THE COURIER.
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izes too rapidly. There are Haws in AT THE FERRY,
his reasoning, which the cautious, ,ny mTthTITekce.
slow-going jurymen found out before "There may he' heaven; there must be hell;
afraid we should have to ford."
"Ford!" said the snuff-colored person
'Ford!
a long case was delivered to them for
settlement. His judgmenton matters
which concern the whole United
States cannot be safely consulted
when it has often proved unsound in
matters pertaining to Lancaster coun
ty, Nebraska. Ihe parable of civil
service advancement in the Bible, re
fers the applicant for higher honors to
his performance in little things. Pres
idents, governors and mayors who dis
regard this imperative hint in regard
to appointments, regret it, when
their administrations have been
dimmed by the indiscretions and indo
lence of their appointees. An average
man. or even a man like Mr. Bryan,
who excels the average man in bril
liancy and quickness, is a calamity in
the presidential chair. That office,
the highest and most honorable in the
world, because the holder is the free
choice of 75,000,000 free people, should
be filled by a man who has been tried
and not found wanting in executive
positions requiring sagacity and rare
foresight. Every man lias his metier.
There are several in which Mr. Bryan
might have achieved distinction. I
know of no living eminent actor who
is at once so graceful, so responsive,
so llexible, who has so good a voice, or
one who has such facile control over
the muscles df his. face. And surely
there is no more popular lecturer than
Mr. Bryan.
UNCALLED.
When I go to see her ladyship,
I often let her know
That I'm coming,
specifying hour and all,
But at times I give no warning,
and it's fun, the way things go,
When she isn't just expecting
me to call.
Overhead there floats a murmur
in an interested tone,
But the part that I can hear
is very small.
, As I.seat me in the parlor
on the sofa all alone,
When she isn't just expecting
me to call.
Soon there follow sounds of action,
and I hear or partly feel
What I take to be a slipper's
muffled fall;
Rapid steps pass above me
that suggest a shoeless heel.
When she isn't just expecting
me to call.
Then I scrutinise my finger-nails
and hum funereal airs,
I examine all the pictures
on the wall,
And I peer bf hind the curtains
and I classify the chairs,
"When she isn't just expecting
me to call.
I stretch out my feet before me,
place my elbows on my knees,
Clasp my hands, and watch
the sluggish minutes crawl;
All in silence save she creaking
of my collar as I wheeze
When she isn't just expecting
me to call.
But at last there comes a rustle
and a swish upon the stair,
Then a quick, familiar step
across the hall;
And the hand-clasp's just as hearty,
and the face is just as fair
As they are when she's expecting
me to call.
Lippincotts.
Meantime there is our earth here well I"
All day we had come across barren
lands, and our ejes were weary for the
sight of green. When, at the quiet,
colored end of evening, we drove in
among the tall, thin-foliaged, whisper
ing cottonwoods which fringe the river,
they seemed to our grateful vision the
most beautiful of the trees of the earth.
Between their straight, smooth poles,
we caught generous glimpses of the
broad glistening river, back of the old
Serpent, which men call the Big Horn.
The red sun struck into iriJescence all
its little scalo-liko waves, so that it was,
for the time, a reptile of gold and fire,
which drew its proud length into long,
sinuous curves, and glided slowly
through the ash-colored land, and away
to meet the approaching Dight. Beyond
the smoothly flowing river, the lifeless
soil rose in a long, cheerless slope, flat
tened into a little plateau, then twisted
itself into the most absurd and gro
tesque of gray, naked hill. "Penury, in
ertness and grimace, in some strango
sort were the land's portion."
Against the gray hills and the red
sunset floated the Hag of glory. Be
neath its protecting folds were erroupod
seven saloons, a livery barn, three stores,
two hotels, and enough shacks to com
plete the "city" twenty odd buildings
in all. These things our friend, the at
torney, explained to us in the intervals
of his freczied hallooing, which was not
intended (as might have been supposed)
to rouse the country from Basin City to
Gray Bull, but merely to attract the at
tention of the deaf old ferryman, who
was on the other side. Certainly, dearie!
Who ever heard of a ferryman on the stream and carried his voice away. The
hither side or a stream? black team snorted and backed, and it
"What in time ails him?" inquired the required the strong hand of the cowboy
You don't know much about
this river, I take it. I reckon you
couldn't ford that river no more than you
could tly. Not when she's this high!"
"I reckon," he added, meditatively,
"you folks is from the east some'urs."
"Well, a little east," said Lou, cheer
fully; "Lincoln."
A gleam shot suddenly across the
languid face, and as he straightened
himself a tritle and stroked his discour
aged moustache, he looked almost
jaunty.
"Lincoln? You ladies live there?"
"I do," I asserted, proudly.
"I used to," cried Lou.
He gaztd across the river. "I suppose
you know Miss Martinson," ho said with
extreme carelessness.
"Of course!" I said promptly (whether e6e to do.
1 really did or not is of no consequence). iI h0id
"She is in our church."
'"is she, now? Sings there, I s'pose?"
"Oh, certainly; every Sunday! You
know her? She is a friend of yours?'
I inquired.
The gleam had brightened into a
steady glow that shone in his eyes and
reddened his sallow cheeks.
"Yes," he said, and truly he ap
proached animation; "I know her.
was out here three year ago.
camped a couple o' months over t the
tie camp her and her 'oiks. She used
to ride a good deal, and she mostly rode
my bosses. That's how I come to know
her. Goin' over now?"
But Adolph, the impatient, had al
ready driven on the boat. "You'll have
no trouble," he called cheerfully to us.
'The men will help jou with the horses.
We'll wait on "
The ferry-boat swung out in the
for her. And she seemed to enjoy it
mightily. Said she'd nover been more
royally intertainod in 'or life!
"Ma'am. No, they won't bo out this
summer. Her pa, he's finished up his
business at the tie camp, and he sold
out his interest in the U Bar-Bar Inst
summer. 1 reckon, anyway, she wouldn't
of been likely to come bock to these
parts again. 'The world's too big,' she
used to say, 'and thore are too many
places I must see.' Hero's the ferry
boat agin.
"There, uow, old fell" addressing him
self to John, "wait till I got you by tho
bit. Steady now. Shot That ain't
a-goin' to hurt ye. Como along now.
All right, ye soe; not a blame thing in
the world to be Beared at. There, now;
that's right, follow! Jist stand at his
head till ye git acrost, it ye've nothin
I'm not crossin' tonight, or
era myself. The team's all
right, ladieb. The boy'll hold 'em. No
trouble at all. Glad I happened alone''
He still lingered, with his hand on the
wheel. The ferryman scowled. at nim.
"If ye should happen to see Miss Mil
dred, when ye go back," no said gently,
"jist ask her if she memembera Coyote
Sam, will ye? What say? Oh, yes, may
be Rod 'od me'll be over tomorrow.
She Rod's my pardner. Hope yoj'll enjoy
They the barbecue. Good night."
He leaped over the narrow, but wid
ening strip of water between the boat
and the shore and was lost in tho whis
pering darkness.
A CHANGE OF CLOTHING.
lawyer, pathetically. "I made allow
ance for his being deaf. Hay! Ha oy!
Whay! Whay! Who o-ay!"
"Don't jump up and down, Adolph.'
said bis wife, placidly. "He will not
hear jou any Eooner."
"Thundei!" said Adolph.
"It will not thunder. I doubt its
raising Lim if it did." observed Mollie,
innocently.
The lawjer Ecawled. "It's all very
well to giggle, you women," he said,
savagely. '"But when it comee to stay
ing out all night in sight of the town, I
doubt your tiuding it so funny."
"Let us all shout together," Lou sug
gested. "Perhaps united we can raise
the natives. 'In union there is strength,
she quoted, solemnly. 'United we stand,
you know."
United in spirit, but sadly divided
as to pitch, we raised a scream which
made the air shiver, then waited in anx
ious silence.
''Goin' over?" The slow rascal was so
lazy as to be scarcely disassociated from
the swisn of the river, and the crooning
of the cottonwoods. Unstartled, I
turned to view a snuff-colored joung
man in a wide sombrero. He leaned
against the front wheel and gazed upon
me with sad, blue ejes, whose gentle
ness was somewhat at variance with
the small arsenal which he carried on
his person. "Goin' over?" he repeated.
"I'm sure I don't know," I said. "We
we'd like to."
''Ferryman's a little deaf," he ven
turned "Rather!" 1 said, dryly; but I think
my answer vas lost upon him, for
Adolph was again baying the rising
moon.
"What's he yelling' for?" observed my
on the bits, and Louie' loud voice, to
persuade old John that the thing was
not a monster which had come out of
the night to swallow him. When he
stood quiet again, the stranger resumed
his place at the wheel and seemed
watching the lights shining out, one by
one, across the river.
"That's how I come to know her," he
said, slowly. "She was a mighty lively
girl,' he added, cheerfully. "She used
to sing till she made the hull camp ring.
And ride! I reckon she could ride.
She nigh about rede my best hoes to
death. Yes, ma'am. She was perty tol
erable hard on a hoss; she was that!
She used to go tearin' around so, I was
afraid she'd break 'er neck. She was
mighty reckless. That's how 1 come to
let her ride my best horse. I could
trust him. He's that sure footed, you
couldn't trip him with a wire. No,
ma'am. But she knocked him out con
siderable; she did so! He ain't been the
same hoss since she went back. D I
understand you to say she sings in a
church? I reckon there's a good crowd
there every Sunday to hear her, ain't
there? Say, but they don't like it any
better than the Bar U boys did. Ma'am.
The Bar U? That my ranch. The
boys used to go over to the tie camp
evenin's to hear her sing. Sometimes
she didn't know we was there, and some
times she did. When she was singin to
herself, she generally sung exercises, I
reckon they was. Not much of any
words to 'em that anybody could under
stand, but when she sung for the boys
it was, 'I Have an Aged Mother,' and
George MacAdam tells in St. Nicholas
for September of one of tho social
changes for which the French Revolu
tion was responsible.
After patiently bearing for conturies
the wicked burden of corrupt and ex
travagant upper class and a pompous
and idle clergy, the people seemed sud
denly to realize their power. "'How is
all this pomp supported?' they asked of
each other. 'Out of the sweat of the
people!' was wrathfully answered."
And then "the five-and-twenty savage
millions, amid smoke as of Tophet, con
fusion as of Babel, noise as of the crack
of doom," fell upon everyone and every
thing that represented or stood for the
old system of injustice and serfdom.
In their relentless fury, nothing was
spared; men and women alike were car
ried by shouting mobs to the guillotine.
Even the little dauphin, a lid of eight,
was thrust into a foul prison, where
"for more than a year he had no change
of shirt or stockings," and where he at
last died from neglect and suffering.
In fear and trembling at the power of
the people, the aristocrats threw away
their silken knee breeches and powder
ed wig, and put on unpretentious
clothes. "Don't kill up," they cried; 'we
are the same as you; do we not dress
alike? Are not our clothes as simple
as yours?" " Men now wore their own
hair, short, plain and unpowdered.
The wide skirts of the coats were cut
down to long tails, and the knee
breeches were lengthened to the ankle
and became pantaloons.
'Nellie Gray' or 'Annie Laurie,' any- bcotlands. After a
thine, nertv much, thev'd ast her for. aijd noted the town
07 - 1
unless it was some cowboy songs.
Course, she couldn't be expected to know
the round-up songs, livin', as she did,
new acquaintance. "Ferryman's com
in where there ain't no round-ups. I
1 Etrained my eyes. Yes, certainly, 'mind one of the boys ast her one night
the black bulk was creeping out from to sing "Git Along, Ye Little Doggy,"
the other shore, I breathed long and but she said she'd never had the pleas
deep, ure of hearin' it. So Liger it was
"Thank goodness!" said Lou. "I was Liger that ast her he up and sung it
WORTH VISITING.
A Scots story: A few days ago, in
the smoke-room of a Glasgow hotel, a
Yankee was asking tor information
about visiting the "show places' in
few were given
of Stirling was
mentioned. "Waal," observed the Yan
kee, "I guess I must go there; that's
where the silver comes from."
London Chronicle.
Ernest What would you say if I
should pop the question?
Dora Tell jou to question pop.