E-text prepared by Al Haines
THE LONESOME TRAIL AND OTHER STORIES
by
B. M. BOWER(B. M. SINCLAIR)
Author of Chip of the Flying U, The Range Dwellers,Her Prairie Knight, The Lure of the Dim Trails,The Happy Family, The Long Shadow, etc.
New York
Grosset & Dunlap
Publishers
1904
CONTENTS
THE LONESOME TRAIL
FIRST AID TO CUPID
WHEN THE COOK FELL ILL
THE LAMB
THE SPIRIT OF THE RANGE
THE REVELER
THE UNHEAVENLY TWINS
THE LONESOME TRAIL
PART ONE
A man is very much like a horse. Once thoroughly frightened bysomething he meets on the road, he will invariably shy at the sameplace afterwards, until a wisely firm master leads him perforce to thespot and proves beyond all doubt that the danger is of his ownimagining; after which he will throw up his head and deny that he everwas afraid—and be quite amusingly sincere in the denial.
It is true of every man with high-keyed nature, a decent opinion ofhimself and a healthy pride of power. It was true of Will Davidson, ofthe Flying U—commonly known among his associates, particularly theHappy Family, as "Weary." As to the cause of his shying at a certainobject, that happened long ago. Many miles east of the Bear Paws, inthe town where Weary had minced painfully along the streets on pink,protesting, bare soles before the frost was half out of the ground; hadyelled himself hoarse and run himself lame in the redoubtable base-ballnine which was to make that town some day famous—the nine where theyoften played with seven "men" because the other two had to "bug"potatoes or do some other menial task and where the umpire frequentlyengaged in throwing lumps of dried mud at refractory players,—therehad lived a Girl.
She might have lived there a century and Weary been none the worse, hadhe not acquired the unfortunate habit of growing up. Even then hemight have escaped injury had he not persisted in growing up and up, astraight six-feet-two of lovable good looks, with the sunniest oftempers and blue eyes that reflected the warm sweetness of that nature,and a smile to tell what the eyes left unsaid.
Such being the tempting length of him, the Girl saw that he was worthan effort; she took to smoking the chimney of her bedroom lamp, heatingcurling irons, wearing her best hat and best ribbons on a weekday, andinsisting upon crowding number four-and-a-half feet into numberthree-and-a-half shoes and managing to look as if she were perfectlycomfortable. When a girl does all those things, and when she has agood complexion and hair vividly red and long, heavy-lidded blue eyesthat have a fashion of looking side-long at a man, it were well forthat man to travel—if he would keep the lightness of his heart and thesunny look in his eyes and his smile.
Weary traveled, but the trouble was that he did not go soon enough.When he did go, his eyes were somber instead of sunny, and he smilednot at all. And in his heart he carried a deep-rooted impulse to shyalways at women—and so came to resemble a horse.
He shied at long, blue eyes and turned his own uncompromisingly away.He never would dance with a woman who had red hair, except inquadrilles where he could not help himself; and then his hand-clasp wasbrief and perfunctory when i