J 



SPUD AND JADY. 



AMATEUR PHOTO 8Y L. W. STACY. 



stuck in his yawp to say there was green 

 "graws" in the hills, and that Dock Helmer 

 had told him geese and ducks were appear- 

 ing, a thing he — Helmer — had never seen 

 before in February! And had not he just 

 been expatiating to his guest of his and 

 Helmer's unparalleled experiences in those 

 glorious open winters of the buffalo days! 

 Helmer, too, was going back on him! 



And through the open window, from 

 over the stretches of sage-grown flats, 

 badlands and benches, came ever the soft 

 Pacific wind that at most unexpected 

 times had blown and blown since Decem- 

 ber. How sweet the odor of the new 

 earth and the spirit-healing scent of the 

 balm of Gilead! Maybe Lucky had been 

 wont to exaggerate about the old time 

 open winters, but he'd stand no more of 

 that sort of thing at his own board! 



Then came the distant boom of a shot 

 gun! Shortly thereafter a pair of husky 

 colts came from the direction of the 

 meadow, driverless, careening wildly, drag- 

 ging part of the overturned wagon. They 

 sailed through the lot and plunged, a mass 

 of tangled wheels, harness and broken 

 bars, at the horse corral. Lucky's pent-up 

 wrath found vent. The kitchen door was 

 softly closed, and the frightened women 

 who peered from the window prayed that 

 the luckless Yankee ranchman, who, hat- 

 less, bearing his one poor duck and gun, 

 might delay somehow his steps and the 

 awful penalties that "ought to overtake 



him and an old fool who'd hire 



a tenderfoot to handle bronchs." 



While they extricated the team from the 

 wreck the old man's final crimson-phloxed 



"hellyedids" and "hellyewills" still hurtled; 

 and timidly, for the nonce, comely Mollie 

 came forth and examined the duck and es- 

 sayed to pour oil on the troubled waters. 



"Why, colonel, (Mollie always addressed 

 him as colonel) this mallard's big and fat! 

 Looks like they hain't commenced to nest 

 yit. If there was more of him I would 

 have him in our — forsooth, our — patent 

 roaster for Sunday dinner." 



And it came to pass that while the crest- 

 fallen ranchman mended broken gear and 

 moralized, and in extenuation explained 

 again to the women how "the medder was 

 black with pintails and mallards," and he 

 couldn't withstand the temptation to pot 

 enough for a mess, to vary the monotony 

 of beef and bacon; and how when he had 

 tried to approach the fool colts again they 

 smelled the gun or something, got "snor- 

 ty" and scattered on him. Lucky took 

 down his hammerless that had hung un- 

 cared-for many a day. The next day was 

 the Sabbath, and the foreman was up from 

 the cow camp for dinner. There was roast 

 duck; duck with onion sturTin'; duck with 

 wild plum jelly; and as they sat at meat 

 one spake and said, 



"I reckon we will have the earliest grass 

 since '81." Given courage, another reck- 

 oned the buds were swelling. At the same 

 feast it fell out that Buck and Twobelly 

 never hurt a thing when they ran and 

 would soon be as gentle as cats again. 

 And Lucky Smith said to his foreman, 



"Would you mind sending Spud over to 

 the old B bar this evening after Jady?" 



When he was alone with his after-dinner 

 pipe he soliloquized, 



262 



