Judsonia weekly advance., 1919-10-23
CHAPTER |.

The shadows of the spruce trees fell northeastward, pointing long, cool fingers across belts of undulating prairie or leaning lazily against the brown foothills. And among the trees it was cool and green, and clear blue water rippled over beds oi shin ing gravel.
 The house was of round, straight logs the shingles of the squat roof were cupped and blistered with the suns of many summers. Refuse loi- tered about the open door = many empty tins, leaky barrel with miss ing hoops, boxes harness, tangled bits of wire. Once there had been a fence. a sort of picket fence of little sap lings. but wild broncos had kicked it to pieces and range steers had strag gled unscarred across it's scattered remnants.
 Forward. and to the left, was small corral, mill slabs on end or fences of lodgepole pine; a corner somewhat covered in, offering vague protection from the weather. The up per poles were worn thin with the cflDDlng or many horses.
 The desertion seemed absolute; the silence was the silence of the unspo- ken places. But suddenly it was bro- ken by stamping in the covered part of the corral, and q mans voice say ing:
 Hip, there! Whoa, you cayuse Get under your saddle! Seepin against post all day, you Sloppy eye. Hipl Come to it p
 Horse and rider dashed into the sunlight. The boy-for he was no more than boy-sat the beast as though born to it, his 1.-the frame talk ing every motion of his mount as softly as a good boat rides the sea- With yell at his horse he snatched the hat from his head, turning to the sun q smooth brown face and mane of dark hair, and slapped the horse across the flank with his crumpled headgear. The animal sprang into the air, then dashed at gallop down the roadway, bearing the boy as un- concerned as a flower on it's stem.
 Suddenly he brought his horse to a stop swung about, and rode back at a gentle canter. A few yards from the house he again spurred him to galiop, and, leaning far down by the animals side deftly picked a bottle from among the grass Then he circled about, repeating this operation as often as his eye fell on bottle until he had half doZen then down the road again, carefully setting a bottle on each post of the fence that skirted 1t to the right.
 Again he came back to the house, but when he turned his eye was on the rev of posts and his right hand lay on the grip of his revolver. Again his sharp yell broke the silence and the horse dashed forward as though shot from a gun. Down the road they went until within rod of the first bottle; then there was flash in the sunlight and to the chatter of the horses hoOfs came the crack-crack of the revolver. Two bottles shvered to fragments, but four remained in- tact, and the boy rode back, muttering and disappointed. He reasoned with l his horse as he rode:
 'Tain't no use, you oP Slop-eye; a fellow can't get the bead if he ain't got the fillin'-cooked meals an de- cent chuck. I could plug em six out O six-you know that, you ol' flop ears. Don't you argue about 1t, nei- ther. When I'm right inside my belt l smash em six out O six, but I ain't right, an you know 1t. You don't know nothin' about 1t. You never had a father; leastways you never had to