Dec, 2 4; 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
BOS 
lie explained, with' exasperating deliberation. 
"Oh, such a gun as Tom Hale's or — a— why, such a gun 
as this" ; she opened the door of the bar and pointed at 
Dick's rifle, 
"Why, that 'ere is a rifle ; it's Tom's or is 't Dick's— 
haint it or haint it?" 
"Yes, yes, but haow du you fix it?" she said hur- 
riedly. 
"Oh, I'd just start the sight a leetle grain," he an- 
swered, with longing eyes on the row of bottles. 
"Oh, you du it, Billy, an' I'll du anything for you— 
quick! I want tu come a joke on him !" 
Her eagerness overcame her womanly fear of the gun 
and she placed it in his hands ; then laying her own upon 
the bottle of Old Jamaica, added, "An' you can have a 
pull at this 'ere." 
Though Billy did not need this further incitement to do 
her bidding, it had its effects in hastening his movements, 
and taking his jack-knife from his pocket he knocked the 
back sight almost imperccptably to one side. Then he 
replaced the rifle and took a generous draught from the 
bottle without waiting for the medium of a glass. Susan 
recorked it, and was returning it to its shelf when he 
arrested her with an outstretched hand. 
"An', naow, jest another swaller, Suky! A little haint 
much, and twicte haint often. The oT man is pooty 
savin' o' the grog he gives away." 
She gave him the bottle again with some misgivings, not 
lessened as the upturned bottle arose to a .sharper slant 
and he still held his breath in the improvement of a rare 
opportunity. It was cut short by the sound of the land- 
lord's footsteps pounding an adjacent floor, and the two 
conspirators retreated, Susan to the kitchen, Billy to the 
hearth, where he was ostentatiously mending the fire, 
when Phineas Dayton entered the room. 
The ordinary balance of Billy's body on its one sound 
leg was somewhat disturbed by the unusual weight of 
his potations, and he came near pitching headlong on to 
the blazing back log. Then in the violent struggle to re- 
cover himself he overdid the point, and sat down heavily 
on the hearth. 
"What the devil be you up to naow, Billy Cole?" the 
landlord demanded, coming to a sudden halt behind him. 
"Up to nothin', Phineas," Billy answered huskily, star- 
ing owlishly at the fire, "settin' daown I be, a-tryin' for 
tu warm my feet." 
"Jes naow it was your head you was tryin' tu Warm, 
an' come mighty nigh it! Why, man alive, you're drunk! 
An' where in time d ye git your liquor? Ah, I see!" as 
his eyes slowly ranged the room and discovered the for- 
gotten key in the lock. "Haow dumb careless I be ! Key 
in the bar, hostler in the fire, an' the devil to pay gen'ral- 
ly ! Say, Billy Cole, the's somebody a-comin' an' I haint 
goin' tu hev 'em see you floppin' 'round drunk this time o' 
the mornin'. You git int' your bunk." 
With that he threw open the seat of the settle, which 
enclosed the ostler's nightly couch, and lifting him from 
the floor, dropped him therein and shut down the seat in 
spite of the poor fellow's feeble resistance and more vigor- 
ous protests. This was but jtist done when Tom and Dick 
returned, and the latter was given his rifle. 
"Goin' tu try your luck, haint you, Tom?" Phineas 
asked, cheerily. 
"Wal, it's mighty mean business, Mr. Dayton, but I 
be a-goin' tu," Tom answered, desperately, at the same 
time making a mental reservation that he would not abide 
by the terms of the match unless it resulted in his favor, 
which was hardly fair, save as all things are so in love 
and war. 
"Wal, then, it's 10 o'clock, an' time you tew was off. 
May the best man win, but haowever it turns aout, we'll 
hev pa'tridges for aour Chris'mas dinner, for I cal'late 
you'll both on you du your pootiest." 
With this Phineas opened the door and the pair went 
forth, each betaking himself to his favorite hunting 
ground, and inwardly wishing the other the worst kind of 
luck. As he watched their departure, the landlord chuck- 
led till his fat sides "shook, and he said to himself: "I'll 
git a mess o' pa'tridges anyway, an' it won't make no 
odds." Then he took Billy from the box and with a 
sharp admonition bundled him off on unequal, devious 
legs to the stable. 
Susan ran straight to her cousin with the fruits of her 
eaves-dropping, but prudently withheld her share in the 
plot, for she was not sure which suitor was most in favor 
with Dorothy, who was something of a flirt. 
"Did you ever hear of anybody so mean as father?" 
Dorothy cried, shedding tears of shame and vexation. 
"A-setin' up his own flesh and blood to be shot for, like 
a hen-turkey ! If he don't care no more 'n that who gits 
me I won't hev nobody he wants me tu — not nary one of 
'em — Dick Barrett was fast enough for it, was he? Well, 
he won't git me if he gits a back load o' pa'tridges. 1 can 
tell him that ! An' wa'n't Tom noble, talkin' to father the 
way he did ! It ought to shamed him. Don't you 
b'lieve Tom will try? Oh, I wish he would beat — only I 
wouldn't hev him — not for that." 
"Oh, I- guess he will, an' if he don't, I guess it'll be all 
right," said Susan, delighted to find how favorably the 
wind blew. Yet she must put in a word for her heart's 
choice, "But I tell you he'll hafter be smart if he beats 
Dick. They say the' haint his equal nowhere for shootin'. 
And oh, if he haint han'some! Be you goin' tu tell your 
mother, Dorothy?" 
"The idee! She'd jest hev a conniption." 
The girls interspersed the busy preparations for Christ- 
mas with frequent whispered colloquies, while one openly 
wished for the triumph of her lover, the other, secretly, 
for the defeat of her beloved. 
The swinging stride of Tom's long legs and the quicker 
movement's of Dick's shorter ones carried the' young 
men at a lively pace over the light snow that covered the 
earth and still lay undisturbed on every twig and branch, 
where it had found lodgment. They reached their hunt- 
ing grounds at about the same time. Under the river- 
side hemlocks, to which Dick went, the white carpet of 
the woods was thickly embroidered with the footprints of 
a pack of ruffed grouse, and stealthy stalking soon 
brought him to a fair shot of one member, making itself 
as motionless as one of the knots of the log whereon it 
stood, and as like them as one to another, but for the cOp- 
ing of snow they bore. The immobility and the likeness 
were still preserved after the sharp report rang through 
the woods, and the harmless bullet cast up a shower of 
snow two rods beyond the head, which was its mark. But 
at the motions of reloading the bird took alarm and went 
off like a rocket, as did the others, after being successively 
missed, and then the remainder of the pack followed far 
into, the depths of the woods. Thoroughly disgusted with 
his marksmanship, but still hoping to retrieve it, Dick 
went in pursuit of them, and after long and careful 
search discovered one perched within easy range on a 
branch of hemlock. 
He rested his rifle against a convenient tree, and aimed 
with most deliberate care, but the shot was as unsuccess- 
ful as the previous ones. The next chance he determined 
to run no risk of losing by "a shot at so small a mark 
as the head or neck, and therefore aimed at the middle of 
the breast, which squarely fronted him. The bird came 
down with a gyrating flutter, and when Dick picked it up 
he found that the ball had struck the butt Of one wing, a 
hit so wide of his careful aim that he at once suspected 
the cause, and an examination of the sight verified the 
suspicion. He did not mistrust that any one had tampered 
with his gun, and only blamed himself for not sooner dis- 
covering what was wrong with it. Yet, now that it was 
set right, fortune did not. favor him, for though he soon 
got another shot and neatly decapitated the bird, the 
sharpest hunting till the woods grew dark with coming 
nightfall failed to bring him another chance. 
So he took the homeward way with little disposition to 
show his meager spoils, except for a faint hope that 
fortune might have been as unfriendly to his rival as, to 
himself. 
Tom began hunting on the southward slope of a hill 
dotted with a second growth of white birches and low- 
branched young pines, sheltered from the breath of north- 
CONSPIRATORS. 
era air that was sharp though barely astir, and warmed 
by all the slanted sunbeams of the winter day. Here the 
snow was printed with numerous dainty tracks of grouse 
that had come from the denser woods to bask in the sun- 
shine in the lee of the pines. In three such sunny nooks 
Tom found as many birds and neatly cut off their heads. 
Then at least a dozen took alarm, and with successive 
bursts of mimic thunder and accompanying showers of 
snow, from every intervening bough went hurtling into 
the cover of the woods. Tom skulked after them, stealthy 
and silent as a lynx, and finding some aperch, motionless 
as the branches which held them, his bullets gave good 
accounts of all so found save one through carelessness be- 
got by continual success. 
In other covers he found a few more scattered birds, 
and when the shadows thickened in the woods till the 
notch of the rear sight was blotted out he set his face to- 
ward home, with a bunch of nine grouse slung over his 
shoulder. Yet this comforting burden did not give him 
assurance of victory, for he knew that he had a doughty 
competitor pitted against him, and had heard the report of 
Dick's rifle during the day as often as his own. 
Night had fallen when he reached the tavern, which was 
aglow with firelight and lamplight, a hospitable beacon 
to neighbors and wayfarers. Some of these, gossips and 
strangers, were gathered in the bar room when he entered 
it, after hanging his game in a safe, secret place. The 
landlord leaned against the bar, awaiting the orders of 
thirsty guests, and Billy Cole sat on the bunk, sadly sober 
now, with his lantern beside him in sullen readiness to 
answer a call to the stable. 
"Hello, Tom !" Phineas hailed the newcomer, noting 
with a shade of disappointment that he carried only his 
gun. "Did you git more 'n you could lug hum. An' Dick, 
he haint come in yet. I hope ye haint shot him." 
Nevertheless Dick was in the kitchen at that moment,, to 
which he had covertly come, hoping to have a word with 
Dorothy, but fate so ordered that Susan was first to meet 
hirn at the door, 
"Why, Dick Barrett! is them all you got?" she ex- 
claimed in a pitiful voice that her delighted face belied 
when she saw 7 his paltry trophies. "Naow haint it tew 
bad! An' you've be'n a-huntin' all day an' haint hed a 
single maou'ful to eat. " Naow you set your gun in the 
corner — ugh ! I wouldn't da'st tu tech it for all the world 
— an' you come right int' the butt'ry an' git you a bite. 
Aunt Mahaly's up stars a-helpiri' Dor' thy prink— goin' tu 
the duin's tu the meetin' haouse long, wi' Tom Hale, 1 
guess — it'll take her V her mother a good haour tu fix 
her up. There, lake right a holt an' help yourself. The' 
haint much, hut it'll keep you from starvin'." 
He was hungry and grateful, and withal Susan had 
never looked so pretty. Out of gratitude and admiration 
a new flame sprang up in his heart, so fervent that before 
his supper was finished he was telling his love to a new 
sweetheart. When he presented himself before Phineai- 
Dayton, half an hour later, the landlord was a good deal 
surprised that he should accept defeat with such equanim- 
ity, but far more so when told that he had won the neice 
and no longer desired the daughter. 
"Wal, wal, if this 'ere haint a devil of a haow-d'-yc-du," 
forcing a chop-fallen smile, while the two young fellows 
shook hands and exchanged hearty congratulations. "It 
'pears as if I'd sold my birthright o' gals for a mess o' 
pa'tridges! I wonder what in time Mahaly'll say? Wal. 
to-morrer we'll feast an' be merry, an' nex' day you'll 
hitch the gray mare out' the shay, Billy Cole, an' I'll go 
a-lumtin' hired gals. Cuss the luck! Come, gentlemen, 
all hands walk up tu the bar an' take a holt. It's my 
treat." Rowland E. Robinson. 
The Christmas of Ar-kee-kee-tah. 
Grim and gray, the sage plains swept away to the down 
hanging dome of the sky, so blue, so deeply blue overhead 
and fading to a haze where it met the butte-lined horizon 
where the snow lay. 
Peace. Peace brooding over a hell of desert and storm- 
wrecked desolation. The land where time leaves off and 
eternity begins. Here are gathered together surely all 
the leavings of a creation, the fag ends and trimmings 
that came from a finished world. It is 1,000 miles across 
it from sunrise to sunset. It is another 1,000 miles across 
it from the lodge of the springtime to the lodge of the 
frost — aye, and 1,000 more miles beyond to the edge ot 
the winter country, and beyond that? No man knows. . 
"To-night a great star will hang over this desolation. 
It will shine blue and red and white, and it will be a 
signal fire in the sky. A-a-a-nah ! It will be a signal 
fire, Snugwillimie. Listen, Ar-kee-kce-tah, the one of 
wise thoughts, listen and I will speak the tale. 
"To-day we are to kill that to-morrow we may feast, for 
to-morrow is Christmas with my people, and hot guns 
to-day speak of much meat for feast day. And the feast 
\s because of this, Wise Thoughts, and so I speak the 
tale. 
"When all the world was small, there was a. tribe of 
many people in a land many days' travel across the great 
water, and they lived for many summers in a great coun- 
try like this one, but where there was no sage like grows 
here. 
"Time went on and these people worked much bad medi- 
cine and cast many spells so that no man was safe, and 
evil looked from each man's eye. There was much said 
only with the tongue and not with the thoughts from 
the heart. No man was safe because of the wickedness of 
all the people. 
"Then the medicine men made medicine and worked 
many spells to help them, and they said a great chief 
would come who would tell the people of their evil ways 
and that he would make strong medicine to show that 
he knew. A light would be set in the sky as a signal fire 
and all men were to bow down to the great one who would 
be chief under the star, and his medicine would be strong 
and good against all evil spirits. 
"Now, when the medicine men said these things, there 
were young men who said they talked double and did not 
know. No chief would come and no light should be set in 
the sky as a sign, they said. 
"Some thought the words of the medicine men were 
true, and they watched for the sign and waited. 
"Then one night a great light was set in the sky, be- 
cause the chief had come in the form of a new-born child, 
for he was a medicine chief, and wanted to grow up with 
his people, so he would know how to work spells against 
evil. 
"That, Wise Thoughts, was so long ago that no man 
lives who saw it, but the story is told yet in the white 
man's lodge, and we know it was so. The time was the 
first snow moon when as many days as five times the 
fingers of one hand had gone by — and to-day is lacking 
one day of the time, Wise Thoughts. 
"Time went on. The chief grew, and by and by he was 
a man. He had strong medicine — so strong that he could 
lay his hand on a man whose leg was dry and useless 
like the leg of a deer that has been shot high, and goes 
on three legs afterward, and say to such a man, "Walk," 
and the man walked. So strong was the great medicine 
that the chief walked on water like we walk on the land. 
A-a-a-nah ! 
"Many things were done to show by this sign that the 
star chief was good, but there was much evil in the land, 
and a time came when the wicked men came in a body, 
and after a time they nailed the chief to the torture post 
with big spikes and tortured him with a head band of 
thorns like these on the no-water plant here. 
"And so, Wise Thoughts, the great chief died, but that 
was to be, and His spirit rose and went up to the star 
where He still lives, and now the star hangs in the sky 
that men may know it is a true tale. By His magic the 
great chief can drive away evil spells, and if you make 
strong medicine, talk to Him when you are in trouble, or 
when your feet take you on a wrong trail, then if you be- 
lieve in the Star Chief and His medicine, He will help 
you and evil spells cannot be cast against you. 
"That, Wise Thoughts^ is why we who are of the white 
skin call this day Christmas, and make it feast day and 
make presents to the little ones that they may remember 
it always. Is it not a good tale?" 
"A-a-a-nah ! It is a good tale, Snugwillimie T'solo, the 
white wanderer, it is a good tale, and for the feast of the 
Star Chief we will kill meat to-day on the gray desert. 
It is a good feast day, a good medicine feast, and I will 
eat meat at your feet, and it will be my feast too, for I 
know the tale, 
"You did not speak the name of the Star Chief, Snug- 
willimie. Say the name that I may know it and remember 
the tale." 
"The name, Wise Thoughts, is Christ." . 
; "A-a-a-nah. It is a good name and easy to speak, and I 
will say the tale in the story lodge of the people with the 
black hair." 
