A Prairie Courtship

n Thorne rode up out of the prairie, leading a second horse. He tethered the two beasts to a fence before he approached the hous

Farquhar," he announced. "I suppo

ry sure about it,"

ly, and I expect I'm getting a little stale. Among other things, I'd got most of the shingles on the house when

r horse back?" as

day or two after it disappeared, and a friend of mine sent it along. I under

r regarded h

x yourself up i

elieve Jake was justified ethically; and anybody who tak

rquhar laughed. "On the whole, the

track now and then palls on one, and it isn't the least bit easier than the

a moment of forgetfulness, stirred Alison to a

ing debtor escape?" she demanded. "I

hardly call him that," Thorne retorte

things, didn't he, and then sold them, and ran awa

t, because a baldly correct statement of the kind you have just made whi

tement of fact

d and Thorne m

ne's point of view. You evidently can

irst instance mentioned his dislike of Nevis; and his willingness to side with the injured against the oppressor had certainly pleased her. In the abstract, it appeared wholl

t can only look at certain matters in a certain way; and if you insist on doing the o

the justice to own that they act up to it. I had, however, expected a little mo

turned tow

ter get that m

rne leading his team, a

ts. I'm almost afraid you have su

st remark

rquhar

uninteresting task with a patience I hardly thought was

outb

hing very shocking, though I should

a sign of

d fly off in this unbalanced f

going steady for an unusual time, and as a rule it doesn't take a great deal to drive him into some piece of rashn

the grievance lay, but the girl made no comment, and th

uldn't come back," he explained. "In

nt. What was, perhaps, more to the purpose, he had been demanding too much of his bodily strength during the last two months, and had been living in a Spartan fashion on badly cooked and very irregular meals, until at length his nervous system began to feel the strain. That being so, he felt himself justified in resenting Alison's censorious attitude; though it was not the me

he narrow rafters, and when at length he descended for breakfast he found that the fire had gone out in the meanwhile. He surveyed it and the kettle disgustedly, with brows drawn down; and then, restraining a strong desire to fling the vessel into the birches, he sat down and fished out of the congealed fat in the frying-pan a piece of cold pork left over from the previous day.

tom. Finally, in a state of exasperation, he struck a vicious blow at a nail which had evaded his previous attacks, and hit his thumb instead. This was the climax, and he savagely hurled the hammer as far as he could throw it out upon the prairie. Then he swung himself down, and, walking resolutely to his tent, dragged out a box containing

ing Farquhar's homestead pulled up

ss he's out on the trail again. He had the boys

the note, wh

"I'm off for a change of air, and haven't the least notion when I'm co

wife, who was sitting with Alison at breakfast, and

I expected it," she remarked, reg

unbalanced nature, can I

on appeared

ou or Lucy. He would be quietly cutting prai

tched them

son why one should despair of him. I've known a young horse turn out an excellent hauler and go ste

his wife inquired with

uhar, "perhaps I was

ast with an expressionless face, though Mrs. Farqu

uple of men lounged near him smoking, and in front of them a double row of unpicturesque frame

Winthrop would look in here

ward the house, but there did not seem

he railroad, and Jake crawled up to the back of his shac

crowd of boys from down East to do something farther on up the track. If he did, he must have jumped off quietly when they stopped to let the Pacific express by. Next thing, two or three troopers turned up, and I guess they heard abou

n he first struck y

d him, and

as blue's much more common. Now if he saw that man riding south at night he'd probably call off the troopers, and they'd work the trai

to see him, when J

and a brown duck jacket somewhere in this settleme

them pointed out that Thorne might find himself unpleasantly situat

have a horse that could run Volador down," he said. "Besides, if he should pr

te a workable scheme. Suddenly Baxter turned to

" he asked. "Jake Winthrop

us that none of them appeared sufficient to warrant any action at all on his part. He was only certain th

question, I don't quit

, and turned t

round for a hat and jacket like the one

outlying farm. In the meanwhile Corporal Slaney sauntered into the general room of the hotel, where Murray and several others were then sitting smoking. The

, and he sat astride a bench, clad only in blue shirt and trousers, with a glass of soda-water in front of him and a pipe in his hand. A big tin lamp burned unsteadily above him, for all the do

ll never get another man like old Sergeant Mackin

ears, and another

nthrop jailed quite a while ago. T

ey went prowling round the homesteads, worrying folks who didn't

an turned

o of the boys off D

shortly. "That's about a

r. "Guess he might have slipped through between them; that is, if he's

n the corporal's eyes,

d if he was stuck for a horse he wouldn't care to try the open. If he lay by a while he might fix it up with somebody to bring

" Slaney

rned to t

done that, they'd sure have got him." He paused, and, hearing a beat of hoofs

hared this opinion; but the drumming of hoofs was gr

ter," he

, and helped himself at the soda-water fountain befor

ride for nothing," he informed them. "Been

ray. "If you'd waited a little yo

axter's indifferent reply

brief conversation which had followed Baxter's arr

meet that stran

iles east of

u speak

er s

e. He was going south as fast as his

ike? Did you s

close, but I think he'd a black plug hat. As most of us wear gray ones,

latter of hoofs, and the men crowding about the entrance saw a mounted figure riding

addled ready," he chuckled