Judith of the Plains

akes Th

harnessed up the stage that Peter Hamilton had driven over the day before, when his prospective passengers were looking, with a graphic pantomimic representation of "take it or leave it." U

the farewells of the Daxes, each according to their

nature, could scarce restrain his tears-the advent of the travellers had created a welcome variation in the monotony of his dutiful routine-he felt all the agitat

the travellers got inside, not dar

's diary, inscribed in malformed characters as the stage jolted over ruts and gullies, reads: "I do not mind telling you, in strictest confidence, 'Dere Diary'-as the little boy called you-that when I so lightly severed my conne

h the day we left town. I just ate and ate it 'cause I hadn't another thing to do. If I hadn't been so greedy I could o

roken heart, and the savings of a lifetime, seemed to Mary Carmichae

ping the horizon for possible storm-clouds. At every portion of the road presenting a steep decline she would prod Chugg in the back with the handle of her ample umbrella, and demand that he let her out, as she

ng round these yere solitoodes?" And the misanthrope cracked

cold coffee, same as she did us?" anxious

adn't

Hi! Mr. Chugg!" The stage-driver, thinking it was merely a request to be allowed to walk, continued to drive with one hand and hold

agely, applying a watery

e fat lady, quite satisfied at

as one not above the weakness

n't c

it?" questioned

way, when they are plumb

you know it

had fres

expert testimony. "What ar

an," said the fat lady, not

w him look at you admiringly when yo

onspicuous lack of incredulity; and she p

cation between the stage-driver and herself. Putting her hand through the

mmer resort; think of two ladies trusting themselves to your p

em of the feminine invasion, and then he muttered to himself [pg 097] rather than to th

ad been a brand. "He's no gentleman. As

n disk, paling the blue of the sky; the grasshoppers kept up their shrill ch

ly became a challenge to the endurance of the horses, but to the laws of gravitation. He lashed them up and do

not on the l

ame low and

pale lips of

couch at the

Sweetwater, who began, in the maternal chronicles, by being six feet in his stockings, and who steadily grew, as th

Ballad of the Mule-Skinner," with what seemed to both t

going down

d team and

whip and the

broke, and the

stepped on the

vals during the afternoon, but as Mary and the fat lady managed to esc

trustful bachelors who make acquaintances through the columns of The Heart and Hand. The house stood solitary in that scourge of desolation. The windows and doors gaped wide

stage-driver, sobering up to Jerry's good qualities, and presently Johnnie D

the apologetic crook in the knees [pg 099] and a certain furtiv

that you was coming? and I'd have tidied up t

any to come before they get to their wo

h the ill grace of old residents. Two hogs, dormant, guarded either side of the door-step and refused so absolutely to be disturbed by

e?" sternly deman

all-gown in a gripsack and lit out of here two days ago, p'inting that way. A loc

ng failed to grasp the fact that th

don't know when I see you so lazy. Run on, honey-run on with

emptation [pg 100] of asking how the h

s one hawg Ethel and the other hawg Maude, allowing to my wife that they're named after lady friends in the East. Them lady friends might be the daughters of Ananias and Sapphira, for all they ever happened, but they answers the pur

after hawgs, no matter how fashionable you name 'em. A hawg's a hawg, with manners acc

Jerry now, that old white horse-why, me and him is just like brothers. When I have to leave the kid to his lonesome infant reflectio

01] would leave her baby to a horse to mind while she went off dancing. And no natural man would

the desert to have one last look at the west. The sun had taken his plunge for the

that it did not devolve on them to clean the place, since they were paying for supper and lodging. They had gone but a little way when sudden apprehension caused

und the prairie, and I never found

does it make, if

All men has got the notion that coffee must be b'iled in a bag, and if they 'ain't got a regular bag real handy, they take wha

agreed, hoping against hope that s

ffee loose or tight, and he'll declare he b'iles it loose, knowing well how suspicious and prone to investig

es, I'v

e se

rry," imp

r coffee yet?" inq

promptly resp

in a bag-it clears it

marm, I b'iles it loose. You

up before an accusing feminine eye. He quailed, made a grab

u?" she asked, with

istake. I 'ain't made the coffee. I plumb forgot it. P'raps you could be prevail

the opportunity to ask Johnnie if he knew anything about Lost Trail. The name of her destination had come to sound unpleasantly ominous in the ears of

n-lions, with a few rattlers thrown in just to make things neighborly. This yere place"-waving his hand towards th

sperate point, and inquired if Mr. Dax knew

ed by the wild beasts before referred to. See here, miss, I ain't makin' no play to

tly; and then she, too, ta

g