The Prairie Wife

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The Prairie Wife, by Arthur Stringer

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Title: The Prairie Wife
Author: Arthur Stringer
Illustrator: H. T. Dunn
Release Date: July 19, 2006 [EBook #18875]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE PRAIRIE WIFE
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[Illustration: I stooped over the trap-door and lifted it up. "Get down there quick!" Page 109--The Prairie Wife.]
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THE PRAIRIE WIFE
By ARTHUR STRINGER
With Frontispiece in Color by H. T. DUNN
A. L. BURT COMPANY PUBLISHERS--NEW YORK
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PUBLISHED BY ARRANGEMENT WITH THE BOBBS, MERRILL COMPANY COPYRIGHT 1915 THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
COPYRIGHT 1915 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
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TO VAN WHO KNOWS AND LOVES THE WEST AS WE LOVE HIM!
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Thursday the Nineteenth 1 Saturday the Twenty-first 16 Monday the Twenty-third 33 Wednesday the Twenty-fifth 41 Thursday the Twenty-sixth 48 Saturday the Twenty-eighth 57 Wednesday the First 61 Thursday the Second 64 Friday the Third 67 Saturday the Fourth 68 Monday the Sixth 73 Wednesday the Eighth 80 Saturday the Tenth 88 Sunday the Eleventh 91 Monday the Twelfth 93 Sunday the Eighteenth 101 Monday the Nineteenth 103 Tuesday the Twentieth 105 Thursday the Twenty-second 115 Saturday the Twenty-fourth 119 Tuesday the Twenty-seventh 128 Thursday the Twenty-ninth 133 Friday the Fifth 136 Sunday the Seventh 137 Tuesday the Ninth 138 Saturday the Twenty-first 142 Sunday the Twenty-ninth 150 Monday the Seventh 152 Friday the Eleventh 153 Sunday the Thirteenth 155 Wednesday the Sixteenth 156 Sunday the Twentieth 157 Sunday the Twenty-seventh 158 Wednesday the Thirtieth 159 Thursday the Thirty-first 160 Sunday the Third 167 Thursday the Seventh 171 Saturday the Ninth 172 Monday the Eleventh 175 Tuesday the Nineteenth 182 Sunday the Thirty-first 186 Tuesday the Ninth 188 Wednesday the Seventeenth 189 Thursday the Twenty-fifth 190 Tuesday the Second 191 Thursday the Fourth 193 Wednesday the Seventeenth 194 Saturday the Twenty-seventh 195 Tuesday the Sixth 198 Monday the Twelfth 199 Tuesday the Twentieth 202 Monday the Twenty-sixth 205 Wednesday the Twenty-eighth 207 Monday the Second 209 Thursday the Fifth 210 Tuesday the Tenth 214 Monday the Sixteenth 217 Tuesday the Twenty-fourth 220 Friday the Third 222 Thursday the Ninth 224 Wednesday the Fifteenth 228 Friday the Seventeenth 230 Saturday the Nineteenth 231 Friday the Twenty-eighth 233 Saturday the Twenty-ninth 234 Sunday the Thirtieth 236 Tuesday the First 237 Monday the Seventh 243 Sunday the Thirteenth 247 Monday the Twenty-eighth 249 Saturday the Second 251 Wednesday the Sixth 252 Tuesday the Twelfth 254 Thursday the Fourteenth 255 Wednesday the Fifth 256 Sunday the Ninth 260 Monday the Tenth 262 Tuesday the Eleventh 264 Wednesday the Thirteenth 265 Thursday the Fourteenth 267 Friday the Fifteenth 269 Saturday the Sixteenth 272 Monday the Seventeenth 275 Wednesday the Nineteenth 276 Friday the Twenty-first 277 Monday the Twelfth 290 Wednesday the Fourteenth 292 Thursday the Fifteenth 295 Friday the Sixteenth 298 Sunday the Eighteenth 307 Sunday the Twenty-fifth 308 Tuesday the Twenty-seventh 309 Wednesday the Twenty-eighth 310 Friday the Thirtieth 313 Sunday the First 314
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THE PRAIRIE WIFE
Thursday the Nineteenth
Splash!... That's me, Matilda Anne! That's me falling plump into the pool of matrimony before I've had time to fall in love! And oh, Matilda Anne, Matilda Anne, I've got to talk to you! You may be six thousand miles away, but still you've got to be my safety-valve. I'd blow up and explode if I didn't express myself to some one. For it's so lonesome out here I could go and commune with the gophers. This isn't a twenty-part letter, my dear, and it isn't a diary. It's the coral ring I'm cutting my teeth of desolation on. For, every so long, I've simply got to sit down and talk to some one, or I'd go mad, clean, stark, staring mad, and bite the tops off the sweet-grass! It may even happen this will never be sent to you. But I like to think of you reading it, some day, page by page, when I'm fat and forty, or, what's more likely, when Duncan has me chained to a corral-post or finally shut up in a padded cell. For you were the one who was closest to me in the old days, Matilda Anne, and when I was in trouble you were always the staff on which I leaned, the calm-eyed Tillie-on-the-spot who never seemed to fail me! And I think you will understand.
But there's so much to talk about I scarcely know where to begin. The funny part of it all is, I've gone and married the Other Man. And you won't