Judith of the Plains

ow

ng-car as it toiled like a snail over the infinity of prairie. From behind the green-striped curtains of the berths, now

ile it was yet dark, and her hand-luggage, locked, strapped, and as pitifully new at the art of travelling as the girl herself, clustered about the hem of her blue serge skirt like chicks about a hen

ssured her, with the hopeless patience of one who

air of shoulders plainly signific

-they were slower in those days-"and

leading when sentence was about to be passed on the dimple by those who disapproved of dimples, drooped with disappointment. But the ligh

ge of vision spun past the car windows like a bit of stage mechanism, a gigantic panorama rotating to simulate a race at breakneck speed. But Miss Carmichael looked wit

the curtains of the section opposite-"I've been awake half th

by a hand travelling furtively to the crimpers that gr

r early departure, and conspicuously forbore to glance in the direction o

his morning, and it's worse in Wyoming than it was in Colorado.

the easy optimism of one who was leaving it. "

ng penetrated the very marrow of their train existence, they had come to refer to it by the monosylla

red restlessly with the lessening motion of their uncouth cradle. The porter came to help her, with the chastened mien of one whose hopes of largess are small, the lady with the barnacles called after her [pg 004] redundant farewells, and a moment later Miss Carmichael was standing on th

temptin' the bank?" "Town," therefore, when Mary Carmichael first made its acquaintance, was still sleeping the sleep of the unjust. Those among last night's roisterers who had had to make an early start for their camps were w

here in all the "health resorts" of the East did air sweep from the clean hill-country with such revivifying power? It seemed a glad world of abiding youth. Surely "Town" was but a dreary illusion, a

a scared pianissimo which naturally had little effect on the operator, who was at home and asleep some three blocks distant. But the West is the place for woman if she would be waited upon. No seven-to-one ratio of the sexes has tempered the chivalry of her sons of the saddle. A loitering something in a sombrero saw rather than heard the rapping,

o Aunt Ade

ake stage to Lost Trail this morn

AR

iles back in the foot-hills, did not find it very hard to forgive the girl, who was "practically at end of journey," particularly as the dimple had come

at it was an expensive business, and she was glad to be "practically" at the end of her journey. And, drawing from her pocket a square envelope of he

RAIL, W

ranged, and that we are to have you with us by the end of June. The children are profiting from the very anticipation of i

erly fatiguing. Please remember that after leaving the train, it will be necessary to take a stage to Lost Trail. If it is possible, I sh

I fear I can make no suggestions as to what you may need to bring with you i

he pleasantest things possible of you. I am glad the wi

ishes for a safe journey, bel

erely

H YEL

hind the mountains. It made its way to the low, shedlike eating-house with a pre-breakfast solemnity bordering on sulkiness. Not a petticoat was in sight to offset the spurs and sombreros that filed into br

t ate self-consciously, made jokes meet for the ears of ladies, and was more interested in th

t was, with walls of unpainted pine, still sweating from the axe. Festoons of scalloped paper, in conflicting shades, hung from the ceiling, a menace to the taller of the guests. On the rough walls some one, either pro

tles, and divers commercial condiments seemed to pause in a discouraged march. A plague of flies was on everything, and the food was a threat

ctible doll that an old maid aunt of mine giv' my sister when we was kids. That doll sort of challenged me, settin' round oncapable o' bein' destroyed

to a pair of aces," and the first man

the enemy, even in the interest of the diary she had kept so conscientiously for the past three days; which was something of a loss to the diary, as those untamed, manly faces were well worth looking at. Reckless they were in many instances, and sometimes the lines of hardship were cruelly writ across young faces that had not yet lost the down of adol

the end of the table seemed to increase her discomfiture tenfold, they did the kindest and for them the most difficult thing and looked in every direction but Miss Carmichael's. With a delicacy of perception that the casual observer mig

uld put a foot on a chair opposite him and send it spinning out into the middle of the floor as a hint to the new-comer that that was his reserved seat. And the cow-puncher, sheep-herder, pro

incidentally, to eat his breakfast. He stopped in the doorway, scanned the table with deliberation, and started to make his way towards Mary Carmichael with something of a swagger. S

ned razo

the chair opposite Miss Carmichael with a degree of assuranc

he did!-and Simpson, of all men! A growing tension had crept into the atmosphere of the eating-house; knives and forks played but intermittently, and Mary, sitting at the end of the oilcloth-covered table, felt intu

'll get all that's coming to him," whispered the

od at reading brands, she is as se

He lacked their dusky bloom, their clearness of eye, the suppleness and easy flow of muscle that is the hall-mark of these frontiersmen. He was fat and

f romance, even in this woman-forsaken [pg 012] country. A good creature, all limp calico, Roman nose, and sharp elbows, she brought him his breakfast with

while; then favored her with the result of his observations, "From the East, I

e success of Simpson? With the attitude he had taken towards the girl, there had crept into the company an imperceptible change; deep-buried impulses sprang to the surface. If a scoundrel like Simpson was

ng her, she gave no sign. But a rebuff to him was in the nature of an appetizer, a fillip to press the acquain

muscle in their strained observation of the little drama, breathed reflectively. Perhaps it was just as well that the

ative," commented the man who had sacrificed mi

s on the yearling." And the man who had "discarded the steak and drawn to th

s was a contingency not to be accepted lightly. As he phrased it to himself, it was worth "anot

n of eyebrow, the slightly questioning curl of the lip as she, for the first time apparently, became aware of t

n on her coffee-cup. And there was joy among the men at table that they had not

stive of hounds straining at the leash. Simpson felt rather than saw that something was afoot among the sombreros. There was a crowding together in whispered colloquy, and in a flash so

ce rubbed his hands in delight. "She took the tri

g