448 



RECREA TION. 



kers's shoulder turned him around facing 

 him. 



" Dol," he said again. A blank look 

 spread itself over the tramp's face. 



" Guess yer made er mistake, Pard," he 

 said in a curiously quivering voice. ' Thet 



ain't my " He tried to finish. " Thet 



ain't my " He choked a little, his throat 



seemed to fill. Tears gathered in his eyes. 

 He struggled for utterance. Finally he 

 managed to say, in a broken voice, " Sam, 



don't! I can't stand it! let me go! Dol is 

 dead — dead this many a year — don't open 

 old graves." 



" Dol " — and Ten Gage's voice trembled; 

 " I never gave you up." Throwing his arm 

 over the ragged shoulders, he drew the man 

 away, down the beach. 



The Idiot was the first to break the si- 

 lence. " It's his brother! Good night 

 boys," and he disappeared in the tent where, 

 without a word, the others followed. 



A WEDDING TOUR IN THE ROCKIES. 



MRS. IRA DODGE. 



" Mr. Ira Dodge and Miss Sarah E. Slate 

 were married at Bozeman on the 4th inst. 

 Miss Slate was married in her riding habit, 

 and after the ceremony mounted a horse to 

 accompany her husband to Wyoming, 

 where he has a ranch. The wedding jour- 

 ney will be fully 200 miles, on horseback, 

 into a country where houses are not to be 

 found in a day's ride." — Bozeman, Mon- 

 tana, Chronicle. 



We had arranged to immediately take up 

 our abode in one of the wildest spots of the 

 Rocky mountains, where large and small 

 game was abundant. We had directed that 

 all our effects, household and personal, 

 should follow us by team, and so we took 

 little with us. We had a good camp outfit, 

 tent, bedding, stove, plenty of provisions, 

 good warm clothing, and 9 horses. 



We left Bozeman in the afternoon, Oc- 

 tober 4, 1892, somewhat in advance of the 

 pack-train, but Charles, our helper, soon 

 overtook us with that, and shortly afterward 

 the first camp was made, 8 miles from town. 



Our journey the next day was through 

 the prosperous Gallatin valley; we had not 

 yet reached the wilderness. Charles left us 

 at noon, going back to town. An early 

 camp was made beside a mighty monarch 

 of the forest which had fallen by the chop- 

 per's hand, and a pleasant place it was. A 

 pack-train passed us, on its way down, 

 loaded with elk meat. The elk had been 

 killed in the basin toward which we were 

 journeying, only a few miles farther on. 



The second morning was a trying one. 

 When we would get the horses into our im- 

 provised corral, my pet horse would break 

 through and that would start the others. 

 Finally we drove -them several miles to a 

 ranch and corralled them there. My horse 

 jumped the corral and ran off, so I had to 

 ride another that had never before been 

 ridden by a woman, but she behaved all 

 right; not a wrong move all day. She after- 



ward became my pet mare and never devi- 

 ated from her good behavior of that day. 



By the time we returned to camp, got the 

 horses packed and were ready to start, it 

 was after 12 o'clock. We moved along 

 briskly until we reached the Gallatin river, 

 which was forded and the trail taken up on 

 the other side. 



It was indeed a trail! Over huge bowl- 

 ders, through shale or slide rock, up one 

 steep hill and down another, across small 

 streams that came dashing down the moun- 

 tain to join the river, finally emerging for 

 a breathing spell into open space, only to 

 go again through similar scenes. 



Night found us at the " Basin," a ranch 



owned by a Mr. M . We camped in a 



cabin nearby and spent the evening at his 

 house. 



We did not leave camp until 11 o'clock, 

 for good camps could be found anywhere 

 in the next 20 miles, and the previous day's 

 ride had been a very hard one for the horses 

 as well as ourselves. We put a pack on one 

 horse that had never packed before. Now, 

 sometimes there is plenty of fun in doing 

 something of this kind, and you are able to 

 pick up the contents of that pack for miles 

 around, but we took much precaution to 

 avoid this. We blind-folded the horse, 

 held him carefully, and when all was ready, 

 turned him loose. He turned around a few 

 times, tried to run, gave it up and that 

 ended it. He was a good pack horse from 

 that on. The day was uneventful as was also 

 the following, and on October 9th, after an 

 early start we reached the divide, or water- 

 shed of the Gallatin and Madison rivers. 

 The divide is quite low, surprisingly so to 

 me, and I scarcely realized when we crossed 

 it. 



Now came some rough riding, up steep 

 pitches and down, crossing and recrossing 

 streams, finally traveling along right in the 

 water, through the brusri and over fallen 

 trees, until we came to a nice little park, or 



