I Married a Ranger | Page 3

me he would look after me.
"But you'll have to eat what the men do. I ain't got time to fix fancies
for you," he hastened to add.
A steel triangle hung on a tree near the cookhouse door, and when
dinner was ready Jack's helper struck it sharply with an iron bar. This
made a clatter that could be heard a mile and brought the men tumbling
from their tents to eat. As I was washing my hands and face in the
kitchen I heard Jack making a few remarks to his boarders: "Now don't
any you roughnecks forget there's a lady eatin' here from now on, and
I'll be damned if there's goin' to be any cussin', either." I don't believe
they needed any warning, for during the months I lived near their tents
and ate with them they never "forgot."
Many of them no doubt had come from homes as good as mine, and
more than one had college degrees. As they became accustomed to
having me around they shed their reserve along with their coats and
became just what they really were, a bunch of grown-up boys in search
of adventure.

A week later it seemed perfectly natural to sit down to luncheon with
platters of steak, bowls of vegetables, mounds of potatoes, and pots of
steaming black coffee; but just then it was a radical change from my
usual glass of milk and thin sandwich lunch. The food was served on
long pine tables, flanked by backless benches. Blue and white enamel
dishes, steel knives and forks, and of course no napkins, made up the
service. We drank coffee from tin cups, cooling and diluting it with
condensed milk poured from the original can. I soon learned that
"Shoot the cow!" meant nothing more deadly than "Pass the milk,
please!"
The rangers ate at a table apart from the other men. The Chief sat at the
head of the table, and my plate was at his right. Several rangers rose to
greet me when I came in.
"I'm glad you came," said one of them. "We are apt to grow careless
without someone to keep the rough edges polished for us." That was
Ranger Charley Fisk, the most loyal, faithful friend one could wish for.
He was never too tired nor too busy to add a shelf here or build a
cabinet there in my tiny cabin for me. But all that I had to learn later.
There was Frank, Ranger Winess; he and the Chief had been together
many years in Yellowstone; and Ranger West, and Ranger Peck. These
and several more were at the table.
"Eat your dinner," the Chief advised, and I ate, from steak to pie. The
three meals there were breakfast, dinner, and supper. No lettuce-leaf
lunch for them.
Dinner disposed of, I turned my attention to making my cabin fit to live
in. The cook had his flunky sweep and scrub the floor, and then, with
the aid of blankets, pictures, and draperies from my trunks, the little
place began to lose its forlorn look. White Mountain contributed a fine
pair of Pendleton blankets, gay and fleecy. He spread a Navajo rug on
the floor and placed an armful of books on the table. Ranger Fisk threw
the broken chair outside and brought me a chair he had made for
himself. Ranger Winess had been riding the drift fence while we
worked, but he appeared on the scene with a big cluster of red Indian
paintbrush blossoms he had found in a coulee. None of us asked if they

were picked inside the Park.
No bed was available, and again Ranger Fisk came to the rescue. He
lent me his cot and another ranger contributed his mattress.
White Mountain was called away, and when he returned he said that he
had hired a girl for the fire look-out tower, and suggested that I might
like to have her live there with me. "She's part Indian," he added.
"Fine. I like Indians, and anyway these doors won't lock. I'm glad to
have her." So they found another cot and put it up in the kitchen for
her.
She was a jolly, warm-hearted girl, used to life in such places. Her
husband was a forest ranger several miles away, and she spent most of
her time in the open. All day she stayed high in the fire tower, with her
glasses scanning the surrounding country. At the first sign of smoke,
she determined its exact location by means of a map and then
telephoned to Ranger Headquarters. Men were on their way
immediately, and many serious forest fires were thus nipped in the bud.
She and I surveyed each other curiously. I waited for her to do the
talking.
"You won't stay here