Show MAN WHO DRIFTED ON by GEORGE while we dawdled in the shade cast cart by the wagon the baktys told us their history it was that of 0 restless wanderers who constitute a never ceasing caravan from as far east as louisiana wending westward and north through oklahoma texas new mexico and arizona they find a virgin country break it and nature heaps her boun ties in their laps then comes a bad year and they have made no provision or the spirit ot of the rover that will not die wakes once more again thear wagons take their whining way through the wilderness surely the goal will prove fabulously rich always that hope it never burns out the memory of 0 starvation cdan not dim hardships and distance do but fan it it fires their souls as the luro lure of 0 gold tempts prospectors and on their heels comes the plodding farmer who goes patiently to work to wrest a living out of the claims they have abandoned and wakes some morning to find that civilization Is knocking at his door and he is rich banty had tried raising maize close tj the nations no the climate did not agree with him and his wife 1 I liked it ed she protested but it doing you no good goldae he said 1 I could see that easy ile he had nothing to say against the climate it was good enough climate but its effects mere a ere tar far from satisfactory in consequence they had dis posa d of their acres to migrate to the panhandle all that was years ago that land is selling at 20 an acre now I 1 observed twenty dollars I 1 swan do you hear that girl this benl gehlman man says paying 20 an acre tor for that plains land said banty his eyes glittering and we done sold ours tor for 3 if wed only waited yes his wife sighed its too bad and we done lost that 1900 in new I 1 mexico you recollect ed indeed he did banty wagged his head over the inscrutable ways of the jade fortune and murmured well well wall have thought it this was a worn out tale to us one of little meaning nesters desters came and nesters desters went if they did not go soon enough we sometimes furnished the impetus for or of course the southwest was intended by the creator to be ba a cow country and it is an iniquity that agriculturists should win it for or corn and cotton and other mainstays main stays of 0 life lie banty had encee fenced a quarter section near el capitan mountains and with this as a base of operations had bad put his in sheep but the sheep had dived over a cliff on a night of 0 rocking storm and there was none tol to prove what or who propelled them atch good it would have done him could he have proved it so once more he had gathered his scant belongings into a wagon to set out for or that promised land this is the last time yes sir 11 cried banty in his excited cracked tones where were going now they say its a regular garden of eden like what the good book tells about all you have tor for to do is to stir the ground some and youve got a crop six cuttings of alfalfa in a year yes sir and dont forget how calm arid and peaceful it all is ed goldie spoke up dont you mind how brother ducey said they were all so BO friendly he said no mans hand was lifted against his neighbor brother ducey did huh huh dave grunted ile he had given the recital his most earnest attention and now he shook his head bead reprovingly just the way it Is every time the way you done its its what hat ive been telling these boys here tor for tn ten years lie he declared birds of a feather gather no moss that you say mr air dave A rolling stone gathers no feathers dave corrected sternly you all know what I 1 mean mcclures mcclunes McC lures magazine |