Show the old settler my dear san Jua Juanc ners rs ten armed men rode down in jostling haste from the narrows of i the canyon to where it widened out into a green valley several miles in extent one of them rode generally in the lead but whether i in in the lead or not he was the leader I 1 the nine were satellites hirelings the cowpunchers cow punchers working for harry hodson the cattle baron I 1 below them where the green vali val 1 ley narrowed again into a canyon i below the trees and the willows and the meadows where cattle browsed the grass or rested in the lie shade three covered wagons toiled forward each one drawn by four al lean horses each wagon bearing a man his wife several small children and a load of household furniture jim hall in the first wagon was the leader yet the two others were not satellites but men resolute and purposeful this was the vanguard of more covered wagons and other families farther down the road jim hall and his companion were not gunmen gun men yet each one had his household winchester hanging handy on his wagon bows A town was about to be born the midwives in in attendance were love grit and purpose for there was to be intensity anguish and peril as always with travail of birth on the frontier that was in the days when men were free to inherit and redeem the waste places of the big united states the day when stalwart character was developed by brave men and women who gave the big west its valuable towns and cities that was way back before anything like th the taylor eTaylor grazing law had discriminated against settlers in favor of ef cattle jim hall and his followers turned out from the dim wagon track heading for a smooth level stretch from which the cattle ran at their approach there they stopped their weary teams and let them crop the green grass when harry hodson and his string of armed riders appear appeared edin in awesome array from the willows and approached the new camp the women and children regarded them with fear but jim and the two other men deigned to take no i notice till the fearsome bearded I 1 harry came very near and demanded in menacing tones what you fellers think yer goin to do here were goin to make homes here jim declared firmly now le ie me tell ye young feller and harry hobsons Hod sons lips t twitched ditched itched with rage as lie he spoke ye aint goin to do any such thing yer goin to git right back down the road I 1 been cattle here five years an its my country the hell it is countered jim continued on ilage four THE OLD SETTLER SETTLED I 1 continued from pare 1 with fire in his eye and the little company seemed to rally aggressively I 1 around him youve made it a DC home hoine fer yer calves were goin to make it a home for fer our children youve been here gob blin the hull bull country fer herself yer self were here to claim limited areas of the land ac cordin to I 1 law theres more of us comin an aai awi 1 if you think you kin stop us jest shoot yer wad right now harry looked at his fight fighting ingmen men and saw them admiring and ltv pitying the women and children ile he knew that not one of the cred nine would make a move or say a word to frighten these defenseless fen seless souls the business of the united states is to raise people not just cattle jim went on mounting in bold supremacy the government is behind us and you might as well stop barking and move on that was the first birth pain of the new town but the courage of jim hall and his companions saw it safely through more inore and fiercer pains into the world wrapped it carefully in swaddling clothes taught it to walk on its own feet and to hold its own against all comers it soon had a big troop of sturdy boys and girls living and thriving where harry hodson had raised nothing but calves but that was way back in the years before any strange law had been framed to discriminate against settlers in favor of cattle albert R lyman |