ROCKY MOUNTAIN GRASSHOPPERS 



The stage carried but a single passenger, a 

 wealthy old bachelor from the East, who had 

 come west to look after his mortgages and land- 

 interests. When the stage stopped the old man 

 climbed out to stretch his legs and shake the 

 dust of travel from his clothing, while the driver 

 fed and watered his horses. He looked at the 

 little girl as she curiously stared at him from 

 under her sunbonnet, with her large gray eyes 

 and little pinched and hungry face. 



In a short time the kind face and friendly 

 manner of the old man won Ella's confidence 

 and before she really knew what she was saying 

 he had learned all about her home and her own 

 life how very hungry she was and that her 

 mother had used the last portion of corn-meal 

 for their breakfast, which was the only article of 

 food they had tasted for some days, and that 

 there was no fuel with which to cook anything, 

 not even cow-chips, as the droppings from the 

 cattle are called, which often made up the bulk 

 of fuel during these years of privation for the 

 plains farmer. She had secretly hoped that her 

 father would be able to send a box of good 

 things to eat by that day's stage, but the driver 

 [263] 



