Judith of the Plains

r And

ustry almost automatic, continuing faithful to her post as long as the supplies lasted. Then she dozed, sleeping the sleep of the just and those who keep their mouths open. From time to time the stage-driver invoked his team in cabalistic words, and each time th

dust swept aimlessly over the desert or whirled into spirals till lost in space. From horizon to horizon the sky was one cloudless span of blue that paled as it [pg 034] dipped earthward. Mary

poverty that gnawed at their vitals. This wilderness was so gaunt, so parched; she closed her eyes and thought of a bit of landscape at home. A young forest of silver beeches growing straight and fine as the threads on a loom; and th

of Aunt Adelaide and Aunt Martha was nothing to the old house. Had it not sheltered Carmichaels for over a century?-it had faith in the name. But Mary could never remember when the need of money to pay the mortgage had not invaded the gentle routine of their home-life, robbing

and quite twenty, had long felt a maternal obligation to administer his affairs. If he did not go to the university, like his father and grandfather before him, it would be because she had failed in her duty. At this particular phase of the domestic problem there had appeared, in a certain churchly periodical, a carefully worded advertisement for a governess, and the subsequent business of referen

he distance there was a riot [pg 036] of rainbow tints-violet, pink, and pale orange. It seemed inconceivable that such barrenness could produce such wealth of color;

ws! The interior was unplastered, but this shortcoming was surmounted by tacking cheesecloth neatly over the logs, a device at once simple and strategic, as in the lamplight the effect was that of plaster. Miss Carmichael, suddenly released from the actual rumbling of the stage, felt its confused motion the

nst her accommodations in the precedent. Miss Carmichael profited by the controversy. The landlady, touched no doubt by the simple faith [pg 037] of a traveller who trusted to the beds of a road-ranch, o

hat brought the travellers to the Dax ranch left at sunrise to pursue a seemingly erratic career along the North Platte, while Miss Carmichael and the fat l

ally incapacitated for his job? Mrs. Dax, flirting a feather-duster in the neighborhood of Miss Carmichael in a futile ef

y death in her family for the past thirty-five years. Miss Carmichael felt an especial interest in an Uncle Henry who "died [pg 038] of a Friday along of eating clams." He stood out with such refreshing vividness against a background of neutralities who succumbed to consumption,

hugg's condition, Mrs. Dax finally asserting, "Before I'd t

would be tall; but so in the habit was he of repressing himself in the marital presence that Leander passed for middle height. He waited on the table at breakfast with the dumb submissiveness of a trained dog that has been taught to give pathetic imitations of human servility. But no sooner had his lady left the room than Leander began quite brazenly to call attention to himself as a man and an individual, [pg 039] coughing, rattling his dishes, and clearing his throat. Mary and the fat lady, out of very pity, responded to these

spered, and, looking about him furtively

fat lady, at no pains to

tampede this yere family." His glance at the door through

the fat lady, as a gour

othin' better than to bask in each other's company; but our wives insist

might tell of a favorite way of prep

ls an' husbands thrown in, when they g

agree," helped on the fat lady,

looance of wimmen, the meetin' of the Dax ladies by chanst anywheres has al

ooked all manner

r; her talent lies"-and here Leander w

rupted the fat lady.

that matrimonial landslide o' his, he herds with us. Me an' him does the work of this yere shack, and my wife just roominates and gives her accomplishments as manager full play. She never put her hand in dirty water any more than Mrs. Cleve

to lose a man like that," inte

re was a lone maverick, and he just stampeded roun

one t

to ca

rt and Hand. So they takes their pens in hand and gets through a hard spell of courtin' on paper. Love plumb locoes Johnnie. His spellin' don't suit him, his handwritin' don't suit him, his natchral letters don't suit him. So off h

es!" said t

he'd worked the whole day like a mule over it. She seemed to like the brand, an' when he sent her the mon

razen thing!" s

rse-tail-my wife called it a Sikey knot-and it stood out a foot from her head. Some of the boys, kinder playful, wan

he fair sex"-here he bowed to the fat lady and to Miss Carmichael-"hesitates to use such langwidge in their presence, the

and she could give lessons to any old war-dancin' chief up to the reservation. No dance she ever heard of was too far for her to go to. She just went and danced till broad dayl

hey wasn't looked after." And the wife of his bosom stood in the door lik

g