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diff --git a/old/13560.txt b/old/13560.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2779837 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13560.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2917 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Nancy MacIntyre, by Lester Shepard Parker + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Nancy MacIntyre + +Author: Lester Shepard Parker + +Release Date: September 30, 2004 [eBook #13560] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NANCY MACINTYRE*** + + +E-text prepared by Audrey Longhurst, Leah Moser, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 13560-h.htm or 13560-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/5/6/13560/13560-h/13560-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/5/6/13560/13560-h.zip) + + + + + +Nancy MacIntyre + +A Tale of the Prairies + +by + +Lester Shepard Parker + +1910 + + + + + + + +[Illustration: "I was takin' leave of Nancy, +Standin' out there in the night."] + + + + +_To My Wee Daughter +RACHEL ELLEN PARKER +this little story is +affectionately inscribed_ + + + + +CONTENTS + +Billy's Revery +The Quarrel +The Disappointment +The Decision +The Search +The Return +Nancy's Story + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +"I was takin' leave of Nancy +Standin out there in the night" (Frontispiece) + +"Then I dragged him on the prairie +Through a Turk's Head cactus bed" + +"I am standing by her dug-out, +Open stands the sagging door" + +"Bringing back a hat of water, +Through the dim light and the rain" + +"Loaded up their prairie schooner, +And vamoosed the ranch, 'fore light" + +"He was startled by a stranger's +Sudden presence and 'Hello!'" + +"Faithful Simon, weak and starving, +Groaned and fell beneath his pack" + +"Resting calm in fancied safety +Sat the elder MacIntyre" + +"Once again the twisted branches +Of the lone and friendly tree" + +"Fiercer with each flying moment +Drove the scorching blasts of death" + +"Standing there, a pictured goddess +Sketched against a lowering storm" + +"But, instead, I shot, to scare him, +All the buttons off his coat" + + + + +BILLY'S REVERY + + +1 + +No use talking, it's perplexing, + Everything don't look the same; +Never had these curious feelin's + Till those MacIntyres came. +Quit my plowing long 'fore dinner, + Didn't hitch my team again; +Spent the day with these new neighbors, + Getting 'quainted with the men. +Talk about the prairie roses! + Purtiest flow'rs in all the world, +But they look like weeds for beauty + When I think of that new girl. +Strange, she seems so kind of friendly + When I'm awkward, every way, +And my tongue gets hitched and hobbled, + Everything I try to say! + + +2 + +There's one person, that Jim Johnson, + That there man I can't abide; +He's been milling around near Nancy,-- + Durn his dirty, yaller hide! +Never really liked that Johnson; + Now, each time I hear his name, +Feel this state's too thickly settled,-- + That is, since that new girl came. +If this making love to women + Went like breaking in a horse, +I might stand some show of winning, + 'Cause I've learned that game, of course; +But this moonshine folks call 'courting,' + I ain't never played that part; +I can't keep from talking foolish + When I'm thinking with my heart. + + +3 + +Now, those women that you read of + In these story picture books, +They can't ride in roping distance + Of that girl in style and looks. +They have waists more like an insect, + Corset shaped and double cinched; +Feet just right to make a watch charm, + Small, of course, because they're pinched. +This here Nancy's like God made her,-- + She don't wear no saddle girth, +But she's supple as a willow, + And the purtiest thing on earth. +I'm in earnest; let me ask you-- + 'Cause I want to reason fair-- +What durn business has that rope-necked + Johnson sneaking over there? + + +4 + +Hands so soft and strong and tender, + When I shook a "how de do," +They was loaded sure with something + Seemed to thrill me through and through; +Hair as black as fire-burnt prairie; + Eyes that dance and flash and flirt; +Every time she smiled she showed you + Teeth as white's my Sunday shirt. +Baked us biscuits light as cotton; + I can't eat mine any more,-- +I must get some better breeches,-- + Kind o' 'shamed of those I wore; +But I'm goin' there to-morrow, + Like enough I'll stay all day, +Seems to me too dry for plowing-- + Durn that Johnson, anyway! + + +5 + +I ain't much on deep-down thinkin', + Reasoning out the way things go, +So I s'pose I'll keep on foolin' + Till in time I get to know. +I've had chills and fever 'n' ague; + Suffered till their course was run. +Maybe love just keeps on runnin', + Till a man has lost--or won. +One thing certain: I have got it; + Seems to struck in good and hard. +Makes me sometimes soft and tender; + Next thing I would fight my pard. +Appetite is surely failing, + Sometimes I don't eat a bite; +Dream of Nancy all the daytime, + That durn Johnson, half the night. + + +6 + +I've just got to get to plowin', + Break a fire-guard 'round my shack, +Plant my sod corn, fix my garden; + Everything is goin' to rack. +I can't work the way I used to; + Got to quittin' early now, +Since a little thing that happened, + I can't just remember how. +I was takin' leave of Nancy, + Standin' out there in the night, +And I put my arms around her-- + Heart stopped beatin', just from fright. +Can't express the kind of feelin',-- + Words wa'n't never made for this,-- +As I drew her face up closer, + And I stole my first sweet kiss. + + + + +THE QUARREL + + +1 + +Things have moved along some smoother + Since a week ago to-night, +Seems my blood turned all to p'ison-- + Me and Johnson had a fight. +Caught him twice up there to Nancy's; + Told him plain to stay away; +But he didn't seem to notice + Anything I had to say. +Caught him settin' there and talkin' + 'Bout the things that he had done-- +Durndest liar on the prairie-- + Laughing like he thought 'twas fun, +Settin' there beside o' Nancy-- + Settin' down is all he does, +Good for nothin', bug-eyed, loafin', + Wrinkled, yaller, meddlin' cuss! + + +2 + +I just let him keep on settin' + All the whole long evenin' through; +When he started off I follered, + Told him what I meant to do. +"Why," says he, "now, don't git foolish; + I ain't skeered o' your light breeze; +I'll go thar and set by Nancy, + Spite o' you, when I blame please." +Well, I don't just clear remember + All the doin's that took place, +But you'll know the story better + If you'll look at Johnson's face. +As we rode we clinched and wrestled, + Then we tumbled to the ground, +Tore the bunch grass up, and cactus, + For a hundred yards around. + + +3 + +Got him down, and in the scrimmage + Felt my lasso on the ground, +Tied his legs and bent him over, + Bound him like he's sittin' down; +Hustled quick to mount my pony, + Threw the loose end round the horn, +Thought I'd learn that Mr. Johnson + He'd missed out in bein' born. +Then I dragged him on the prairie, + Through a Turk's Head cactus bed, +Prickly pears and shoestring bushes,-- + 'Twasn't decent what he said. +He's so dev'lish fond of settin', + Thought I'd fix his settin' end +So's he'd be more kinder careful + Settin' by that girl again. + +[Illustration: "Then I dragged him on the prairie +Through a Turk's Head cactus bed."] + + + + +THE DISAPPOINTMENT + + +1 + +There's a feeling in my bosom, + Like a hound that's lost the game, +After chasing over bunch grass + Till his feet are sore and lame. +I am standing by her dug-out, + Open stands the sagging door; +Every grassblade speaks of Nancy, + But she's gone, to come no more. +For her father and her mother, + And her brothers, late last night, +Loaded up their prairie schooner, + And vamoosed the ranch, 'fore light. +'Taint no use to stand here cussin', + But my heart slumps down like lead +When I think of losing Nancy + And to know my dreams are dead. + + +2 + +It was here I held you, Nancy, + When I showed you all my heart; +When I told you I would always + Be your friend and take your part. +Oh, I thought that in life's lottery + I had drawn the biggest prize, +When I kissed you there that evening + And looked down into your eyes; +For I never had such feelin's + Fill my hide clean through and through +Such a hungry, starving longing, + To be always close to you. +But you've gone with all your family, + And I'm left to mourn my loss, +While the posse hunts your daddie, + 'Cause he stole Bill Kelly's hoss. + + +3 + +Now, I don't know where you're roaming, + And I don't know where'll you'll land; +But I wish you knew my feelin's, + And 'twas clear just how I stand: +How the good Lord, high in heaven, + Put a throbbing heart in here, +But it starts to pumping backwards + When it feels that you don't keer. +I'm a roving old jay-hawker, + Never caught like this before, +But I'd give my last possession + For a glimpse of you once more. +If we lose your old fool father + Folks 'round here can stand the loss, +He was raised in old Missoura, + Or he'd never stole that hoss. + +[Illustration: "I am standing by her dug-out, +Open stands the sagging door."] + + +4 + +When my mind gets to recalling + All the happy times we had, +Good red liquor and tobacco + Gets to tasting kind o' bad. +You remember on your birthday + How I drove 'round kind o' late, +And we went to Donkey Collins' + To a dance, to celebrate? +When you got up in my wagon, + Bless my heart, you sure was sweet! +You was bound that you'd go barefoot, + 'Cause your new shoes hurt your feet. +Well, I tell you, pretty Nancy, + Every minute of that ride +Seemed like floating through the heavens, +'Cause you set there by my side. + + +5 + +When we pulled up at old Collins', + Quite a bunch was there before, +You could hear the fiddler calling, + And the scraping on the floor. +Through the dingy sodhouse window + Gleamed a sickly yellow light, +Where I helped you from the wagon, + Holding you so loving tight. +Then they called out, "Choose your pardners, + Numbers five, six, seven, and eight," +And we hustled up to join in, + For we knew that we were late. +After starting up the music + Something happened--you know what-- +All because I loved you, Nancy, + And their manners made me hot. + + +6 + +I just glanced around the circle, + When we came to "Balance, all;" +To that mess of cowhide-covered + Feet that stomped at every call. +Sure enough, the thing I looked for + Come to pass when Aleck Rose +Tried to _dos-a-dos_ by you, dear, + And, instead, waltzed on your toes. +Recollect? I stopped the fiddler, + And I stopped that stomping crowd, +Using language that was decent, + But was mighty clear and loud: +"Now, you fellers from the Sand Hills, + Fight me, or if you refuse +You don't dance with me and Nancy + While a one of you wears shoes!" + + +7 + +Yes, they took them off, Miss Nancy, + In respect for you and me, +Putting all on equal footing, + Just the way it ought to be. +And we went through all the figures + That we knew in that quadrille, +But it didn't seem like dancin', + Steppin' round so awful still. +Fiddler, even, did his calling + In a sort of quiet hush-- +"Swing your pardners," "Back to places," + "Sounds to me like paddlin' mush." +"Man in center," "Circle round him," + "All join hands," and "'Way you go," +"Wait fur Betsy, she's in trouble, + With a splinter in her toe." + + +8 + +When I took you home, towards morning, + Such a night I never saw. +How the Kansas wind was blowing! + Swift and keen and kind o' raw. +Blew more furious every minute, + Blew a hole clear through the skies; +Blew so loud, like demons hissing, + That the moon was 'fraid to rise. +Got so fierce it blew the stars out, + Saw them flicker, then go dead, +While the blackness, mad and murky, + Rolled in thunder overhead. +Goin' with it, durn my whiskers! + Hind wheels riz plumb off the ground; +Goin' 'gainst it, you and me, dear, + Had to push the hosses down. + + +9 + +Now and then a raindrop whistled + Like a bullet past my head; +And I hollered out to you, dear, + "Scrooch down in the wagon bed." +Then they come as big as hen eggs; + Struck the hosses stinging raps, +Till the frightened, tremblin' critters + Leaped beneath the angry slaps. +Lord a'mighty, how they scampered! + While I gripped the lines in tight, +As the wagon box sailed upward + Like a mighty wind-borne kite. +Down below us ran the hosses, + While we floated through the air, +But through all that roaring shakeup, + You, dear, never turned a hair. + + +10 + +When the lightning flashed around us, + Rabbits stopped to let us by,-- +Looked as if they said by halting, + "We can't race with things that fly!" +Coyotes sneaked off in the slough grass, + Prairie dogs stayed in their holes; +We was lubricated blazes,-- + Couldn't stop to save our souls. +Up the hills we flew like swallows, + Down the slopes, a hurricane, +Bumped and jumped the humps and hollows, + Dragged the ground and riz again. +And I prayed, "Dear Lord, save Nancy, + For a desperate lover's sake!" +You was hangin' to my gallus, + And I felt it strain and break. + + +11 + +Felt you holdin' to my boot-leg, + Slattin' in the roarin' gale, +So, to save you, I worked for'ard, + Got the nigh hoss by the tail. +Miles on miles we tore on blindly, + Had to let the critters roam, +Till, at last, they turned their noses + To the north, and towards their home. +We went charging down a valley, + Stopped in something soft and deep; +Wagon box and you and me, dear, + Landed in a mixed-up heap. +Both the hosses' legs was buried + And I knew that that was proof +We had 'lighted on the top of + Old Jim Davis's dug-out roof. + + +12 + +Now, old Jim was sleeping soundly + Close beside his faithful wife; +Peace had smoothed his savage wrinkles, + All his dreams were free from strife. +He was safe from ragin' cyclones, + Wolves could never force his door, +All the ills of life had vanished, + On his mountain torrent snore. +So when our descent awoke him + Sitting bolt upright in bed, +With the flying hoofs above him, + Kicking hair off of his head, +He aroused his sleeping helpmeet; + Loud his curses and abuse, +"Mary, hike your lazy carcass, + Hell has turned the devil loose." + +[Illustration: "Bringing back a hat of water, +Through the dim light and the rain."] + + +13 + +While ole Jim was shooting at us-- + Couldn't make him understand; +Kept his blamed old gun a-going + Till he got me through the hand-- +Not a whimper did you utter, + But you grabbed the hosses' heads, +Coaxed and helped them in their trouble, + While they strove like thoroughbreds, +Lunging, plunging, you stayed with them + Till they both were clear and free. +Riding one, you lashed them forward, + Circled round and picked up me, +Helped me mount, while Jim was loading; + Then we struck off through the night, +Right across the storm-swept prairie, + Till the East was streaked with light. + + +14 + +I was faint and sick and dizzy, + From my shattered, bleeding hand, +And it seemed as if the jolting + Gave me more than I could stand. +Once I reeled, and would have fallen, + If you hadn't held me there; +Put your dear arm tight around me, + Whispered, "Billy, don't you care." +Then you headed straight for water, + Threw the lines, dismounted first, +Smoothed the grass down for my pillow, + While the hosses quenched their thirst. +Then you bathed my throbbing forehead,-- + Love and healing in the touch,-- +Sayin', "Billy, pardner, listen: + That there shootin' wasn't much!" + + +15 + +From your skirt you tore a piece out, + Dressed my wounds so neat and quick, +That I felt the Lord had sent you + Just to soothe and heal the sick. +Bringing back a hat of water, + Through the dim light and the rain, +Thought I saw your face turn paler, + Like you felt a twinge o' pain; +But as you knelt down beside me + I could hear you humming low +Some mysterious song, stopped short by, + "Billy, man, we sure must go!" +And the sun turned loose his glory, + Through the tempest-riven sky, +Till it touched us like a blessing + From the Father there on high. + + +16 + +I am standing by her dug-out; + Open swings the sagging door, +Every grassblade speaks of Nancy; + But she's gone, to come no more, +For her father and her mother, + And her brothers, late last night, +Loaded up their prairie schooner, + And vamoosed the ranch, 'fore light. +There's the bed poles and the stove hole; + Not a thing is left for me, +As a keepsake of my Nancy, + Anywhere that I can see. +What! a paper, pinned up yonder, + Kind o' folded like a note! +It has writin', sure as blazes! + It is somethin' Nancy wrote. + + +17 + +"My dere billy, you will wunder + Why I ever rote you this; +I am sorry I am leevin + Daddie needs me in his biz. +I don't reely like this quiet + Kind of sober farmer life; +I like something allus doin, + But for this, I'd be your wife. +I got two of old Jim's bullets, + Didn't like to let you know, +Cause the one that you was luggin' + Seemed to fret and hurt you so. +Daddie cut them out that evenin; + I don't mind a little such, +But, dere billy, don't you worry, + Old Jim's shootin wasn't much." + + + + +THE DECISION + + +1 + +Since that girl went off and left me, + I can't plan just what to do. +Saw Tom Frothingham this mornin', + He says Johnson's gone off, too. +My old mother used to tell me, + When I lagged at any task, +"Keep on working, do no shirking, + You will bring the thing to pass." +That advice has been my motto: + Everything that I've begun, +I've stayed with it, sick or weary, + Till the job was squarely done. +But this case is kind o' different; + Though I ain't the kind that grieves, +How you goin' to work that motto + When the job gets up and leaves? + + +2 + +S'pose, in thinkin' and decidin', + I refuse to do my part;-- +Just sit down and let my mem'ry + Finish breaking up my heart-- +S'pose I give up like a coward, + Let the world say I ain't game, +'Cause by leavin' I should forfeit + My poor eighty-acre claim. +I ain't 'fraid to do my duty + If I'm clear what it's about, +But this scrape is so peculiar + That my mind's smoked up with doubt. +I believe that Nancy loves me, + And it may be she'll stay true; +But I wonder why the blazes + That durn Johnson's gone off too. + + +3 + +Blamed if I don't get my hosses, + Saddle Zeb and lead old Si, +And we'll search the wind-swept prairie + Till we find that girl, or die! +Who'd a thought a man's whole future + Could get twisted up like this? +All his plans burn up like tinder + In the fire of one sweet kiss! +"Zeb, come here, and good old Simon-- + Listen while I talk to you; +Put your noses on my shoulder + While I tell you what we'll do. +Your fool master's deep in trouble, + Can't explain to you just how, +But until we find my Nancy, + You shall never pull a plow." + + + + +THE SEARCH + + +1 + +In the West, where twilight glories + Paint with blood each sky-line cloud, +While the virgin rolling prairie + Slowly dons her evening shroud; +While the killdeer plover settles + From its quick and noisy flight; +While the prairie cock is blowing + Warning of the coming night-- +There against the fiery background + Where the day and night have met, +Move three disappearing figures, + Outlined sharp in silhouette. +Zeb and Si and Bill, the lover, + Chafing under each delay, +Pass below the red horizon, + Toward the river trail away. + + +2 + +Far across the upland prairie + To the valley-land below, +Where the tall and tangled joint-grass + Makes the horses pant and blow, +There the silent Solomon River + Reaching westward to its source, +With its fringe of sombre timber + Guides the lover on his course. +All the night he keeps his saddle, + Urging Zeb and Simon on, +Till the trail clears up before him + In the gray of early dawn. +Where it turns in towards the river, + Arched above with vine-growth rank, +He, dismounting, ties the horses + Near the steep and treacherous bank. + + +3 + +More than light and shade and landscape + Meet the plainsman's searching look, +For the paths that lie before him + Are the pages of his book. +Stooping down and reading slowly, + Noting every trace around, +Of the travel gone before him, + Every mark upon the ground, +Down the winding, deep-cut roadway + Furrowed out by grinding tire, +Where the ruts lead to the water, + In the half-dried plastic mire, +He beholds the telltale marking + Of an odd-shaped band of steel, +Welded to secure the fellies + Of old MacIntyre's wheel. + + + +4 + +High above the wind is moaning + In a lonely, fretful mood, +Through the lofty spreading branches + Of the elm and cottonwood. +Where the willows hide the fordway + With their fringe of lighter green, +Is the dam, decayed and broken, + Where the beavers once have been. +On the sycamore bent o'er it, + With its gleaming trunk of white, +Sits the barred owl, idly blinking + At the early morning's light, +While, within its spacious hollow, + Where the rotting heart had clung +Till removed by age and fire, + Sleeps the wild cat with her young. + + +5 + +Plunging through the sluggish water, + Scarcely halting for a drink, +Toiling through the sticky quagmire, + They attain the farther brink. +Here the trail leads to the westward,-- + Once the redman's wild domain; +Now the shallow rutted highway + Of the settler's wagon train. +Here and there along the edges, + Paths work through the waving grass, +Where at night from bluff to river, + Sneaking coyotes find a pass. +Here the meadow lark sings gaily + As she leaves her hidden nest, +While the sun of early morning + Double-tints her orange breast. + + +6 + +Up this broad and fertile valley, + Tracing all its winding ways, +Plodding on with dogged patience + Through a score of weary days, +Camping in the lonely timber, + Sleeping on the scorching plain, +Bearing heat and thirst and hunger, + Sore fatigue and wind and rain-- +Halting only when the telltale + Mark was missing in the track; +Only when he called a greeting, + As he passed some settler's shack; +Till the valley and its timber + Vanished, where the rolling sward +Of the westward-sweeping prairie + Marks the trail 'cross Mingo's ford. + + +7 + +Here for hours he searched the crossing + And the wheel-ruts leading on +To the north, a full day's journey, + But the guiding mark was gone. +Not a vestige here remaining + Of the sign that could be told, +For old Mac had traveled swiftly + And the trail was mixed and old. +Two whole days Bill searched and waited, + Hoping for some other clew, +Weighing questions of direction, + Undecided what to do. +Till, one night, while cooking supper + By the camp-fire's genial glow, +He was startled by a stranger's + Sudden presence and "Hello!" + + +8 + +Tall of stature, dark of visage, + By the wind well dried and tanned, +Clad in "shaps" and spurs that jingled, + With a bull whip in his hand. +Close behind him in the shadows, + Eyes aglow with red and green, +Stood a blazed-face Texas pony, + Ewe-necked, cat-hammed, wild, and mean. +"Hello, stranger! glad to see you, + Got my cattle fixed for night; +Just got through, and riding round 'em, + 'Cross the bluff, I saw your light. +No, thanks, pardner, had my supper; + Seems your fire is short o' wood; +I just thought I'd see who's camped here-- + Gee! that bacon does smell good!" + + +9 + +When the frugal meal was over, + When the pipes were filled and lit, +And the cowboy ceased his stories + Weak in moral, rank in wit, +Billy plied him long with questions, + Wording each with thought and care, +Lest his zeal for information + Should reveal his mission there. +"Tell me who you've seen go by here, + Just within the last few days; +What they had for teams and outfits; + How the country round here lays. +Have you seen a prairie schooner-- + Old style freighter--pass this way? +Both wheel hosses white-nosed sorrels, + Lead team of a dun and gray?" + +[Illustration: "Loaded up their prairie schooner, +And vamoosed the ranch 'fore light."] + +[Illustration: "He was startled by a stranger's +Sudden presence and 'Hello!'"] + + +10 + +"I remember some such outfit, + If I've got your idee right. +Think they camped a mile below here + Week ago last Thursday night. +Pulled in sometime 'long 'bout sundown, + Turned their stock in yonder draw, +But an oldish sort of fellow + Was the only one I saw; +Rode a speckled chestnut pony + With a white star in his face; +Asked some questions 'bout the country, + 'Bout the proper crossing-place. +Pulled out sometime long 'fore daylight. + Didn't see them when they passed, +But from all the indications + They was trav'ling pretty fast. + + +11 + +"Crossed right here where we are settin', + Saw their trail that very day; +Struck plumb north, and by my reck'nin' + Towards the north they'll likely stay. +North of here, by my experience, + He'll find grass that's mighty fine. +Chances are that he'll keep goin' + Till he strikes Nebraska's line. +It was just the next day after + That my cattle scattered so; +Some strayed off 'way south to Jimson's, + One bunch in the bend below. +That's the day I met that feller + (Eyes so black he couldn't see) +Who kept pumpin' me with questions + Like you've just been askin' me. + + +12 + +"Asked about that prairie schooner, + Said that they was friends of hisn, +Like to wore me plumb to frazzles + With his everlasting quiz'n. +Rode a piebald, knock-kneed broncho; + Coat was battered, ripped, and torn; +He was yaller, long, and g'anted + Like a steer with holler horn. +An' you oughter seen his breeches! + He must sure be shy on sense; +Why, they looked like he'd been riding + On a bucking barb wire fence. +You won't meet him, 'cause I saw him + Coming back across this way, +Going eastward where he come from; + Took the back trail yesterday. + + +13 + +"Said he'd found the old man's outfit + Moving westward on North Fork. +Can't remember all he told me, + For he runs a heap to talk. +Said he'd found out what he wanted; + Said he 'had a plan or two, +And the folks that knowed Jim Johnson, + Knowed that he would put 'em through.' +Then there's others took the west trail; + They got that way huntin' range-- +Funny how folks when they come here + Get to itchin' for a change! +I've been stayin' too confinin'; + Never left this herd but once. +I'm the oldest puncher round here,-- + Been here over fourteen months." + + +14 + +Long before the sun had risen, + While the night mist's ghostly veil +Hid from view the sloughs and hollows, + Billy took the northern trail. +Through the sunflowers in the low land, + Plodding over sandstone knolls, +Winding through the level stretches + Dotted thick with treacherous holes +Where the prairie dogs sat chattering, + Bolt upright upon their mounds, +While the ground owls sought their burrows, + Startled by the warning sounds; +Stumbling into buffalo wallows, + Dug out in an earlier day +By the halting herds that rested, + Rolled and bellowed in their play. + + +15 + +Now and then the sheltered hillside + Waved its varicolored flowers +As a greeting to the trav'ler, + Solace to the toilsome hours. +Old Jack Rabbit hopped before him, + Then sat up, to watch him pass, +Dusky horned-toads scurried nimbly + Through the withered buffalo grass. +Here and there the buzzing rattler + Whirred a warning, head alert, +Then retreated from the snapping, + Stinging strokes of Billy's quirt. +Day by day the wild breeze flying, + With'ring in its scorching heat, +Hummed a tune to labored beating + Of the plodding horses' feet. + + +16 + +Day by day this panorama + Passing slowly, dully by, +With the sun's brass disc high gleaming + From a white and cloudless sky, +Sometimes drew fantastic pictures. + Many a strange and gruesome sign-- +Phantom trees and fairy castles-- + Blurred the far horizon line. +Then they'd vanish like the fancies + Of a fever-smitten brain, +And returning, changed in outline, + Elsewhere on the mighty plain +Would allure the eyesore trav'ler + Till the very sky above +Seemed to mock with vague mirages + Every surety of love. + + +17 + +When each weary day was over, + Halting near some watering-place, +Bill unpacked his meager outfit, + Turned the horses loose to graze, +Baked his varicolored dough-bread, + On a fire of cattle chips; +Coffee made of green-scummed water, + Nectar to his thirsty lips. +On the ground he spread his blanket + And reclining there alone, +Heard the swiftly sweeping breezes + Sing in dreary monotone +Strange wild anthems, weird and lonesome, + Like lost spirits floating by, +While afar in broken measure + Swelled the coyotes' yelping cry. + + +18 + +All the varied information + Gathered from the few he passed-- +Some from herders, some from stragglers + Gave the missing clew at last +As to where old Mac was heading; + For that telltale band of steel +Stamped along the endless roadway + Printed by the turning wheel, +Pressed its image on the memory + Of the settlers coming back, +Who, when questioned by the searcher, + Told him that the telltale track +Had begun to veer to westward + After crossing by the way +Leading up the North Platte River, + Where the sand wastes stretch away. + + +19 + +As he crossed this barren prairie's + Sweeping waste of poverty, +Billy paused beside the cripple + Of a wind-torn twisted tree, +Standing there, marooned forever, + Where its hapless seed had blown, +Miles on miles from forest neighbor, + Struggling out its life alone. +Here he stopped, with head uncovered, + Conscious of a strange appeal, +Yielding to the voiceless longing + Human hearts are bound to feel +When their lot is isolation, + And a field of sterile soil +Dwarfs and twists the struggling spirit + As the body bends with toil. + + +20 + +Here, that subtle, silent craving, + Which with life will never end, +Of the lonesome and the needy + For the comfort of a friend, +Drew the trav'ler to this tree waif, + And he spread his outfit near, +And they held that sacred converse + Which the soul alone can hear. +While the horses browsed the sage brush, + And the sun withdrew his light, +And the moon in mournful splendor + Ushered in the lonely night, +He lay down beneath the branches, + Wrapped in musings strange and deep-- +Thoughts that bore him off in silence + O'er the placid sea of sleep. + + +21 + +In his dreams he saw a monarch + Decked in sumptuous array, +Seated on a throne of glory + Bearing royal title, Day. +Then some mighty power transcendent, + Thrust him from his gorgeous throne, +Turning all the realm to darkness, + And the world was left alone. +As the shades of gloom were spreading, + By strange flashing threads of light +He beheld in dim-drawn outline, + On the background of the night, +Phantom horse and girlish rider, + Speeding on in reckless race, +Till she turned directly toward him + And he saw her fearless face! + +[Illustration: "Faithful Simon, weak and starving, +Groaned and fell beneath his pack...."] + + +22 + +With the journey's slow progression + Slipped away the summer days, +Merging with the sleepy beauty + Of the lazy autumn haze; +And the frosts and drought combining + Waged relentless battle there, +Withering up the scanty ranges, + Leaving all the country bare. +When he entered Colorado, + Following still the barren plain +Where for months the mocking heavens + Never spared a drop of rain, +Faithful Simon, weak and starving, + Following feebly in the track +Pulled upon his straining halter, + Groaned and fell beneath his pack. + + +23 + +Vain were all the kind entreaties, + Vain the simple nursing done +To relieve his palsied weakness-- + Poor old Simon's course was run. +Billy spent the night beside him, + But with next day's early dawn, +With the east's first flush of scarlet, + Simon's faithful soul passed on. +Then, with hands outstretched before him, + Half remembering what was said +When a child he saw the sexton + Sprinkle earth upon the dead-- +"Dust to dust, and then to ashes-- + I forget the other part-- +I can't say the words I want to, + I can't think--all's in my heart. + + +24 + +"Over twenty years, old pardner, + We have been companions true; +You have always kept your end up + In the hardships we've gone through. +If we'd stayed, and I had never + Seen her face or touched her hand, +We should still have been contented, + On our little piece of land. +This strange spell won't let me falter, + Though the chasing never ends; +Seems that nothing ever'll stop it, + Sickness, death, or loss of friends. +Where this love will drive a fellow, + I ain't wise enough to tell; +Sometimes think it leads to heaven + By a trail that runs through hell." + + +25 + +Weeks thereafter, plodding northward + Crossing over Lodge Pole creek, +Threading Colorado's stretches-- + Sandy deserts wild and bleak-- +Where the sun wars on the living, + Struggling 'neath his blinding light, +Then resigns his work of ravage + To the chilling frosts of night; +Where the bleaching bones of horses + Here and there bestrew the plains, +Telling many a ghastly story + Of misguided settlers' trains-- +Where the early frontier ranger + Marked the first trail to Cheyenne, +Billy, following its wand'rings, + Found the missing mark again. + + +26 + +Then the labored pace grew faster + As he passed each camping place, +Marking well the lessening distance + In the long-contested race. +Riding through Wyoming's foothills, + With their rugged summit lines +Stretched across the clear horizon, + Fringed with pointed spruce and pines, +He beheld, one early morning, + Rising slowly to the sky, +Smoke--the thin and gauzy column + Of a camp fire built close by; +And, on looking down the valley + With exultant, ringing cheer, +He beheld the prairie schooner + And the MacIntyres near. + + +27 + +On an open spot of grass land + Gilded by the rising sun, +Sloping sharply to the crevice + Where the mountain waters run, +Ike, reclining, watched the horses, + Now increased to quite a band, +While above him, in the timber, + Brother Bill, with gun in hand, +Held it poised in sudden wonder, + Half in attitude to shoot, +As he saw the coming rider, + Heard his loudly yelled salute. +Near an old abandoned cabin, + Huddled by the breakfast fire, +Resting calm in fancied safety + Sat the elder MacIntyre. + +[Illustration: "Resting calm in fancied safety +Sat the elder MacIntyre."] + + +28 + +"You! Why, Billy, where d'you come from? + What new game you playing now? +If you're out on posse business + By the gods, jest start your row! +What you saying? You are friendly? + Wal, I'm glad to hear it's so; +And I s'pose you made the journey + Way out here to let me know! +Oh! you're talking 'bout our Nancy! + Now I just begin to see. +Set down, Billy; you are askin' + Something that sure puzzles me. +Nancy ain't like other women-- + What I say may hit you queer, +But it's jest as well to tell you-- +That there girl--she isn't here. + + +29 + +"Don't stampede your words, now, Billy. + Slow 'em down and let 'em walk. +Lord a'mighty, man! keep quiet! + Never heard such crazy talk! +Where's the girl? Wal, let me tell you-- + T'aint no use to take on so-- +Where is Nancy? P'r'aps in heaven; + I can't tell yer,--I don't know. +When we left last spring from Kansas, + Travelin' mostly in the night, +We was chased up by a posse; + Fourth day out we had a fight. +We had jest unhitched the hosses, + Making camp at Old Man's Creek-- +Gimme some o' that tobacker, + I've been out for more'n a week. + + +30 + +"We had jest unhitched the hosses, + Nance was riding Kelly's mare, +When we heard them all a-comin'-- + They had seen us pull in there. +Nancy said,' I'll hold 'em, daddie, + Get the outfit over here, +And I'll trail you in the mornin'; + I will see they don't get near.' +It was in that heavy timber-- + Growing dark and spittin' rain-- +Where the creek runs to the eastward, + Makes that loop, and back again. +We was in a reg'lar pocket; + Creek banks made a kind of bluff +All around us, so it looked like + We was trapped there, sure enough. + + +31 + +"Wal, we had a time in movin'; + Things got mixed up in the rush; +Lead team broke a piece of harness + Pulling through the underbrush. +Then the wagon turned clean over, + But we drug her plumb across, +Hitched with ropes and other fixin's, + Usin' every extra hoss. +Wal, you never heard such shootin', + Bullets whizzin' everywhere; +Pumped 'em on us till it sounded + Like they had an army there. +Nancy stayed and cracked it to 'em, + Kind o' circlin' round and round; +I could tell the two six-shooters + She was usin', by the sound. + + +32 + +"You can bet we did some trav'lin' + All that night and all next day; +I could still a-hear the shootin' + After we was miles away. +I supposed we'd see the girl come + Ridin' up to us 'fore long, +That is--I was jest a-thinkin'-- + If there wasn't somethin' wrong. +But, in spite of all our lookin', + Sometimes slackin' up our gait, +Always thinkin' we should see her + Every time we'd stop and wait. +We have never seen her, Billy, + And I own I'm balked a bit, +Fur I know that she's a critter + Made of nothin' else but grit. + + +33 + +"I wish I could go and find her, + But 'twould be too hot for me; +Long before I got back that fur + I'd be strung up to a tree. +So I've been a kind o' thinkin', + Since I see what's both'rin' you, +'Bout a thing--I hate to ask it-- + That I'd like for you to do. +I don't think that girl has ever-- + It sure hurts me, what I say-- +But I'm sure that in the scrimmage + Nancy never got away. +Billy, you go back and find her; + You are all I've got to send, +You can sort o' fix things decent, + Where she is--in Old Man's Bend." + + + + +THE RETURN + + +1 + +Every life is but a journey-- + Trav'ling on from place to place-- +Starting from the point God gave us + With an ever-varying pace. +Outward, onward, spurred by motives + In our wand'rings here and there, +Sometimes led by hope alluring, + Sometimes halted by despair; +But the life that travels farthest + On that deeper strength depends, +For with love, there is no turning; + When love dies the journey ends. + + +2 + +Back across the broken foothills, + With a courage none can feel +Till the burning pangs of sorrow + Turn the heart-strings into steel; +Back across the winter's playground, + Tracing out the paths he trod, +With each muttered execration + Ending in a prayer to God. +Blasts that howled with fiendish laughter, + By their loud derisive cry +Seemed to mock his labored progress + As they passed him swiftly by; +Icy, blizzard-driven snowflakes + Into ghost-like fancies whirled, +Painting on the barren canvas, + Gaunt Death battling for the world. + + +3 + +Back across the snow-strewn desert, + Fighting famine face to face, +Trusting to his horse to take him + To each former camping place. +Once Zeb stopped beside a snowdrift + With a loud and startling neigh; +Tried to tell his half-dazed master + Where his mate, old Simon, lay. +Pressing on, he reached the border + Of Nebraska's whitened plain, +Where his mind in maudlin fancies + Yielded to the bitter strain, +As he saw far in the distance, + Like a battered mast at sea, +Once again the twisted branches + Of the lone and friendly tree. + +[Illustration: "Once again the twisted branches +Of the lone and friendly tree."] + + +4 + +"Git up, Zeb. Come, see! She's waving! + Waving there for you and me. +See her there, so white and pretty, + Standing by our friend, the tree! +Quit that stumbling! Now then, streak it! + Hit the gait you used to do +When we hired out for the round up + And you beat the first one through. +There she is! There's where I saw her + When we stayed there all that night; +Though 'twas dark, I saw her riding, + By those flashing threads of light; +She's been waiting! Oh, I left her + In this awful lonely place! +God forgive me! Nancy! hear me! + Oh, that face--that poor white face!" + + +5 + +One cold morning, old Zach Baxter, + Riding o'er this snowbound sea +Saw a famished pony standing + Near a queer and lonely tree. +From his frost-encrusted nostrils + Came a plaintive whinny, low, +As the man rode up beside him + Struggling through the drifted snow. +When the old man tried to lead him, + He refused to turn away; +But he pawed the drift beneath him, + Where his stricken master lay. +And below the cold, white cover, + In a deathlike stupor deep, +Old Zach found a sorry stranger + Shrouded for his last long sleep. + + +6 + +Tearing at the ragged bundle + Lodged between the horse's feet, +Clutching at the frozen blanket, + Brushing back the crusted sleet, +Faithful in his rude endeavors, + Rousing by his loud commands, +Roughly shaking, turning, rubbing, + Zach breathed on his face and hands; +Till the stiffened limbs responded + And the closed eyes opened wide, +Dazed and puzzled at the stranger + Working fiercely at his side. +Billy felt the strong arms raise him, + Felt the Frost King's stinging breath +As he struggled, half unconscious, + In the wav'ring fight with death. + + +7 + +In the east, the sun dogs glistened + Like tall shafts of marble, bright, +O'er the whitened grave of nature,-- + Ghostly spires of frozen light, +Flying frost flakes snapping, sparkling, + Dancing in a wild display, +Turned into a mist of diamonds + As they mocked the newborn day. + + +8 + +Old Zach's pony bearing double, + Reeking steam from every pore, +Reached at last the covered pathway + Leading to the dug-out door. +With his arms clasped tight round Billy, + Zach half dragged his helpless load +Through the lowly, mud-walled entrance + Of his rudely built abode. +There, upon the narrow bunk bed + Spread with nondescript attire, +Zach enfolded him in wrappings + While he started up a fire; +And no nurse, however skillful, + Whatsoever her degree, +Ever gave more loyal service + To a patient, than did he. + + +9 + +Poor and meager were the comforts + Of Zach's cave-like prairie home, +Permeated with the odor + Of the fresh-dug virgin loam. +Pungent wreaths of smoke, slow drifting, + Floated lazily above, +To the dried grass of the ceiling + From the cracked and rusty stove. +Willow poles athwart for rafters + Sagged beneath the dirt roof's strain, +And a piece of grease-smeared paper + Formed the only window-pane. +In the center, on the dirt floor + Stood a table-like affair +Fashioned from a wagon end-gate, + Where Zach spread his scanty fare. + + +10 + +There for weeks lay Billy, helpless, + Racked with mad'ning fever pains, +As the burning sun of summer + Scorches sere the desert plains. +Then he lay with cold, white features + And the feeble, scarce drawn breath, +As the silent winter prairie + Lies beneath its shroud of death. +Ofttimes when the raging sickness + Sent the hot blood to his brain, +He would point with frantic gesture + To the dingy window pane, +Calling in excited mutterings, + Eyes transfixed in frenzied fright-- +"There she is! Now, can't you see her? + See her face there in the light!" + + +11 + +Then old Zach would try to soothe him + In his simple-hearted way; +"She won't hurt you," he would tell him, + "I'll go drive her clear away. +I've seen things--now listen, pardner-- + Those things happened once to me +Once down there in old Dodge City, + Winding up a three weeks' spree. +What you see is jest a 'lusion, + 'Cause you're crazy in your head; +When your thinker's runnin' proper + You'll find 'She' is gone or dead. +There, now, pardner, see what this is! + Ain't it purty? Your tin cup; +Found a little pinch o' coffee. + That's the boy, now, drink it up!" + + +12 + +When the breeze of spring in whispers + Stirred the withered bunch-grass plume, +Humming hymns of resurrection + Over nature's silent tomb, +And the fleeing clouds of heaven, + Bending low at God's command, +Spilled their tribute from the ocean + On the long-forsaken land, +And the sun, with mellow kindness + Spread abroad his softened rays, +Calling bud and blade and blossom + From their sleep of many days, +Billy heard, at last, the music + Of the glad earth's jubilee, +Felt a new strength stir within him, + And a longing to be free. + + +13 + +One day, o'er the hill's low summit, + Whence the prairie dipped away, +There appeared a moving wagon + With its canvas patched and gray, +Like a vessel on the ocean + Under taut and close-reefed sail, +Rising slowly on the billows + Heaped up by the driving gale. +Veering towards the little dug-out, + Making for a friendly shore, +Heaving to, the schooner anchored + Close beside the open door. +Loud and hearty were the greetings, + For the driver of the team +Was Tom Frothingham, a neighbor, + Who had lived near Billy's claim. + + +14 + +Bit by bit he told the story-- + How he'd wandered all around +Since he left his Kansas homestead + And the folks near North Pole mound; +How he'd traveled all through Texas + With the roving fever on, +Camping oft in strange new places, + Where no other soul had gone. +So the news, now half forgotten + In his absence from the place, +Came in broken recollections-- + Careful efforts to retrace +All the incidents of interest + To the sick one listening there, +Who, with pale and careworn features, + Heard the story with despair. + + +15 + +"Three weeks after you left Kansas + I hitched up and came away. +Still, I reckoned you intended + To improve your claim and stay; +For your eighty was a picture-- + Running spring and good clear land-- +Everything a body needed + For a starter, right at hand. +Well, some others left 'fore I did-- + You remember Mac, of course, +How he got the moving notion + When Bill Kelly missed his horse? +Chased him clear to Old Man's crossing, + So I heard the posse say; +Thought they had him fairly cornered, + But, by jings! he got away. + + +16 + +"There are stranger things than fiction; + What is natural may seem queer, +So I s'pose we needn't wonder + At the things we see out here. +One thing happened since you left there + That I call a burning shame-- +Did you know that rope-necked Johnson + Jumped your eighty-acre claim? +Last I saw him, he was plowing, + And he laughed and tried to joke: +Said 'twas kind of you to leave him + All the ground that you had broke; +Said your house was so untidy + He was sleeping out of doors, +Till he got a girl to help him + Wash the pans and scrub the floors. + + +17 + +"Lots of people coming in there + From most every foreign land-- +Massachusetts and Missouri-- + Made a mess I couldn't stand. +Every man that's made of manhood + Wants to live where he is free, +So I'm bound to keep on moving + When they get to crowding me. +Then another thing that happened: + Puzzled every one around +When they heard one morning early, + That Bill Kelly's horse was found. +Aleck Rose told me about it + After I had packed and gone; +Said the mare strayed in the dooryard + With Mac's steel-horn saddle on." + + +18 + +As each day in steady conquest + Charged the ranks of fleeing night, +Winning back the stolen hours + With their golden spears of light; +As the living in all nature + Felt that mighty spirit's sway, +So the sick man caught the power + And his illness wore away. +One clear morning, as Aurora + Silver-tinted all the plain, +In his weatherbeaten saddle + Billy took the trail again. +"Good by, boy," old Zach repeated, + "I'm most sure you'll never see +Any more o' them 'ere 'lusions, + Anyway, what you called 'She.'" + + +19 + +Day by day the low horizon + Spread its narrow circle round, +As if fate had drawn a barrier, + And forbade advance beyond. +Though the journey dragged on slowly, + Night time brought its sure reward, +For the added miles behind him + Stretched at length to Mingo's Ford, +Where the breeze bore from the upland + Broken fragments of the song +Of the cowboy with his cattle, + As he drove the strays along; +Where the voice of flowing water + And the treble of the birds, +Swelled the hallowed evening anthem + To the bass of lowing herds. + + +20 + +Then the trail along the Solomon + Where the timber, making friends +With the ever-widening valley, + Filled the rounded river bends; +Then the rankling recollection, + As he passed some well-known place +Where before, with hope and vigor, + He had sped in fruitless chase. +Then the lonely camp at nightfall, + Where the wind in monotone +Thrummed the harp strings of the grass stems, + Breathing low its song, "Alone!" +Where the stars, fixed in the heavens, + To his upturned face would say, +With their heartless glint of distance, + "She thou seek'st is far away." + + +21 + +Then the long, far-reaching bottoms + Rank with withered blue-joint grass, +With its broken stems entangled + In a matted jungle mass; +Then across the higher prairie, + Searching out a shorter way, +To the creek that joined the river + Where Mac crossed and got away; +Then the twinge of bitter sorrow + As he neared his journey's end, +And beheld the fringe of timber + On the banks of Old Man's bend, +Where no living sign or token + Broke the gloom that brooded there, +Save a solitary buzzard + Floating idly in the air. + + +22 + +From these high and broken hilltops + He could trace the river's flow, +And the creek's untamed meandering, + With its looplike bend below, +Seeming in the light of evening + Like a giant serpent there, +Which had coiled about its victim, + And lay resting in its lair. +Breaking through the tangled brushwood + As the night was coming on, +Creeping down the steep embankment + Where the muddy waters run, +Billy crossed within the timber + Where the shroud of deeper gloom, +And its chilling breath of darkness + Marked the hidden prairie tomb. + + +23 + +As the soul in deep communion, + Seeks some isolated bower +Where the body's sordid cravings + Yield beneath the spirit's power, +So the searcher, bowed in reverence, + Left untouched his evening fare +As he listened to the voices + Of the shadows gathering there. +Here no lighted torch or camp fire + With its weak and fitful ray, +Could illume the mystic journey + Of prayer's consecrated way. +Here the silence brought its message + Of forebodings, vague and deep, +In its visions to the dreamer, + Through the mystery of sleep. + + +24 + +In his dreams he saw a monarch + Decked in sumptuous array, +Seated on a throne of glory, + Bearing royal title, Day. +Then some mighty power transcendent, + Thrust him from his gorgeous throne, +Turning all the realm to darkness, + And the world was left alone. +As the shades of gloom were spreading, + By strange flashing threads of light +He beheld in dim-drawn outline, + On the background of the night, +Phantom horse and girlish rider, + Speeding on in reckless race, +Till she turned directly toward him + And he saw her fearless face. + + +25 + +Then, behold! the King returning + With a pageantry so bright, +That the shadow-clad usurpers + Fled in ignominious fright. +As he saw the hosts approaching + Through a cloud of battle smoke, +Charging wildly down upon him, + He, in sudden fear, awoke. +As he looked, the blackened heavens + Splashed with demon-tinted blood +From the hue of burning prairie + Throbbed above the fiery flood. +Leaping o'er the rounded bluff-tops, + Down the valley's long incline, +He could see the lurid column + Spread its blazing battle line. + + +26 + +Like a troop of charging horsemen + Sweeping on with maddened roar, +Mowing down the grass battalions, + Crackling flames swept all before. +Then the driftwood's rifted breastwork, + Left there by the waters high, +Flashed up in a hissing furnace, + As the red-armed fiends leaped by. +Clinging to the swaying saddle + And the plunging horse's mane, +Billy dashed through falling embers + To the level, open plain. +On the right and left, the head fires + Rushing on at furious pace, +Stretched beside the horse and rider + In the life-and-death-fought race. + + +27 + +Here the gale with venomed fury + Met in vortex from afar, +Raising high the flaming pennons + Of the fiery fiends of war. +Flashing by, the blazing grass stems + Sped like arrows through the air, +Falling on the distant prairie, + Kindling fresh fires everywhere. +Pressing through the low-flung smoke clouds-- + Stifling fumes of Hades' breath-- +Fiercer with each flying moment + Drove those scorching blasts of death. +Thrice his horse, 'neath quirt and rowel + Bravely struggling, almost fell, +As he fled in desperation + O'er the trail that led through hell. + + +28 + +One poor singed and panting coyote + Through the perils of the ride +Hemmed in by the flames pursuing + Ran close by the horse's side. +Scarce a meager pace behind them, + Pressing hard the coyote's rear, +Raced a frantic old jack rabbit, + Ears laid low in speed and fear. +Reaching now a stretch of upland, + Here the coyote changed his course, +Breaking through the narrow side-fire, + Followed fast by hare and horse; +And, upon the smoking prairie + Over which the fire had passed, +Steaming horse and stricken rider + Found a breathing space at last. + +[Illustration: "Fiercer with each flying moment +Drove those scorching blasts of death."] + + +29 + +When the morning sun in splendor + Rose upon the blackened plain, +His red beams revealed the lover + Back at Old Man's Bend again. +Waist deep in its soothing waters + Bathing blistered brow and hands; +While near by, in pain a-tremble, + Faithful Zeb impatient stands. +Through the bend he searched and wandered, + But except the furrowed bark, +Of a gnarled and aged elm tree + Which revealed one bullet-mark, +Naught was left save blackened embers; + And the words he "knew in part"-- +"Dust to dust and then to ashes"-- + Told the story of his heart. + + +30 + +Back along the Solomon River, + Trailing towards the humble claim +He had lost when love and duty + Fired his soul to "being game"; +Back, across the beaver fordway, + Where love first had found the track, +Now returning with the rankling + Sting of hate to bring him back-- +Hate, that hunger made more bitter + When his last jerked beef was gone; +Climbing trees to cut off branches + For his horse to browse upon; +Back, where once the flower-decked prairie, + Spread its bloom of hope and bliss, +Now a blackened field of mourning, + From the fire of one sweet kiss. + + +31 + +Till one day, he saw beyond him, + In the distance, purple crowned, +That old monarch of the prairie, + Guard of ages, North Pole Mound. +Then the field where Zeb and Simon + Pulled the old sod-breaking plow +Stretching like a narrow ribbon + On the land that lay below. +Now the horse's steps grew lighter + As he passed each well-known sign +Of the old familiar landscape, + And they crossed the eighty's line, +Where the spring of running waters + Gave envenomed purpose birth, +As he drank its bubbling offering + From the pulsing heart of earth. + + +32 + +Then, ascending from the hollow, + Full before his eyes appeared +Home--his home--the low-walled sodhouse + Which his toiling hands had reared. +Near the straw shed stood the wagon + He had brought from Wichita, +And beneath the grass-fringed gable + Hung his trusty crosscut saw. +In the dooryard, near the window, + Lay the broken homemade chair, +Where, at evening, love-born fancies + Revelled, as he rested there; +Love, whose scattered seed had fallen + On a mystic field of fate, +Where the tangled vine extending + Bore the bitter fruit of hate. + + +33 + +Hurrying nearer, he dismounted, + Trembling with the rage he felt, +As he cast aside the bridle + And drew taut his cartridge belt. +Throwing down his torn sombrero, + There, before the tight-closed door, +On the cowardly usurper + Loud and bitter vengeance swore. +"Come, you dirty, green-scummed scoundrel, + With your sneaking 'plan or two'! +Just come out, you rope-necked buzzard! + See how far you'll put them through. +You can keep the eighty acres, + Hell will write your pedigree, +But I'll rub your crooked nose-piece + In the dirt you stole from me. + + +34 + +"Come outside, you sneaking coyote! + If you've got a drop of man +In your greasy, thieving carcass, + Finish up what you began." +Fiercer grew his coarse invective, + Louder yet his taunting calls, +When no answer to his challenge + Came from out the low sod walls. +Uncontrolled, his furious anger + Spoke in quick and murderous roar +As he pumped his old six-shooter + Through the barred and bolted door. +When he paused the rude door opened, + And before its splintered place +Stood the vision of the shadows, + And he saw Her fearless face. + + +35 + +As the artist in his painting + Plans the background to enhance +All the beauty of his subject + Both in pose and countenance, +So the poor and dark interior + Lent its gloom to magnify +All the power and witching beauty + Of her face and lustrous eye. +Standing there, a pictured goddess + Sketched against a lowering storm, +Bearing on her pallid features + That supernal gift of calm. + + +36 + +"Nancy! Woman! God in heaven, + Speak, girl! Can this thing be true? +Are you here with that--that scoundrel, + After all that I've gone through? +Do you stand there, fiend or human, + After lending him your hand, +First to break an honest spirit, + Then to steal away my land? +Must a man who loves a woman + Like a devil's imp be driven +Through the tortures of damnation + For a single glimpse of heaven? +Tell me where the cur is hiding-- + I've no wish to hurt his bride, +But I'll braid a twelve-foot bull whip + From his dirty, yaller hide! + + +37 + +"Speak to me and tell me, woman, + How the God in heaven above +Starts the fires of hell a-burning + From a spark of human love; +Why He ever made a woman + Who could play a fickle part; +Why He ever made a fellow + With his soul tied to his heart; +Why He made life just a gamble-- + I can't talk the way I feel-- +In the game that I've been playing, + You know this ain't no square deal! +I will go away and leave you, + But 'twould kind o' ease the pain +If you'd only tell me, Nancy-- + If you'd try--to--just explain. + +[Illustration: "Standing there, a pictured goddess +Sketched against a lowering storm."] + + +38 + +"If you wouldn't stand there looking + With a face of livid white +Like the specter of the prairie + That I saw one horrid night, +Riding through the endless darkness + Like a being doomed from birth +Just to roam outside of heaven + And denied a place on earth. +Say one word to me! Speak, Nancy, + If you have a voice and live! +Tell the worst, e'en though you ask me + To be patient and forgive. +I will listen--I will suffer-- + I will do the best I can; +Nancy, sweetheart! hear the pleading + Of a broken-hearted man," + + +39 + +"See here, Billy! You gone crazy? + Charging like you got a fit? +Johnson ain't in--just at present-- + Won't you stop and rest a bit? +Don't act strange. There's no hard feelings, + Though I've never seen before +Any man that knocked like you did + On a peaceful neighbor's door. +Come right in; now, don't be backward, + Like old times to have _you_ 'round! +You look tired, like you'd traveled + Over quite a stretch of ground. +Sit right here in this old rocker; + Johnson fixed it up one day, +Feeling certain you would never + Come meandering 'round this way. + + +40 + +"Don't get up and act uneasy, + Rest yourself, now, if you can, +You don't mind me like Jim Johnson-- + He's a most obedient man. +You went off and left your eighty, + Roaming where the luck-wind blows, +Like a tumbleweed in winter, + Where you've been, Lord only knows. +While Jim's gone we'll talk together, + As we used to, months ago, +When I tried to quench the burning + Of a love I didn't know. +Listen, Billy, while I tell you + All about my 'fickle part'; +When I'm done you may know better + How God made a woman's heart. + + +41 + +"While you're resting, I'll get supper, + Though there ain't much here to eat, +'Cepting bran, to make some muffins, + And a little rabbit meat. +Wish I had that pinch of coffee + I saved up for--oh, so long, +Till one day I went and used it, + Though I somehow felt 'twas wrong; +For I kind o' thought that sometime + Some one might be coming here +Worn out with a long, long journey, + And would crave that kind o' cheer. +Now, then, Billy, draw your stool up; + What we've got is scant and plain-- +I ain't hungry--honest--Billy, + While you eat--why--I'll 'explain.'" + + + + +NANCY'S STORY + + +1 + +"I went off and left you, Billy, + 'Cause I'm used to being free, +And I love my dear old daddie-- + He has been so good to me. +Ever since I learned to toddle + We've been living on the run, +And my first and only playthings + Were a saddle and a gun. +When I went away with daddie, + After trav'ling nigh a week, +We were caught up by the posse + In the bend on Old Man's Creek. +Think I'd let them take my daddie? + No: I held them all at bay, +While the boys hitched up the horses, + Crossed the creek and got away. + + +2 + +"I just told them I would follow + After all the fuss was through, +But instead, all night I wandered, + Thinking all the time of you; +For when we were last together + You cast over me a spell +That just seemed to change my nature, + In a way that words can't tell; +For it left a fire a-burning + Like a live and glowing coal, +That at length blazed into longing + Till I craved with all my soul +To be back, somehow, where you were, + And to hear you tell once more +That you loved me. That man-story + I had never heard before. + + +3 + +"Then I trailed back o'er the prairie, + Riding steady every night, +Picking out the wildest country + With my luck to guide me right. +When I'd see the hungry morning + Eat the stars up in the East, +I would hide in gulch or timber + Like a wild and hunted beast. +How I learned to love the darkness + As it spread its mighty arm, +Close around me, like a lover, + Fondly shielding me from harm! +And I knew the sweet caresses + Of the earth and sky above, +As the night's mysterious voices + Soothed me with their tale of love. + + +4 + +"Then I'd ride like forty devils + Just to catch upon my face +All the kisses which the tempest + Pressed upon me in the race. +How I thought of poor old daddie, + Whom, perhaps, I'd see no more +If I went clear back to your place, + While he hurried on before! +I could hardly bear the burden + When I'd think of--both of you; +But that fire you set a-burning, + One night told me what to do-- +I would see and ask you, Billy, + If you wouldn't go with me +Where we both could be with daddie, + Way out West, where he must be. + + +5 + +"Then at last the night that loved me, + Turned its pent-up furies loose, +Roaring out on me its anger + And unpitying abuse. +How the rain beat down upon me! + How the lightning burned its track +Through the clouds of storm and thunder + As I reached your sod-walled shack! +All was dark within, and quiet, + When I rapped upon the door. +Then I saw the flash of matches + And the lamplight on the floor; +Heard you stomp your heavy boots on, + Heard you walk and draw the bar, +But the door, when thrown wide open, + Showed Jim Johnson standing thar. + + +6 + +"'What you doing here?' I shouted, + When I saw his hateful leer; +'Tell me what this means, Jim Johnson. + Where is Billy? Ain't he here?' +He was standing on the doorstep, + And the light that shone within +Seemed to twist his wrinkled features + In a sort of wonder-grin. +'Well! well! Nancy! sure's I'm livin'! + Out there in the pouring wet! +Sure I'll care for you, Miss Nancy, + I'll protect you, don't you fret! +I'm a friend that you can count on, + Does me good to see your face! +Come in, gal, and dry your garments, + You have struck the very place!' + + +7 + +"You don't blame me, do you, Billy, + If I did go in and stay, +Warming by your stove and fire, + Just to hear what he would say? +I will try to tell his story + As he told it, if I can, +Putting in what I remember + Of his 'interesting plan.' +'Now, then, gal, I heard you calling + As you stood there in the dark, +On a fellow, named Bill Truly, + But you shot 'way off the mark. +Billy ain't here now, and further, + He won't be here, you can bet; +Anyhow, that's what he told me + Two weeks past, when we last met. + + +8 + +"'When your folks all skipped the country + I decided I'd move, too; +Thought perhaps you'd get in trouble + And I'd try to help you through; +So I got beyond the posse, + Rode like fire upon your track, +Found your dad, and _you_ not with him, + So I turned and came right back. +Riding home along the Solomon,-- + For the truth I pledge my word-- +I met Billy with his horses + Three miles east of Mingo's Ford. +Stopped and shook my hand and told me + He was so far on his way +To a ranch 'way up in Utah, + Where he'd made his plans to stay. + + +9 + +"'Said he wanted to be friendly, + So the things that he had left, +If I cherished no hard feelings, + I could look on as his gift. +"If you come across Miss Nancy + You can say to her for me, +That I've got another sweetheart, + And that she is wholly free." +Billy'd never do to tie to-- + He's too fickle, gal, for you-- +So I just propose to offer + You a man that will stay true. +I have worked it out, Miss Nancy-- + It's the problem of my life; +I have planned that you shall stay here + As my own dear little wife.' + + +10 + +"'Look here, Johnson! You're a liar, + When you say he's set me free! +When you met him there at Mingo's + He had gone to hunt for me. +Don't you dare to touch me, scoundrel! + Don't you dare to slur his name! +You're a cur--a thief--Jim Johnson! + You have jumped my sweetheart's claim. +Don't you dare to venture near me! + Or you'll wish you'd not begun. +All your schemes and double dealings, + All your hatched-up plans are done. +You start now and pack your fixin's! + Don't you leave the smallest bit! +Every filthy thing you own here, + Pack it up--you dog, and _git!_' + + +11 + +"He was standing there uncertain, + And I felt to clinch his throat; +But, instead, I shot--to scare him-- + All the buttons off his coat. +Then I pumped two in the corner, + Where he'd sunk down on his knees-- +Slit his ear and cut his collar, + Never listening to his pleas. +Told him if he didn't mosey + I would plant his carcass whole, +In a grave I'd dig that evening + On the eighty he had stole. +Then he promised, but I chased him + 'Way across the old Saline, +And so far as I have knowledge, + He has never since been seen. + + +12 + +"When I got back here 'fore morning, + Thought of having Kelly's mare, +So I rode her to his stable + And I left her standing there. +For I knew that you'd consider + Twas the proper thing to do, +If you came back here and found me + Holding down your claim for you. +But I felt right sorry, Billy, + When I looked around next day, +In the box there in the corner + Where the pans and dishes lay; +For in fixing for my breakfast, + My! the crockery was slim! +More than half of it was busted + By the bullets fired at Jim: + +[Illustration: "But, instead, I shot, to scare him, +All the buttons off his coat."] + + +13 + +"I forgot to tell you, Billy, + That for thirteen months or more, +You're the only man that's ever + Crossed the threshold of that door. +I have stayed alone and waited, + Full of faith that you would come, +So that I--might go to daddie, + And that you'd--have back your home. +Though perhaps I've sometimes suffered + From the cold and from the heat, +And I've gone for days together, + Here, without a bite to eat, +'Twasn't hunger of the body + That I craved to satisfy, +I was starved for--you--and daddie, + As the weary weeks trailed by. + + +14 + +"How I tried to think and reason + Why the fire from one caress +Turned my burning, yearning spirit + To a cinder of distress. +Some one told me, I remember, + Long ago when I was small, +God made every star up yonder, + Everything--the world and all. +Then I thought that in His workshop, + Up there in the heavens above, +He had made that curious hunger + Of the heart that we call love. +P'r'aps my troubles and the waiting + Stirred me to this queer-like whim; +But I couldn't help it, Billy, + I just had to talk to Him. + + +15 + +"In the night, when God wa'n't busy + And could hear the slightest sound, +I would venture from my hiding + To the top of North Pole Mound. +I was sure He'd never let His + Angels come out this-a-way, +But would use the wind to carry, + Prayers out here, that people pray. +So I'd hold my hands, and stopping + Gusts that tried to struggle free, +Tell them this here simple message + They must take to you from me: +'Please, dear God, won't you tell Billy + That I'm holding down his claim? +He don't come 'cause he's in trouble. + Thank you, God. He ain't to blame.'" + + +16 + +Long before her honest story + Faltered to its hallowed close, +Pushing back his untouched supper, + Tremblingly her guest arose. +Vain for him to curb emotion, + Or to stammer out his praise +Through a storm of rude devotion, + Cast in halting human phrase. +Vain for him to frame a message + Never meant for words to tell, +At the joy of reaching heaven + By that trail that led through hell. +But his fervent benediction + Was a passionate embrace, +And the Amen love's own ending, + As he kissed her fearless face. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NANCY MACINTYRE*** + + +******* This file should be named 13560.txt or 13560.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/5/6/13560 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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