The Coconino sun., 1919-06-06
Some Day
 Chief
(oopyrisht. Isls. sy w..t.n N.wsp.p.. u.Is..
By RALPH HAMILTON

Elsa Vernon was going into brand
 new life and was curious and excited.
 She and her sister were orphans, and
 for five years Elsa had been living
 with her uncle and aunt, the Now
 brays. This home life was pleasant
 enough, but exceedingly dull. When
 the word came from Myrtle, who had
 been married and gone west with
 her husband five years previous. and
 Myrtle thought she needed Elsa, the
 latter hailed the prospect as deliv-
 erance from sort of social and in-
 tellectual bondage.
 Myrtle Weston held out no glowing picture to her sister. Very plainly
 she indicated that she and her neigh
 bors were pioneer sojourners in a ! species of wilderness. All I have"
 she wrote, "is small house and eighty
 acres, just at the edge of an Indian
 reservation, and few town lots In
 settlement that has exactly twenty
 three residents to date. Since my husband died it has been hard work"
 Elsa had written at once to her
 sister, expressing the intensest de.
 light at the prospect ahead. Her
 dreams were all of grand mountain
 ranges and beautiful valleys. where people lived on horseback, and lovely flowers and heartsome men and wom- cn existed. Myrtle had sent her some money, and had instructed Elsa to select what she thought would be most useful from some old household traps which had been stored in the home of her uncle since the death of their mother. Myrtle wrote that she lacked considerable in the way of household utilities. Elsa consumed week sort ing out what could be most useful of the great mass of furniture, cook ing utensils and general knicknacks. and when she finally set forth on the one long journey of her life, had the shipment reduced to her little trunk and four large packing cases.
 They were directed to Deep Gulch, from what Myrtle wrote the nearest railroad town, ten miles over the mountain from Wycherley, near which the little farm was located. Myrtle wrote that she would have some one meet her sister at the station and in imagination Elsa built up pleasing vision of a stalwart, handsome young frontiersman mounted on a superb steed, leading a second one, and con- veying her over the hills, real prac- tical Lochinvar.
 This dream came true. When just such border hero met her and in- troduced himself as Boyd Wardell, Elsa liked him from the start. His welcome, he expressed 1t, was that of all the gulch, friendly. heartsome peo- pie who cherished gladly new neigh bor. Besides. there was an organ in the one meeting house of the place, and Myrtle had told about her sister musical accomplishments. By t-e time Elsa was placed safely in the arms of Myrtle by the new comer she felt that she had come across a man she could like very much. War dell was the sheriff of the district, everybody's friend, and became reg ular visitor at the little home where Elsa had settled down into the groove of her new life.
 It was arranged that Elsa should take charge of little township school with the coming of autumn. In the meantime Boyd Wardell was her de- voted chevalier. There were long rides on horseback, even to the top of Old Eagle, a lofty knoll full of ice caves and snowy peaked nearly all the year. Awaiting her school duties, Elsa set about making friends among the neighbors. At the edge of the settle ment was an Indian family. Its head. who was known as Some Day Chief,' was in disgrace with his tribe, 200 miles to the west, worked a little silver claim and lived on the hope of final restoration to his old kingly po- sition. His little daughter, whom he idolized, fell i'll, his wife was dead. and, apprised of the situation, Elsa undertook to nurse the fevered. ailing little one.
 A queer incident grew out of this. The little sufferer faded away, day | by day. longing for delicacies the rough mountain isolation could not provide. One day in going over the domestic utensils she had brought from the East, Elsa came across an ice cream freezer. There were those about her who had never seen such device. Boyd Wardell offered to ride up to the summit of Old Eagle and bring | back ice. An admiring crowd of neigh bors stood around watching the op- eration of converting cream and eggs into royal luxury. Elsa took bowl of the same to little Wachita. She seemed to have happened upon the one thing that assuaged the burning thirst of the little one. Wachita frightened up marvelously, in week was better. in month fully conva- and when Some Day Chief was called back to his tribe he grate- fully made over to Elsa the little mine