-
didn't get married ourselves, only you