Prairie Flowers | Page 2

"our
anniversary is just thirteen days away."
"And you still want to spend it in Timber City?"

"Indeed I do! Why it would just break my heart not to be right there in
that ugly little wooden town on that day."
"And you really--seriously--want to live out there?"
"Of course I do! Why wouldn't anyone want to live there? That's real
living--with the wonderful air, and the mountains, and the boundless
unfenced range! Not right in Timber City, or any of the other towns,
but on a ranch, somewhere. We could stay there till we got tired of it,
and then go to California, or New York, or Florida for a change. But we
could call the ranch home, and live there most of the time. Now that
you have closed out your business, there is no earthly reason why we
should live in this place--it's neither east nor west, nor north, nor
south--it's just half way between everything. I wish we would hear from
that Mr. Carlson, or whatever his name is so we could go and look over
his ranch the day after our anniversary."
"His name is Colston, and we have heard," smiled Endicott. "I got word
this morning."
"Oh, what did he say?"
"He said to come and look the property over. That he was willing to
sell, and that he thought there was no doubt about our being able to
arrange satisfactory terms."
"Oh, Win, aren't you glad! You must sit right down after dinner and
write him. Tell him we'll----"
"I wired him this afternoon to meet us in Timber City."
"Let's see," Alice chattered, excitedly, "it will take--one night to
Chicago, and a day to St. Paul, and another day and night, and part of
the next day--how many days is that? One, two nights, and two days
and a half--that will give us ten days to sell the house and pack the
furniture and ship it----"
"Ship it!" exclaimed the man. "We better not do any shipping till we

buy the ranch. The deal may not go through----"
"Well, Mr. What's-his-name don't own the only ranch in Montana. If
we don't buy his, we'll buy another one. You better see that Mr.
Schwabheimer tomorrow--he's wanted this place ever since we bought
it, and he's offered more than we paid."
"Oh, it won't be any trouble to sell the house. But, about shipping the
furniture until we're sure----"
Alice interrupted impetuously: "We'll ship it right straight
away--because when we get it out there we'll just have to buy a ranch to
put it in!"
Endicott surrendered with a gesture of mock despair: "If that's the way
you feel about it, I guess we'll have to buy. But, I'll give you fair
warning--it will be up to you to help run the outfit. I don't know
anything about the cattle business----"
"We'll find Tex! And we'll make him foreman--and then, when we get
all settled I'll invite Margery Demming out for a long visit--I've picked
out Margery for Tex--and we can put them up a nice house right near
ours, and Margery and I can----"
"Holy Mackerel!" laughed Endicott. "Just like that! Little things don't
matter at all--like the fact that we haven't any ranch yet to invite her to,
and that she might not come if you did invite her, and if she did come
she might not like the country or Tex, or he might not like her. And last
of all, we may never find Tex. We've both written him a half a dozen
times--and all the letters have been returned. If we had some ham, we'd
have some ham and eggs, if we had some eggs!"
"There you go, with your old practicability! Anyhow, that's what we'll
do--and if Tex don't like her I'll invite someone else, and keep on
inviting until I find someone he does like--and as for her--no one could
help loving the country, and no one could help loving Tex--so there!"
"I hope the course of their true love will run less tempestuously than

ours did for those few days we were under the chaperonage of the
Texan," grinned the man.
"Of course it will! It's probably very prosaic out there, the same as it is
anywhere, most of the time. It was a peculiar combination of
circumstances that plunged us into such a maelstrom of adventure. And
yet--I don't see why you should hope for such a placid courtship for
them. It took just that ordeal to bring out your really fine points. They
were there all the time, dear, but I might never have known they were
there. Why, I've lived over those few days, step by step, a hundred
times! The wreck, the celebration at Wolf River--" she paused and
shuddered, and her husband took up