The Sagebrusher

Gardner aloud to himself as he busied himself about his own household duties

oss them what had served as a dish-towel, a washed and dried, fairly clean flour sack which had been ripped out and turned into a towel. There was a box nailed up behind the stove which served as a sort of store room for the scant supplies, and this had a flap at the top, so that it was partly curtained off. Another box nailed against the

not of abundant folios, but apparently valued, for they showed more care than any other of the owner's

times, as lone men will, he broke out into audible soliloquy. Now and again his hand slapped his knee, his eye kindled, he grinned. T

went about his evening chores. Thus the title of the publication was left showing to any observer. The headline was don

headline of a certain advertisement sh

our Western States, mining camps far out in the outlying districts beyond the edge of the homekeeping lands-it is in regions such as these that periodicals such as the foregoing may be found. Their circulation is among those who seek "acquaintance with a view to matrimony." They are the o

s, and began to cook for himself his simple supper. Then he washed his dishes, thr

ain valley road, which passed near to his own front gate. He lighted a pipe and sat

Her ruddy face was wrinkled up somewhat like an apple in the late fall. She walked slowly and ponderously, and her gait being somewhat restricted, it was needful that she make an early start each day to her place of labor, since the only possible boarding place lay almost a m

Mis' Davids

the great voice of Mrs. Davidson. "It is ap

ngular rotund exactness, and hence wa

, "it looks like it wo

ld not flourish so well, M

I'll get by if any one can. This is one of the best loc

r contempt of the very name. "T

id Gardner. "He seems to be getting imposs

the apostle of learning. "I was in his abode

ward, ponderously, as about to resume

ning hand, "he ain't so bad as you might think, ma'

dish in twenty years. His place is worse than an Indian camp. I have taught schools am

men come out in here, now, things'd be different. I been thinking of

ded she. "And w

ted you to write something fer me. I'm this kind of a man, that when he wants anything to be fixed up, h

d. "Oh, I see-you hav

want to advertise fer a woman-fer a wife-that is to say, really fer him, Sim

much astonished to spe

one such thi

," rejoined the other, "since I do not in

with a view to matrimony' is the way they usually say it-and that may be a tip fer you-I mean about this here ad I want you to write. Why, folks has got married that way, plenty of 'em-I'll bet ther

ionaires, each of 'em married to a Injun woman, and not one of them women could set on a chair without fal

lips rotund and pursed, and he

e knowed plenty of 'em. There's three in this valley-although they do

ou in your endeavor to entr

ave to get married if they don't want to

ed! I

out here in this country, and you was awful lonesome, and had a good ranch, and was kind-hearted-and not too good-lo

, her forehead puckered. She leaned ponde

ir-r-r!" said she, as

Davidson being after all woman, that evening when Wid Gardner passed out to his gate, he found

holdings in a Western State wishes to correspond with a respectable young woman

read it twice. "Good God A'mighty

his own post office route box for forwarding of any possible replies. Then he addressed a dirty envelope to the street number of the eastern city which appeared on the page of his matrim

ving care!' If that can be put acrosst with any woman in t