The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1934-02-16

never supposed anybody could be so
understanding. The sort of girl you
want to have around"
Eyes" Ken knew how charming his
mother was. "Elsa's like that"
McVane made no reply. He knew
there was no woman in the world like
Editha, his wife. The faraway wooing
was as vivid and glorious as though
he were not seeing it through the blood
red mist of the old range wal.
"You know about the cattle and sheep
feud, Ken" he said, his face moment
arily Swallowed by a nineteenth century
vendetta that only a few men remem-
Der. "You know it with your mind,
but you we're born too late to feel 1t
in your soul as the old cowmen do"
"Not the old sheepmen?"
"They don't feel anything" He dis
missed them CURLY. You could not,
as I told you, know the feel of that old
feud. You didn't grow up in it the way
I did"
Ken was not so sure. The old west
dies hard under the purple shadows of
the Black Hills. Thrilling adventure
with racing bronchos, stampeding long
horns, and dumb, devastating sheep
had quickened his young blood. Bitter
details had made it real. Once he had
been friends with a cowboy who carried
blue powder marks across his cheek
Never had he known a sheepman. Never
had he seen mutton on his fathers
table. Ken thought he sensed as well
as knew that old strife and hatred
But he said nothing.
UA--5 kt&-~, - hs~ f4fhnr rvorf m wifi h
the note of an ancient grievance IN his
voice, "along comes Mrs. Merrick. Worse
than a hester. Bringing the war onto
the home range. I didn't know that
when I agreed to what she asked. She
was Tom Merrick's wife from the Lazy
L and she'd come out from the east q
bride just that spring, so she couldn't
be blamed for not knowing Jul socla.
customs and class distinctions. ]
thought then that Tom ought to have
been more firm with her. I'm Wlsel
now.
"She rode over to my house to tel
me she had a school friend coming GU,
to visit her and would I come over tc
dinner the next night and wouldn't ]
please show her friend a lot of atten-
ton because she wants her to enjoy
herself so much she'll stay a month
She did.
IT was darned girl shy, but Mrs. Mer'
rick was the persuading sort and Ton
was my friend, so I promised hel
everything. Just as she's riding off sht
turns and calls back: Tom says YOU'RE
not friendly with Editha's brother
Bert Caswell. But he and his family
are going to Texas and she IS perfectl!
lovely
II stood there like a petrified tret
till she wa out of sight. CasWell! ANY
sheepman was bad enough. But Cas-
well! We had an ugly personal quar-
rel. Our ranches in the north adjoin'
ing and beyond them was a grea'
stretch of free range I'd been USING
and he had his eye on-sometimes hi
sheep. When his herders drove EN-
onto that range my punchers ordered
'em off. Once they drove the beast!
over my own ground and left a wilt
smelling trail that vas worse to CATTLE
than death by hunger and thirst. The!
not only wouldn't Craze on it, the!
wouldn't cross it. People try to tell you
that's nonsense. It is not. It's truth
and tragedy.
But I was in for it. so I figured II
be polite and make myself as scarce a
! could. Mebbe I'd have to go to Omaha
or up to Canada for a month. I order
a nice little sorrel broke to the sid
saddle and I goes over to Merrick's tn
next night for dinner and-howlint
coyotes! Here was The Girl. The On
Girl.
"She had on a fluffy white dress ant
she looked even younger and NOR
ragile than she did in her riding
clothes. Like a little white flower that
always grown so close to a big rock tina
1t doesn't know how helpless it is"
But she isn't. Mother isn't help
less at all"
(To Be Continued)
Coffee shipped from Colombia in