Peak and Prairie

Peak and Prairie, by Anna Fuller

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Title: Peak and Prairie From a Colorado Sketch-book
Author: Anna Fuller
Illustrator: Emma G. Moore
Release Date: August 3, 2007 [EBook #22231]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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By ANNA FULLER

A Literary Courtship: Under the Auspices of Pike's Peak. 28th
thousand. 16° $1.25
A Venetian June. Illustrated. 15th thousand. 16° $1.25
Peak and Prairie: From a Colorado Sketch-Book. Illustrated. 7th
thousand. 16° New Edition. 12° $1.50
Pratt Portraits: Sketched in a New England Suburb. Illustrated, 12th
thousand. 12° $1.50
One of the Pilgrims. A Bank Story. 6th thousand. 12° $1.25
Katherine Day. 8th thousand. 12° $1.50
A Bookful of Girls. 4th thousand. Illustrated. 12° $1.50
Later Pratt Portraits. Illustrated $1.50 net
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[Illustration: "THE PEAK WAS SUPERB THAT MORNING, BIG
AND STRONG AND GLITTERING WITH SNOW."]
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PEAK AND PRAIRIE
From a Colorado Sketch Book
By ANNA FULLER
Author of "A Literary Courtship" "Pratt Portraits," Etc.
Illustrated by Emma G. Moore
New York and London G. P. Putnam's Sons
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Copyright, 1894 BY ANNA FULLER
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
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TO ONE TO WHOM I OWE COLORADO AND MUCH BESIDES
THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED
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PREFACE.
The sketches of Colorado life which make up this volume are little
more than hints and suggestions caught from time to time by a single
observer in a comparatively narrow field of observation. Narrow as the
field is, however, it offers a somewhat unusual diversity of scene; for
that most charming of health resorts known in these pages as
Springtown, is the chance centre of many varying interests. In its
immediate vicinity exists the life of the prairie ranch on the one hand
and that of the mining-camp on the other; while dominating all as it
were--town, prairie, and mountain fastness--rises the great Peak which
has now for so many years been the goal of pilgrimage to men and
women from the Eastern States in pursuit of health, of fortune, or of the
free, open-air life of the prairie. If, from acquaintance with these
fictitious characters set in a very real environment, the reader be led to
form some slight impression of the stirring little drama which is going
forward to-day in that pleasant Land of Promise, he will have
incidentally endorsed the claim of these disconnected sketches to be
regarded as a single picture.
May, 1894.
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE

PREFACE v I.--A PILGRIM IN THE FAR WEST 1 II.--BRIAN
BORU 36 III.--JAKE STANWOOD'S GAL 60 IV.--AT THE KEITH
RANCH 101 V.--THE RUMPETY CASE 123 VI.--THE LAME
GULCH PROFESSOR 151 VII.--THE BOSS OF THE WHEEL 187
VIII.--MR. FETHERBEE'S ADVENTURE 217 IX.--AN AMATEUR
GAMBLE 240 X.--A ROCKY MOUNTAIN SHIPWRECK 266 XI.--A
STROKE IN THE GAME 301 XII.--THE BLIZZARD PICNIC 335
XIII.--A GOLDEN VISTA 369
Note.--Of the thirteen sketches included in this volume six have
previously appeared in periodicals, as follows:
A Pilgrim in the Far West in Harper's Weekly; Brian Boru in
Worthington's Magazine; Jake Stanwood's Gal and At the Keith Ranch
in The Century Magazine; The Rumpety Case in Lippincott's Magazine;
and An Amateur Gamble in Scribner's Magazine. They were, however,
all prepared with reference to their final use as a consecutive series.
A. F.
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ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
"The Peak was Superb that Morning, Big and Strong and Glittering
with Snow" Frontispiece
"A Handful of Cottonwood Trees Clustered about the House" 24
"The Vast Sea of the Prairie" 46
"Between his Cabin Door and 'The Range' Stretched Twenty Miles of
Arid Prairie" 60
The Keith Ranch 104
"A Half-Hearted Stream Known as 'The Creek'" 122

"The Great Dome of Snow Towered in All its Grandeur" 142
"A Town of Rude Frame Huts had Sprung up in the Hollow below" 156
"On the Edge of a Dead Forest" 212
"It's a Kind of Double Back-Action Slant we've Got to Tackle this
Time" 228
Pine Bluff 258
"They Looked out at the Peak" 289
"The Brook, Which Came Dashing Down From The Cañon, Still
Rioting on Its Way" 324
"The Ranch Gate, Which Had Swung Half To On Its Hinges" 360
"The Wild and Beautiful Gorge" 378
A Golden Vista 388
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PEAK AND PRAIRIE
I.
A PILGRIM IN THE FAR WEST.
The Peak was superb that morning, big and strong, and glittering with
snow. Little Mrs. Nancy Tarbell turned, after shutting and locking the
door of her