Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1945-08-03

|
were being entertained, as was
usual at the Goose Bar ranch, by
the antics of assorted animals.
/ Chaps, the black cocker, and Kim,
the collie, were chasing each other
on the Green as if nothing were
needed for exuberant happiness but
to have been shut up for night and
then let out again.
All traces of snow had disap-
peared. There was intense sunlight
breaking everywhere irto the colors
of the prism. There was bolster
Gus wind bending the pines and
making Nell's blue linen dress fut-
ter.
what do you think of him?" she
called to Colonel Harris, who stood
near the fountain inspecting Rob's
work team. They were huge brown
brutes. THAT one you're looking at
is Big Joe," she added, "the pride
of Rob's heart"
81 should say" said the Colonel
in his cultured, precise manner, TAX
ing off his glasses and polishing
| them, that he is pure-bred
Percheron, sixteen hands high, and
weighs thirteen hundred pounds"
"Just about right" said Nell.
picking up her cat, Pauly, who was
begging beside her. Pauly, sinu-
Gus, tortoiseshell angora with long
topaz eyes and little siren face,
slipped one arm around Nell's neck,
hung on, and tried to lick her mouth.
Nell tapped the tiny coral sickle
shaped tongue and laughed.
Charley Sargent's lanky form
lowered over her. you're lookin'
mighty pretty this mornin'-how do
you get those pink cheeks?"
"You forget I've been Shaving over
the kitchen stove getting breakfast
| for-let's see-five male men" She
buried her face in Pauly's soft
brown fur. Charley Sargent always
embarrassed her with his fattering
| eyes and f1irty ways. He made her
feel about eighteen.
isn't this day!" she exclaimed.
"Who could believe it was snow
ing last night! That's Wyoming for
| you'll" She turned her face up to
the sky. There were magpies and
| plover and chicken hawks gliding
on steeply tilted wings against
the blue, and now and then, when
the wind veered, came a breath of
snow from the Neversummer Range
in the south.
"Last night" said Charley, still
| lowering, twas mighty nice party.
But I'm afraid to face Rob. He
bawled me out for dancin' with
you so much"
"This other one," called Colonel
Harris, sis not pure-bred, is he?"
NO." said Nell, running down the
steps to join him. ''That's old Tom
my. He's our bronco-buster. When
ever Rob has young horse he
wants to take the ginger out of, he
harnesses him up with Tommy"
While she chartered she was re-
membering how furious Rob had
been last night when Charley Sar-
gent had waltzed with her and spun
her around and around so fast that
her long blue dress had stood out
like the skirt of whirling dervish.
All the same-it was fun.
Breakfast was noisy. There were
flapjacks, thin and brown and light
with slightly crisp edges. Piles of
them, piping hot. A bowl of brown
sugar was on the table and jug
of maple syrup. With her f1apjacks.
Nell liked marmalade, melted and
thinned and hot.
"By Jimmy, I'll try that" ex-
claimed Charley, taking the pitcher.
All the time, the thought of
his colt was never out of Ken's
mind. Even while he was watching
and listening to the others, he was
trying to figure out just how he
would tell it. The build-up he had
attempted with his father hadn't
come to much. Ken wanted, too, to
talk to his mother about the things
she would like to buy when his colt
was winning money on the race
tracks. Dresses and velvet things
with fur like the Generals wife
love with the colt the moment they
saw it because of all it was going
to do for them.
But as the hilarious breakfast pro-
crossed through grapefruit and flap
jacks and sausages and pots of cof-
fee with thick yellow Guernsey
cream, and Rob got up again and
again to 60 to the kitchen, and How
ard carried piles of plates in and
out, Ken became convinced that
this wasn't the time to tell it. They
wouldn't pay attention-would just
say, "Oh, new colt? Flicka has
foaled at last? Fine-pass the syr-
up, will your" After all, there were
so many colts born on the Goose
Bar ranch.
A car drove up and stopped be-
hind the house. AS Rob returned
from the kitchen, Colonel Harris
said, That's probably the sergeant
and orderly with my mare"
"What for?" asked Nell.
Rob explained. Mort wants to
have his saddle mare bred by Ban
ner, so I told him to send her up