The Religious Life of the Zu?i Child

rawest jests. Leading a life of such stirring adventure that few days passed without some more or less serious mishap, reckless of life, unheedful alik

downright worship, an all-absorbing, dominating cult, that, in a way, and all unkn

set of the jaw that suggested workable material. Nor was McTigh mistaken. Mat took to range work like a duck to water. Within a year he could rope and tie a mossback

s of cowboy town deportment, expert light shooters, monte players, dance-hall beaux, elbow-crookers, and red-eye riot-starters labored faithfully with Mat, but, all to no purpose. To town with them he went, but with them in thei

presently it became apparent that he owned ability and will to curse a fighting outlaw bronco till the burning desert air felt chill, and it became plain he feared God as little as man. Mat had joined the outfit in the Autumn, when for several weeks it was on the jump; first gatheri

than a nickname. For most of them such was the rarity of letters that often have I seen a cowboy turning and studying an unopened envelope for a half-day or more, wondering whoever it was from and guessing whatever its contents could be. Thus it was one of the great sensations of the season for McTigh and his red-sashers, when th

makin' a gotch ear, or that ain't got airy damn thing to do to hum but write letters. Size o' them five he's got must 'a kept her settin' u

tribe and have a bagful o' hoodoos hid out somewhere. He ain't so damn hijus to look at, but he shore never

ol-marm, an' a lally-cooler at that. Circuit will have to git one o' them pianer-like writin' makers and

for us all Winter he'pin' him

o shet up till after supper, an' then all be ready wi

o be sure, the letters were the greatest sensation the outfit had enjoyed since they stood off successfully two troops of U. S. Cavalry, come to arrest them for killing twenty maurauding Utes. But what soon followed fille

hiss of sipped coffee. The meal was half over before Circuit, the last letter finished, tucked his five treasures inside his shirt, stepped over the bench to a vacant place at the table, and hastily swallowed a li

neath the "heading" of the bunk he pulled a new pair of boots. All this was done with a rapidity and method that evinced some set purpose which the outfit could not fathom, a purpose become the more puzzling when, five minutes later, Circuit returned from the kitchen bearing the cook's w

got a hunch some feller's tryin' to rope an' hobble his gal, an' he's goin' to ask Tom for his time, fork a

in th' flank. Why, th' way he's throwin' that whisker-cutter at his face, he's plumb shore to dewlap

ess proved wi

rom the fireplace, lighted a fresh candle, spread out his five treasures, carefully sharpened a stub pencil, and duly set its lead end a-soak in his mouth, preparatory to the composition of a letter. The surprise was complete. Such painstaking preparation and elaborate costuming for the mere writing of a letter none presen

sed a wink to the rest; then all rose an

d a inquest on th' remains o' my idee about stringin' Circuit over that thar gal o' his'n. I moves that th' idee's done die

g votes. Lee's motion w

it. Never had no gal myself; leastways, no good one; been allus like a old buffalo bull whipped out o' th' herd, sorta flockin' by my lonesome, an'-an'-" with a

there was silenc

ned by the flash of a cigarette deeply inhaled by nervous lips. The situation was tense. In each man emotions long dormant, or perhaps by some never before experienced, were tumultuou

he comes home from the break-up o' Terry's Rangers, with his ol' carcass 'bout as full o' rents an' holes as his ragged gray war clothes! Allus have tho't

banks o' th' Lee in ol' Uvalde County. Th' air got that quar sort o' dead smell 'ligion allus 'pears to give to meetin'-houses, a' I could hear th' ol' pa'son a-tellin' us how it's th' lovinest that allus gits th' longest end o' th' rope o' life. Hits me now tha

o' th' she herd so long that I can't 'preciate th' feelin's o' a feller that's got a good gal stuck on him, like Circuit. Ef I had one, you-all kin gamble yer alce all bets would be off with them painted dance-hall beer jerkers, an' it would be out in th' brush fo' me w

emn as men entering a death chamber. There at the table before the guttering candle still sat Circuit, his hair now badly tousled, his upper lip bl

some enviously, others staring fixedly into the dying fire until from its dull-glowing embers there rose for some visions of bare-footed, nut-brown, fustian-clad maids, and for others the fi

e drew from beneath his shirt something none of them had seen before, a buckskin bag, out of which he pulled a fat blank memorandum book, into which he proceeded to copy, in as small a hand as

's eyes till he could again look into hers. Before many months had passed, Circuit's regular weekly letter to Netty-regular when on the ranch-and the ceremonial purification and personal decking that preceded it, had become for the Cross Ca?on outfit a public ceremony all studiously observed. None were ever too tired, none too grumpy, to wash, shave, and "slick up"

to years, but the interchange of letters never ceased

ing one band to Arizona rustlers, and the other to Mancos Jim's Pah-Utes. After the last experie

ure to return to claim her. And before the conclave was adjourned, Lee Skeats, the chairman, remarked: "Circuit, ef Netty shows airy sign o' balkin' at th' size o' your bank roll, you kin jes' tell her that thar 's a bunch out h

nuptials. For them the one hundred and seventy intervening miles of alternating ca?on and mesa, much of the journey over trails deadly dangerous for any creature less

temper of any unaccustomed to the climate of southwestern Colorado. Framed in Franciscan-gray sage brush, itself gray as the sage with the dust of pounding hoofs and rushing w

ll the fun and frolic most of them ever knew. To it flocked miners from their dusky, pine-clad gorges in the north, grangers from the then new farming settlement in the Montezuma Valley, cowbo

, it was not until they pulled up before their favorite feed corral that the outfit learned that Mancos was revelling in quite the

est Aggregation on Earth of Ring Artists and Monsters" to visit it. Dusted and costumed outside of town, down the main street of Mancos the circus bravely paraded that m

h the outpouring of the ranches and the mines, men who dran

est biggest noise-makin' band you ever heard, an' th' p'rformers wearin' more pr'tys than I ever allowed was made. An' say, they've got a gal in th' bunch, rider I reckon, that's jest that damned good to look at it hurts. Damned ef I k

in't in it with our Sorrel-top; hey, boys? Here 's to our Sorrel

their enthusiasm. After dinner at Charpiot's, a wretched counterfeit of the splendid old Denv

kets. The tickets and change were promptly handed him. On the first count the change appeared to be correct, but on a recount Circuit found the ticket-seller had cunningly

't dope and roll me; gwan!

an' you can't rob me no

t another twenty,

ou bow-legged hold-up," th

wildly yelling for his clan, it was with eyes flooding with blood from a g

were over the town roughs it was customarily theirs to handle; but here before them was a bunch not to be trifled with, a quiet group of thirty bronzed faces, some grinning with the anticipated joy of the combat they loved, some grim as death itself, each affectionately twirling a

elephant-busters," disgustedly observe

o rob me I've got no use for their old show. You-all go in, an' I'll go down

of the spectrum; it lingered over loving memories of ancient days when every niche of the Mancos cliffs held its little bronze-hued line of primitive worshippers, old and young, devout, prostrate, fearful of their Red God's n

Cross Ca?onites had adjourned to the fe

the meeti

a bunch o' dead ones on ol' broad-backed work hosses that calls theirselves riders! Shucks! thar hain't one o' th

n' innercent she don't 'pear to rightly belong in that thar bare-legged bunch o' she dido-cutters.

't help her 'mindin' me o' our Sorrel-top. Reckon ef we busted up their damn show, that g

men. Ef they need it bad, kill 'em; ef they don't, give 'em a run fo' their money, way ol' Mahster meant 'em to have when He made 'em. Let's all saddle up, ride down thar, tie onto their tents, an' pull 'em down, an' then bus

pon him earlier in the day. Ten minutes later the outfit charged down upon the circus at top speed, arriving amon

t down in sheets and ribbons, ropes popping like pistols, the rent canvas shrieking like a creature in pain, startled animals threshing about their cages and crying their alarm. Cowboys were never slow at anything th

r at the end of his tail converted, by a happy thought of Lee Skeats, into a brightly blazing torch that, so long as the fuel lasted, lighted the shortest cut to freedom for his escaping mates-for the lion hit as close a bee-

ller, armed with a pistol and keen for evening up things with the man who had hit him, dashing straight for Circuit. Circuit did not see him, but Lee did; and thus in the very instant Circuit staggered and dropped to the crack of his pistol, down beside Circuit pitched the ticket man with a

red as the blood of the battlers streaming in waves behind her, and fired at the nearest of the common enemy, which happened to be poor Circuit.

d him. Ripping his shirt open at the neck to find his wound, she uncovered Circuit's buckskin bag and memorandum book, showing through its centre the track of a bullet that had finally spent itself in fracturing a rib over Circuit's heart, the ticket-seller's shot, that would have killed him instantly

on their legs, while, glad of the diversion, their enemies hurriedly withdrew; round a

ther rent his shirt and exposed the mortal wound through the right lung made by her own tiny pistol

fell back an

silent over the body, gazing wide-eyed into t

Lee soft

d turn killin' him 'fore he saw you. Would 'a hurt him pow'f

, still clinging to Circuit's stiffening fingers, and sobbingly m

amily-nagged me to marry Tom, then a rich horse-breeder of our county, till home was such a hell I couldn't stand it. It was four long years ago

't a bit shore myself airy critter that ever stood up in pet

ent and gently lifted the body

n, ambling slowly out of Mancos along the Dolores trail, rode softly up to a corner of the burying ground and stopped. There wi

ther gun, Bill Ball, ef

we-all mislaid no bets reconsiderin', an' sta

s time sweeten the