| Show STUDENT LIFE There was also an almost studied kindness about him a being good to everybody that our crowd would have ridiculed in any one else The dogs horses everything on the ranch fell in love with him the first In a day and stayed that way week no one could have told that he had not been part of the ranch for years and every one there would have fought for him “Between times he cleaned up and rewhitewashed Old Dan’s room decorated the log wall with things from civilization Later a suit case came and after that his room was a sanctuary From his case he added dozens of little symbolisms of a girl to the decorations and enshrined the photo of a girl mounted in a small white circle on a large dark card She was a beauty large masses of dark hair a clear skin beautiful throat and shoulders a firm well shaped mouth and clear He didn’t friendly honest eyes try to conceal that he worshiped that picture worshiped it more fervently than most good Christians worship their Creator We were sure that she was his sweetheart sure that no woman alive could resist being his sweetheart if he wished it and that no barrier in the world could keep him a man who was so much a man from a woman whose picture was so worshiped “But one night he told us frankly that she was not his He had lost out to a man with money and had given up without a fight because she had asked him to He had the 39 picture but had forgotten the girl and was satisfied Perhaps she was not worth while anyway “That fall during our busiest season three bosses quit Bill Shipton was East on business his brother was in bed with the typhoid and our foreman had entire charge of the outfit and was working night and day keeping things straight when I brought him a letter He read it and told me that it was from the girl The other fellow had failed was broke and she wanted him back He fairly howled with happiness and fired me off twenty-fiv- e miles to the nearest telegraph station with a telegram something like this “Can’t leave just now Would cost my employers too much Will come to you at once when I can Perhaps a month sooner if possible You don’t know what this means to me or how hard it is to stay but it is Can’t honor Will send letter thank you enough for yours” I learned later that things just then were in such a critical state that if he had left the Shiptons would have been ruined For a week he was like a wild man impatient chafing hunting always for some one to take charge and free him but through it all he gave the same kindness to everybody I was sent to town daily to find out how soon the doctor was going to turn Shipton loose On one of these trips ten days after the telegram I brought him a letter and knowing that he would return to the ranch that afternoon I told the Chink about it and left it in his - |
