The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1928-07-20
ACQUIRED
Eyes NOM" AND
mo NOM"
.N.N.,N.N.N..N.N..N.1..N
&c by D. j. Walsh,

NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.:
&c by D. J. Walsh,
"HE doctors car had just driven
away from Poker Chip ranch.
This picturesque name had
oeen bestowed by its young pur-
chasers chiefly with an eye to the sem
sation 1t would create as letterhead
In eastern correspondence back home.
Charlotte Bowman, nnprofessional
nurse, looked at her six feet one-half
inch of patient and sighed. There was
something distinctly wrong with a
world where fine, outstanding young
men with bright, gold-hecked green
eyes and CORRESPONDENCE bright
smile drove tractors on wheat ranches,
said "yes, mom," and mo, nom"
you was" and 'have saw" and played
fast-and-loose with knife at their
peccadilloes at the dinner table great
~ Outclassed his grammar, which Mrs.
Maddox, her hostess and eX-rOommate
at college, assured her was common
in western men.
Three weeks ago Mrs. Maddox, who
was bride and new to ranch life.
had rushed into her guests room with
visible excitement to announce:
"We have a Greek god with green
eyes for new harvest hand"
The Greek god has been promptly
dubbed RED" by the men-nOt as
Mrs. Maddox had remarked, because
his hair was really red-only coppery.
And now, few hours ago, poor
Red had been brought in from the
field with temperature of 1032s.
Typhoid, it looks like" the doctor
said, as he took drop of blood from
the patients ear to send to the city
for analysis.
The sick man had been removed
from the clubhouse to the only spare
room in the ranch house; Charlotte,
as having the most leisure and the
only speaking acquaintance with
clinical thermometer, had volunteered
as nurse; a hand had been laid off
from the field to administer the cold
sponges prescribed by the physician.
The heavy silver toilet articles and
embroidered silk kimon0 flung over
the foot of the bed were conspicuous
touches of metropolitan elegance in
the plain ranch house. AS she lifted
the lid of the jewel box on the dresser
lone of those conceits at which the
Swiss are so adept-the strains of the
"Miserere' fioated out faint and fairy
like in tinkling melody.
For two successive days the sick
mans temperature mounted and upon
the third reached 105 q. Then he
went out of his head and babbled of
many things. And it Was borne in up
on the amateur nurse that delirium
improved his grammar and that he
called upon her frequently by her
first name.
Though they had always been most
confidential, Charlotte did not men
ton these facts to her friend. Nor
had she chronicled an encounter a
week earlier with this young man at
the back gate.
After the evening meal in the cook
car, which was situated at this time
in field they were cutting about a
quarter of a mile from the house. a
neighbor dropped in to call, and as
his conversation turned persistently
upon equine diseases Charlotte had
slipped out unnoticed, as she thought,
to return to the house and read a
book.
During the hour spent in the cook
car it had rained and cleared. They
dined late during harvest at Poker
Chip ranch, and when Charlotte
emerged the stars were struggling
with the clouds. AS she was brought
to sudden halt by a puddle some
eight feet long completely filing the
gateway. she was debating the posi-
bility of scaling the fence in her mar
row skirt when suddenly from the
shadows there doomed up a stalwart
silhouette.
mo, indeed" returned Charlotte
firmly.
Before the protest was well out of
her mouth she was lifted up and half
across the little pond.
"Thank you. Red" she murmured
with dignity tinctured with conde-
scension.
you're quite welcome" he replied
composedly. "Wait minute, Miss
Bowman. You ought not to walk
about alone after dark. You're wear
ing quite valuable rings and a plati-
mum wrist watch. That skinny Next
can, they call String Bean ] wouldn't
trust that greaser very far. Last
night | noticed you walking quite
distance down the road-alone. Mr..
Maddox or will be glad to escort you
anywhere you want to CO."
Charlotte thanked him with in.
creased dignity for his advice and
passed IN.
Before the report was back from
the city the patient was on the mend.
The afternoon 1t came Charlotte, sit.
ting Ieside her sleeping patient, saw
the doctors car coming up the road.
The physician was a bachelor past
forty. far gone to embOnpoint, with a
sentimental pale-blue eye: and as he