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🟡 Journey in Search of Christmas (Full Audiobook) | Owen Wister · Fantasy Audiobooks

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: CHAPTER I. LEND'S MONEY TALKS JOY. The Governor descended the
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: steps of the Capitol slowly and with pauses, lifting a
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: list frequently to his eye. He had intermittently penciled in
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: between stages of the forenoon's public business, and his gait
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: grew absent as he recurred now to his jottings in
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: their accumulation, with a slight pain at their number, and
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: the definite fear that they would be more in season
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: to come. They were the names of his friend's children,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: to whom his excellent heart moved him to give Christmas presents.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: He had put off this regenerating evil until the latest day,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: as was his custom, and now he was setting forth
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: to do the whole thing at a blow, entirely planless
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: among the guns and rocking-horses that would presently surround him.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: As he reached the highway, he heard himself familiarly addressed
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: from a distance, and turning, saw four sons of the
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: alkali jogging into town from the plain. One, who had
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: shouted to him, galloped out from the others, rounded the
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: capital's enclosure, and, approaching with radiant countenance, leaned to reach
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: the hand of the governor, and once again greeted him
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: with a hilarious, Hello, Doc! Governor Barker, M.D., Seeing Mr.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: MacLean unexpectedly after several years, hailed the horseman with frank
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: and lively pleasure, and, inquiring who might be the other
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: riders behind, was told that they were Shorty, Chalk-Eye, and
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Dollar Bill, come for Christmas. And dandies to hit town with, Mr.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: MacLean added, red-hot. I am acquainted with them, assented His Excellency,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: We've been riding trail for twelve weeks, the cow-puncher continued,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: and the money in our pants is talking joy to
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: us right out loud. Then Mr. MacLean overflowed with talk
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: and pungent confidences, for the holidays already rioted in his spirit,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: and his tongue was loosed over their coming rites. We've
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: soured on scenery, he finished, in his dramatic idiom. We're
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: healed for a big time.' Call on me,' remarked the
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Governor cheerily,' when you're ready for bromides and sulfates.'' I
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: ain't box-headed no more,' protested Mr. MacLean.' I' ve got maturity, Doc,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: since I seen you at the rain-making,' and I'm a
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: heap older than them hospital days when I bust my
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: leg on you.' Three or four glasses and quit. That's
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: my rule.'' That your rule, too?' inquired the Governor of Shorty, Chalk-Eye,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: and Dollar Bill.' THESE GENTLEMEN IN THE SADDLE WERE SITTING
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: QUITE EXPRESSIONLESS UPON THEIR HORSES. WE AIN'T TALKIN', WE'RE WAITIN',
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: OBSERVED CHALK-EYE, AND THE THREE CYNICS SMILED AMIABLY. WELL, DOC,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: SEE YA AGAIN, SAID MR. MCLAIN. HE TURNED TO ACCOMPANY
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: HIS BROTHER COW-PUNCHERS, BUT IN THAT PARTICULAR MOMENT FATE DESCENDED,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: OR CAME UP, FROM WHATEVER PLACE SHE DWELLS IN, AND
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: ENTERED THE BODY OF THE UNSUSPECTING GOVERNOR. What's your hurry?
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: said Fate, speaking in the official's hearty manner. Come along
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: with me. Can't do it. Where are you going? Christmasing,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: replied Fate. Well, I've got to feed my horse. Christmasing,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: you say? Yes, I'm buying toys. Toys? You? What for? Oh,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: some kids. Yarn? screeched Lynn precipitately. His Excellency, the jovial Governor,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: opened his teeth in pleasure at this, for he was
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: a bachelor, and there were fifteen upon his list, which
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: he held up for the edification of the hasty Maclean.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Not mine, I'm happy to say. My friends keep marrying
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: and settling, and their kids call me Uncle, and climb
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: around and bother, and I forget their names, and think
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: it's a girl, and the mother gets mad. Why, If
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: I didn't remember these little folks at Christmas, they'd be
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: wondering— not the kids, they just break your toys and don't
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: notice— but the mother would wonder, What's the matter with Dr. Barker?
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Has Governor Barker gone back on us? That's where the
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: strain comes. He broke off, facing Mr. MacLean, with another
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: spacious laugh. But the cow-puncher had ceased to smile, and now,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: while Barker ran on exuberantly— Maclean's wide-open eyes rested upon him,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: singular and intent, and in their hazel depths the last
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: gleam of jocularity went out. That's where the strain comes,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: you see. Two sets of acquaintances, grateful patients and loyal voters,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: and I've got to keep solid with both outfits, especially
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: the wives and mothers. They're the people. So it's drums
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: and dolls and sheep on wheels and games and monkeys
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: on a stick, and the saleslady shows you a mechanical bear,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: and it costs too much, and you forget whether the
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: judge's second girl is Nellie or Susie, and, well, I'm
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: just in for my annual circus this afternoon. You're in luck.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Christmas don't trouble a chap fixed like you. Len McLean
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: prolonged the sentence like a distant echo. A chap fixed
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: like you. The cow-puncher said it slowly to himself.' No, sure.'
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: He seemed to be watching Shorty and Chalk-Eye and Dollar
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Bill going down the road.' That' s a new idea. Christmas,'
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: he murmured, for it was one of his oldest, and
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: he was recalling the Christmas when he wore his first
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: long trousers.' Comes once a year pretty regular,' remarked the
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: prosperous governor.' Seems often when you pay the bill.' haven't
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: made a Christmas gift, pursued the cow-puncher dreamily, not for— for— Lord,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: it's a hundred years, I guess. I don't know anybody
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: that has any right to look for such a thing
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: from me. This was indeed a new idea, and it
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: did not stop the chill that was spreading in his heart.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: Gee whiz! said Barker briskly. There goes twelve o'clock. I've
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: got to make a start. Sorry you can't come and
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: help me. Good-bye. His Excellency left the rider sitting motionless,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: and forgot him at once in his own preoccupation. He
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: hastened upon his journey to the shops with the list,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: not in his pocket, but held firmly, like a plank
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: in the imminence of shipwreck. The Nellies and Susies pervaded
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: his mind, and he struggled with the presentiment that in
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: a day or two he would recall some omitted and
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: wretchedly important child. Quick hoof-beats made him look up, and Mr.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: MacLean passed like a wind. The governor absently watched him go,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: and saw the pony hunch and stiffen in the check
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: of his speed when Len overtook his companions. Down there,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: in the distance, they took a side street. and Barker
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: rejoicingly remembered one more name and wrote it as he walked.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: In a few minutes he had come to the shops
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: and met face to face with Mr. MacLean. The boys
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: are seeing after my horse, Lynn rapidly began, and I've
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: got to meet them sharp at one. We're twelve weeks
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: shy on a square meal, you see, and this first
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: has been a date from way back. I'd like to—
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Here Mr. MacLean cleared his throat and his speech went
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: less smoothly. Doc, I'd like just for a while to
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: watch you getting them monkeys, you know. The governor expressed
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: his agreeable surprise at this change of mind, and was
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: glad of Maclean's company and judgment during the impending selections.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: A picture of a cow-puncher and himself discussing a couple
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: of dolls rose nimbly in Barker's mental eye, and it
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: was with an imperfect honesty that he said, You'll help
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: me a heap. And Lynn, quite sincere, replied, Thank you.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: So together these two went Christmasing in the throng. Wyoming's
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: chief executive knocked elbows with the spurred and jingling waif,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: one man as good as another in that raw, hopeful,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: full-blooded cattle era which now the sobered West remembers as
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: as the days of its fond youth for one man
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: has been as good as another in three places paradise
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: before the fall the rocky mountains before the wire fence
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: and the declaration of independence and then this governor besides
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: being young almost as young as Lynn MacLean, or the
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Chief Justice, who lately had celebrated his thirty-second birthday, had
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: in his doctoring days at Drybone known the cow-puncher with
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: that familiarity which lasts a lifetime without breeding contempt. Accordingly,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: He now laid a hand on Lynn's tall shoulder and
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  Speaker 1: drew him among the petticoats and toys. CHAPTER II. LYNN'S
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  Speaker 1: MONEY IS DUMB Christmas filled the windows and Christmas stirred
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: in mankind. Cheyenne, not overzealous in doctrine or litanies, and
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: with the opinion that a world in the hand is
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: worth two in the bush, nevertheless was flocking together, neighbor
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: to think of neighbor, and everyone to remember the children.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: A sacred assembly, after all, gathered to rehearse unwittingly the
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  Speaker 1: articles of its belief, the creed and doctrine of the child.
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  Speaker 1: Lynn saw them hurry and smile among the paper fairies.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: They questioned and hesitated, crowded and made decisions, failed utterly
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  Speaker 1: to find the right thing, forgot and hastened back, suffered
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: all the various desperation of the eleventh hour, and turned homeward,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: dropping their parcels with that undimmed good-will that once a
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: year makes gracious the universal human face. This brotherhood swam
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: and beamed before the cow-puncher's brooding eyes, and in his
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: ears the greeting of the season sang. Children escaped from
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  Speaker 1: their mothers and ran chirping behind the counters to touch
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  Speaker 1: and meddle in places forbidden. Friends dashed against each other
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: with rabbits and magic lanterns, greeted in haste, and were gone,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: amid the sound of musical boxes. Through this tinkle and
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: bleating of little machinery, the murmur of the human heart
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: drifted in and out of Maclean's hearing. Fragments of home-talk, tendernesses, economies,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: intimate first names, and dinner hours. And whether it was
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: joy or sadness, it was in common. the world seemed
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: knit in a single skein of home ties. Two or
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: three came by whose purses must have been slender, and
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: whose purchases were humble and chosen after much nice adjustment.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: And when one plain man dropped a word about both
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: ends meeting, and the woman with him laid a hand
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: on his arm, saying that his children must not feel
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: this year was different, Lin made a step towards them,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: There were hours and spots where he could readily have
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: descended upon them at that, played the role of clinking affluence,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: waved thanks aside with competent blasphemy, and, tossing off some
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: infamous whisky, cantered away in the full self-conscious strut of
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: the frontier. But here was not the moment. The abashed
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: cow-puncher could make no such parade in this place. the
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: people brushed by him back and forth, busy upon their errands,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: and aware of him scarcely more than if he had
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: been a spirit looking on from the helpless dead. And so,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: while these weaving needs and kindnesses of man were within
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: arm's touch of him, he was locked outside with his impulses.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Barker had, in the natural press of customers, long parted
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: from him, to become a immersed in choosing and rejecting.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: And now, with a fair part of his mission accomplished,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: he was ready to go on to the next place,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: and turned to Beck and Maclean. He found him obliterated
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: in a corner, beside a life-sized image of Santa Claus,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: standing as still as the frosty saint.' He looks livelier
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: than you do,' said the hearty governor.' Fraid it's been
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: slow waiting.' No, replied the cow-puncher thoughtfully. No, I guess not.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: This uncertainty was expressed with such gentleness that Barker roared.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: You never did lie to me, he said, long as
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: I've known you. Well, never mind. I've got some real
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: advice to ask you now. At this Mr. MacLean's face
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: grew more alert. Say, Doc, said he. What do you
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: want for Christmas that nobody's likely to give you? A
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: big practice, big enough to interfere with my politics. What else?
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: Things and truck, I mean. Oh, nothing I'll get. People
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: don't give things much to fellows like me. Don't they?
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Don't they? Why, you and Santa Claus weren't putting up
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: any scheme on my stocking. Well... I believe you're in earnest,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: cried His Excellency. That's simply rich. Here was a thing
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: to relish. The frontier comes to town, healed for a
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: big time, finds that presents are all the rage, and
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: must immediately give somebody something. Oh, childlike, miscellaneous frontier! So
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: thought the good-hearted Governor, and it seems a venial misconception.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: My dear fellow, he added, meaning as well as possible,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: I don't want you to spend your money on me.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: I've got plenty all right, said Lynn shortly. Plenty's not
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: the point. I'll take as many drinks as you please
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: with you. You didn't expect anything from me. That ain't,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: that don't. There, of course you didn't. Then what are
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: you getting proud about? Here's our shop. They stepped in
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: from the street to new crowds and counters. Now, pursued
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: the governor, this is for a very particular friend of mine.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Here they are. Now which of those do you like best?
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: They were sets of Tennyson in cases holding little volumes
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: equal in number, but the binding various, and Mr. MacLean
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: reached his decision after one look. That, said he, and
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: laid a large muscular hand upon the laureate. The young
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: lady behind the counter spoke out acidly, and Lynn pulled
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: the abject hand away. His taste, however, happened to be sound,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: or at least it was at one with the governor's.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: But now they learned that there was a distressing variance
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: in the matter of price. The governor stared at the
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: delicate article of his choice. I know that Tennyson is
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: what she— is what's wanted, he muttered, and, feeling himself nudged,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: looked round and saw Lynn's extended fist. This gesture he
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: took for a facetious sympathy, and, dolorously, grasping the hand,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: found himself holding a lump of bills. Sheer amazement relaxed him,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: and the cow-puncher's matted wealth tumbled on the floor in
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: sight of all people. Barker picked it up and gave
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: it back. No, no, no, no, he said, mirthful over
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: his own inclination to be annoyed. You can't do that.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: I'm just as much obliged, Lynn, he added. Just as
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: a loan, Doc, some of it. I'm grass-bellied with spot cash.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: A giggle behind the counter disturbed them both, but the
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: sharp young lady was only dusting. The governor at once said,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: paid haughtily for Tennyson's expensive works, and the cow-puncher pushed
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: his discountenance savings back into his clothes. Making haste to
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: leave the book department of this shop, they regained a
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: mutual ease, and the governor became waggish over Lynn's concern
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: at being too rich. He suggested to him the list
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: of delinquent taxpayers, and the latest census from which to
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: select indigent persons. He had patients, too, whose inveterate pennilessness
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: he could swear cheerfully to. Since you want to bolt
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: from your own money, he remarked. Yes, I'm a green horse,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: assented Mr. MacLean gallantly. Ain't used to the looks of
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: a twenty-dollar bill, and I shy at him. From his face,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: that jocular mask, one might have counted him the most
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: serene and careless of vagrants. and in his words only
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: the ordinary voice of banter spoke to the governor. A
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: good woman, it may well be, would have guessed before
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: this the sensitive soul in the blundering body. But Barker
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: saw just the familiar, whimsical, happy-go-lucky Maclean of old days,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: and so he went gaily and innocently on. treading upon
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: holy ground.' I' ve got it!' he exclaimed.' Give your wife something!'
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: The ruddy cow-puncher grinned. He had passed through the world
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: of woman with but few delays, rejoicing in informal and
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: transient entanglements, and he welcomed the turn which the conversation
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: seemed now to be taking. If you'll give me her
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: name and address, said he, with the future entirely in
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: his mind, why, Laramie and the governor feigned surprise. Say, Doc,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: said Lynn uneasily, none of them ain't married me since
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: I saw you last. Then she hasn't written from Laramie,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: said the hilarious governor. And Mr. MacLean understood and winced
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: in his spirit deep down. Gee whiz, went on Barker,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: I'll never forget you and Lusk that day. But the
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: mask fell now. You're talking of his wife, not mine,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: said the cow-puncher, very quietly, and smiling no more. And, Doc,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: I'm going to say a word to you, for I
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: know you've always been my good friend. I'll never forget
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: that day myself. but I don't want to be reminded
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: of it. I'm a fool, Len, said the governor, generous instantly.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: I never supposed— I know you didn't, Doc. It ain't
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: you that's the fool. And, in a way— in a way—
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Len's speech ended among his crowding memories, and Barker, seeing
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: how wistful his face had turned, waited. But I ain't
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: quite the same fool I was before that happened to me,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: the cowpunchers resumed, though maybe my actions don't show to
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: be wiser. I know that there was better luck than
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: a man like me had any call to look for.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: The sobered barker said simply, Yes, Lynn. He was set
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: to thinking by these words from the unsuspected inner man.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: Out in the bow-leg country, Lynne Maclean had met a
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: woman with thick red cheeks, calling herself by a maiden name,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: and this was his whole knowledge of her when he
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: put her one morning astride a Mexican saddle, and took
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: her fifty miles to a magistrate, and made her his
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: lawful wife, to the best of his ability and belief.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: His sage-brush intimates were confident he would never have done
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: it but for a rival. racing the rival and beating him,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: had swept Mr. Maclean past his own intention, and the
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: marriage was an inadvertence. He'd just bumped into it before
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: he could pull up, they explained, and this casualty, resulting
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: from Mr. Maclean's sporting blood, had entertained several hundred square
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: miles of alkali. For the new-made husband, the joke soon died.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: in the immediate weeks that came upon him, he tasted
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: a bitterness worse than in all his life before, and
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: learned also how deep the woman, when once she begins,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: can sink beneath the man in baseness. That was a
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: knowledge of which he had lived innocent until this time.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: But he carried his outward self serenely, so that citizens
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: in Cheyenne, who saw the cow-puncher with his bride, argued
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: shrewdly that men of that sort liked women of that sort,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: and before the strain had broken his endurance, an unexpected
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: first husband, named Lusk, had appeared one Sunday in the street, prosperous, forgiving,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: and exceedingly drunk. To the arms of Lusk she went
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: back in the public street, deserting Maclean in the presence
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: of Cheyenne. And when Cheyenne saw this, and learned how
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: she had been Mrs. Lusk for eight long, if intermittent, years,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: Cheyenne laughed loudly. Lin Maclean laughed, too, and went about
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: his business, ready to swagger at the necessary moment, and
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: with the necessary kind of joke always ready to shield
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: his hurt spirit. And soon, of course, the matter grew stale,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: seldom raked up in the bow-leg country, and where Lynn
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: had been at work, so lately he had begun to
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: remember other things besides the smouldering humiliation.' Is she with him?'
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: he asked Barker, and musingly listened while Barker told him.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: The governor had thought to make it a racy story,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: with the moral that the joke was now on Lusk,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: but that inner man had spoken, and revealed the cow-puncher
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: to him in a new and complicated light. Hence he
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: quieted the proposed lively cadence and vocabulary of his anecdote
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: about the House of Lusk, and instead of narrating how Mrs.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: beat Mr. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and Mr. took
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: his turn the odd days, thus setting one ahead of
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: his lady, while the kid Lusk had outlined his opinion
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: of the family by recently skipping to parts unknown. Barker
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: detailed these incidents more gravely, adding that Laramie believed Mrs.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Lusk addicted to opium.' I don't guess I'll leave my
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: card on him,' said MacLean grimly,' if I strike Laramie.''
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: You don't mind my saying I think you're well out
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: of that scrape,' Barker ventured.' Shucks, no. That's all right, Doc. Only,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: you see now, a man gets tired pretending, once in
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: a while.' Time had gone while they were in talk,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: and it was now half after one, and Mr. MacLean
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: late for that long-plotted first square meal. So the friends
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: shook hands, wishing each other Merry Christmas, and the cow-puncher
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: hastened toward his chosen companions through the stirring cheerfulness of
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: the season. His play-hour had made a dull beginning among
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: the toys. He had come upon people engaged in a
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: pleasant game, and waited, shy and well disposed, for some
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: bidding to join, but they had gone on playing with
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: one another and left him out. And now he went
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: along in a sort of hurry to escape from that
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: loneliness where his human promptings had been lodged with him useless.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Here was Cheyenne, full of holiday for sale, and he
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: with his pockets full of money to buy. And when
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: he thought of Shorty and Chalk-Eye and Dollar Bill, those
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: dandies to hit town with, he stepped out with a
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: brisk false hope. It was with a mental hurrah and
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: a foretaste of a good time coming that he put
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: on his town clothes, after shaving and admiring himself, and
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: sat down to the square meal. He ate away and
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: drank with a robust imitation of enjoyment that took in
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: even himself at first. but the sorrowful process of his
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: spirit went on, for all he could do. As he
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: groped for the contentment which he saw around him, he
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: began to receive the jokes with counterfeit mirth. Memories took
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: the place of anticipation, and through their moody shiftings he
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: began to feel a distaste for the company of his
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: friends and a shrinking from their lively voices. He blamed
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: them for this at once. He was surprised to think
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: he had never recognized before how light a weight was Shorty,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: and here was Chalk-Eye, who knew better, talking religion after
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: two glasses. Presently this attack of noticing his friend's shortcomings
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: mastered him, and his mind, according to its wont, changed
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: at a stroke.' I' m celebrating no Christmas with this crowd,'
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: said the inner man, and When they had next remembered
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: Lynne MacLean in their hilarity, he was gone. Governor Barker,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: finishing his purchase at half-past three, went to meet a
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: friend come from Evanston. Mr. MacLean was at the railway
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: station buying a ticket for Denver.' Denver!' exclaimed the amazed Governor.'
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: That' s what I said,' stated Mr. MacLean doggedly.' Sufferin' Moses!'
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: said His Excellency.' What are you going to do there?
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: Get good and drunk. Can't you find enough whiskey in Cheyenne?
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: I'm drinking champagne this trip. The cow-puncher went out on
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: the platform and got aboard, and the train moved off.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Barker had walked out, too, in his surprise, and as
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: he stared after the last car, Mr. MacLean waved his
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: white hat defiantly and went inside the door. And he
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: says he's got maturity, Barker muttered. I've known him since seventy-nine,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: and he's kept about eight years old right along. The
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: Governor was cross and sorry, and presently crosser. His jokes
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: about Lynn's marriage came back to him, and put him
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: in a rage with the departed fool. Yes, about eight.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: Or six, said His Excellency, justified. himself by the past.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: For he had first known Lin, the boy of nineteen,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: supreme in length of limb and recklessness, breaking horses and
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: feeling for an early moustache. Next, when the moustache was
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: nearly accomplished, He had mended the boy's badly broken thigh
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: at dry bone. His skill, and Lynn's spotless health, had
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: wrought so swift a healing that the surgeon overflowed with
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: the pride of science, and over the bandages would explain
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: the human body technically to his wild-eyed and flattered patient.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: Thus young Lynn heard all about tibia and comminuted and
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: other glorious new words, and when sleepless would rehearse them. Then,
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: with the bone so nearly knit that the patient might
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: leave the ward on crutches to sit each morning in
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: Barker's room as a privilege, the disobedient child of twenty-one
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: had slipped out of the hospital and hobbled hastily to
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: the hog-ranch, where whisky and variety waited for a languishing convalescent.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: Here he grew gay, and was soon carried back with
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: the leg refractured. Yet Barker's surgical rage was disarmed. The
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: patient was so forlorn over his doctor's professional chagrin.' I
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: suppose it ain't no better this morning, Doc,' he had said, humbly,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: after a new week of bed and waits.' Your right
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: leg's going to be shorter, that's all.'' Oh, gosh!' I've
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: been and spoiled your comminuted femur. Ain't I a son
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: of a gun? He could not chide such a boy
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: as this, and in time's due course he had walked
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: jauntily out into the world, with legs of equal length
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: after all, and in his stride the slightest halt possible.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: And Dr. Barker had missed the child's conversation. Today his
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: moustache was a perfected thing, he in the late end
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: of his twenties. He'll wake up about noon to-morrow in
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: a dive, without a cent, said Barker. Then he'll come
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: back in a freight, and begin all over. CHAPTER III.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: A TRANSACTION IN BOOT-BLACKING At the Denver station, Lynn McLean
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: passed through the shoutings and omnibuses and came to the
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: beginning of 17th Street, where is the first saloon. A
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: customer was ordering hot scotch, and because he liked the
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: smell and had not thought of the mixture for a
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: number of years, Lynn took hot scotch. Coming out upon
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: the pavement, he looked across and saw a saloon opposite,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: with brighter globes and windows more prosperous. That should have
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: been his choice. Lemon-peel would undoubtedly be fresher over there,
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: and over he went at once to begin the whole
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: thing properly. In such frozen weather, no drink could be
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: more timely, and he sat to enjoy without haste its
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: mellow fitness. Once again on the pavement, He looked along
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: the street towards Uptown beneath the crisp cold electric lights,
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: and three little bootlacks gathered where he stood and cried, Shine! Shine!
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: at him. Remembering that you took the third turn to
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: the right to get to the best dinner in Denver,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: Lynn hit on the skillful plan of stopping at all
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: hot scotches between. But the next occurred within a few yards,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: and it was across the street. this one being attained
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: and appreciated, he found that he must cross back again,
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: or skip number four. At this rate he would not
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: be dining in time to see much of the theatre,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: and he stopped to consider. It was a German place
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: he had just quitted, and a huge light poured out
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: on him from its window, which the proprietor's fatherland sentiment
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: had made into a show. Light shone among a well-set pine-forest,
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: where beery jovial gnomes sat on roots and reached upward
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: to Santa Claus. He, grinning, fat, and Teutonic, held on
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: his right hand forever a foaming glass, and forever in
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: his left a string of sausages, that dangled down among
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: the gnomes. With his American back to this, the cow-puncher,
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: wearing the same serious absent face he had not changed
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: since he ran away from himself at Cheyenne, considered carefully
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: the hot scotch question, and which side of the road
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: to take and stick to, while the little boot-blacks found
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: him once more, and cried, Shine! Shine! monotonous as snowbirds.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: He settled to stay over here with the south-side scotches,
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: and the little one-note song reaching his attention, he suddenly
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: shoved his foot at the nearest boy, who lightly sprang away.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: Dare you touch him, piped a snowbird dangerously. They were
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: in short trousers, and the eldest enemy, it may be,
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: was ten. Don't hit me, said Mr. Maclean. I'm innocent. Well,
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: you leave him be, said one. What's he laying to
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: kick you for, Billy? Taint your pop, is it? Nah,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: said Billy in scorn. Father never kicked me. Don't know
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: who he is. He's a special, shrilled the leading bird sensationally.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: He's got a badge, and he's going to arrest you.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: Two of them hopped instantly to the safe middle of
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: the street and scattered with practiced strategy. But Billy stood
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: his ground. Dare you to arrest me, said he. What'll
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: you give me not to, inquired Lynn, and he put
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: his hands in his pockets, arms akimbo. Nothing. I've done nothing,
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: announced Billy firmly. But even in the last syllable his
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: voice suddenly failed, a terror filled his eyes, and he
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: too sped into the middle of the street. What's he
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: claim you lifted? inquired the leader with eagerness. Tell him
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: you haven't been inside a store to-day. We can prove it,
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: they screamed to the special officer. Say, said the slow-spoken
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: Lynn from the pavement, You're poor judges of a badge,
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: you fellows. His tone pleased them where they stood, wide
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: apart from one another. Mr. MacLean also remained stationary in
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: the bluish illumination of the window. Why, if any policeman
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: was caught wearing this here, said he, following his sprightly invention,
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: he'd get arrested himself. This struck them extremely. They began
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: to draw together, Billy lingering the last. If it's your idea,
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: pursued Mr. MacLean alluringly, as the three took cautious steps
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: nearer the curb, that blue-clasped hands in a circle of
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: red stars gives the bearer the right to put folks
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: in the jug. Why, I'll get somebody else to black
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: my boots for a dollar. The three made a swift rush,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: fell on simultaneous knees, and clattering their boxes down, began
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: to spit in an industrious circle. Easy, wheedled Mr. MacLean,
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: and they looked up at him, staring and fascinated. Not
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: having three feet, said the cow-puncher, always grave and slow,
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: I can only give two this here job. He's got
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: a big pistol and a belt, exulted the leader, who
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: had precociously felt beneath Lynn's coat. You're a smart boy,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: said Lynn, considering him, and you'd find a man out
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: right away. Now you stand off and tell me all
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: about myself while they fix the boots, and a dollar
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: goes to the quickest through. Young Billy and his toe-headed
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: competitor flattened down, each to a boot, with all their might,
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: while the leader ruefully contemplated Mr. MacLean. That's a Colt.
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: 45 you've got, ventured he. Right again.' Someday, maybe, you'll
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: be wearing one of your own, if the angels don't
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: pull you before you're ripe.'' I' m through,' sang out Toehead,
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: rising in haste. Small Billy was struggling still, but leaped
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: at that, and the two heads bobbing to a level together,
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: and Mr. MacLean, looking down, saw that the arrangement had
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: not been a good one for the boots.' Will you
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: kindly referee,' said he, forgivingly to the leader, and decide
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: which of them smears is the awfulest. But the leader
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: looked the other way, and played upon a mouth-organ. Well,
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: that saves me money, said Mr. Maclean, jingling his pocket.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: I guess you've both won. He handed each of them
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: a dollar. Now, he continued, I just dastn't show these
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: boots uptown, so this time it's a dollar for the
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: best shine. The two went palpitating at their brushes again.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: and the leader played his mouth-organ with brilliant unconcern. Lynn,
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: tall and brooding, leaned against the jutting sill of the window,
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: a figure somehow plainly strange in town, while through the
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: bright plate-glass Santa Claus, holding out his beer and sausages,
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: perpetually beamed. Billy was laboring gallantly, but it was labor,
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: the cow-puncher perceived, and Billy no seasoned expert. See here,
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: said Lynn stooping, I'll show you how it's done. He's
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: playing that tune cross-eyed enough to steer anybody crooked. There,
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: keep your blacking soft, and work with a dry brush. Lemmy,
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: said Billy, I've got to learn. so he finished the
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: boot his own way with wiry determination, breathing and repolishing,
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: and this event was also adjudged a dead heat, with
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: results gratifying to both parties. So here was their work done,
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: and more money in their pockets than from all the
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: other boots and shoes of this day, and Towhead and
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: Billy did not wish for further trade, but to spend
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: this handsome fortune as soon as might be. Yet they
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: delayed in the brightness of the window, drawn by curiosity,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: near this new kind of man, whose voice held them,
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: and whose remarks dropped them into constant uncertainty. Even the
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: omitted leader had been unable to go away and nurse
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: his pride alone.' Is that a secret society?' inquired Towhead,
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: lifting a finger at the badge. Mr. MacLean nodded.' Durable.'
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: said he.' You' re a Wells Fargo detective,' asserted the leader.'
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: Play your harp,' said Lynn.' Are you a— a— a desperado?' whispered Towhead.' Oh, my!'
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: observed Mr. MacLean sadly.' What has our Jack been reading?''
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: He' s a cattleman,' cried Billy.' I seen his heels.'' That' s you,'
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: said the discovered puncher, with approval.' You' ll do.' But I
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: bet you can't tell me what we wearers of this
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: badge have sworn to do this night. At this they
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: craned their necks and glared at him. We are sworn,
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: don't you jump now and give me away, sworn to
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: blow off three boot-blacks to a dinner. Ah, pshaw! they
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: backed away, bristling with distrust. That's the oath, fellas. You
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: may as well make your minds up. for I have
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: it to do. Dare you to? Ah! And after dinner
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: it's the opera-house to see The Children of Captain Grant.
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: They screamed shrilly at him, keeping off beyond the curb.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: I can't waste my time on such smart boys, said Mr. MacLean,
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: rising to his full height from the windowsill. I am
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: going somewhere to find boys that ain't so durable quick
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: stampeded by a roast turkey. He began to lounge slowly away,
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: serious as he had been throughout, and they, stopping their
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: noise short, swiftly picked up their boxes and followed him.
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: Some change in the current of electricity that fed the
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: window disturbed its sparkling light, so that Santa Claus, with
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: his arms stretched out behind the departing cow-puncher, seemed to
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: be smiling more broadly from the midst of his flingering brilliance.
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: CHAPTER IV. TURKEY AND RESPONSIBILITY On their way to Turkey,
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: the host and his guests exchanged but few remarks. He
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: was full of good will, and threw off a comment
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: or two that would have led to conversation under almost
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: any circumstances save these. But the minds of the guests
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: were too distracted by this whole state of things for
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: them to be capable of more than keeping after Mr.
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: Maclean in silence, at a wary interval, and with their mouths,
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: during most of the journey, open. The badge, the pistol,
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: their patron's talk, and the unusual dollars, wakened wide their
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: bent for the unexpected, their street affinity for the spur
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: of the moment. They believed slimly in the turkey part
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: of it, but what this man might do next, to
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: be there when he did it, and not to be trapped,
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: kept their wits jumping deliciously. So when they saw him stop,
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: they stopped instantly, too, ten feet out of reach. This
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: was Denver's most civilized restaurant, that one which Mr. MacLean
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: had remembered with foreign dishes and private rooms, where he
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: had promised himself, among other things, champagne. Mr. MacLean had
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: never been inside it, but heard a tale from a friend,
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: and now he caught a sudden sight of people among
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: geraniums with plumes and white shirt-fronts, very elegant. It must
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: have been several minutes that he stood contemplating the entrance
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: and the luxurious couples who went in. Plum French, he
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: observed at length, and then shucks in a key less confident,
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: while his guests, ten feet away, watched him narrowly. They're
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: eating patty de parlez-vous in there, he muttered, and the
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: three bootblacks came beside him. Say, fellows, said Lynn confidingly,
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: I wasn't raised good enough for them dude dishes. What
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: do you say? I'm after a place where you can
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: mention oyster stew without giving anybody a fit. What do
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: you say, boys? That lighted the divine spark of brotherhood. Ah,
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: you come along with us. We'll take you. You don't
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: want to go in there. We'll show you the boss
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: place in Market Street. We won't lose you. So shouting
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: together in their shrill little city trebles, they clustered about him,
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: and one pulled at his coat to start him. He
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: started obediently, and walked in their charge, they leading the way.'
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: Christmas is coming now, sure,' said Lin, grinning to himself.'
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: It ain't exactly what I figured on.' It was the
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: first time he had laughed since Cheyenne, and he brushed
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: a hand over his eyes that were dim with the
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: new warmth in his heart. Believing at length in him
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: and his turkey, the alert street faces, so suspicious of
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: the unknown, looked at him with ready intimacy as they
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: went along. And soon, in the friendly desire to make
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: him acquainted with Denver, the three were patronizing him. Only Billy, perhaps,
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: now and then, stole at him a doubtful look. The
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: large country mouse listened solemnly to his three town mice,
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: who presently introduced him to the place in Market Street.
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: It was not Boss, precisely, and Denver knows better neighborhoods,
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: but the turkey and the oyster stew were there, with
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: ketchup and vegetables in season, and several choices of pie.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: Here the country mouse became again efficient, and to witness
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: his liberal mastery of ordering and imagine his pocket and
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: its wealth, which they had heard and partly seen, renewed
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: in the guests a transient awe. As they dined, however,
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: and found the host as frankly ravenous as themselves, this
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: reticence evaporated, and they all grew fluent with oaths and opinions.
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: At one or two words, indeed, Mr. Maclean stared and
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: had a slight sense of blushing.' Have a cigarette?' said
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: the leader, over his pie.' Thank you,' said Lynde. I
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: won't smoke if you'll excuse me. He had devised a
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: wholesome meal with water to drink. Chewin's no good at meals,
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: continued the boy. Don't you use tobacco? Once in a while.
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: The leader spat brightly. He ain't learned yet, said he,
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: slanting his elbows at Billy and sliding a match over
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: his rump. But beer now, I never seen anything in it.
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: He and Toehead soon left Billy and his callow profanities behind,
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: and engaged in a town conversation that silenced him and
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: set him listening with all his admiring young might. Nor
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: did Mr. Maclean join in the talk, but sat embarrassed
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: by this knowledge, which seemed about as much as he
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: knew himself. I'll be goshed, he thought, if I'd caught
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: on to half that when I was drinking about in
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: short pants. Maybe they grow up quicker now. but now
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: the country mouse perceived billy's eager and attentive apprenticeship hello
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: boys he said that theatre's got a big start on
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: us they had all forgotten he had said anything about
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: theatre and other topics left their impatience minds while the
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: country mouse paid the bill and asked to be guided
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: to the opera house. This man here will look out
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: for your blackening truck and let you have it in
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: the morning. They were very late. The spectacle had advanced
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: far into passages of the highest thrill. and Denver's eyes
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: were riveted upon a ship and some icebergs. The party
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: found its seats during several beautiful limelight effects, and that
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: remarkable fly-buzzing of violins which is pronounced so helpful in
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: times of peril and sentiment. The children of Captain Grant
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: had been tracking their father all over the equator and
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: other scenic spots, and now the North Pole was about
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: to impale them. the captain's youngest child, perceiving a hummock
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: rushing at them with a sudden motion, loudly shouted, Sister,
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: the ice is closing in! And Sister replied chastely, Then
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: let us pray. It was a superb tableau. The ice split,
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: and the sun rose, and joggled at once to the zenith.
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: The act-drop fell, and male Denver, wrung to its religious deeps,
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: went out to the rum-shop. Of course, Mr. MacLean and
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: his party did not do this. The party had applauded
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: exceedingly the defeat of the elements, and the leader, with tow-head,
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: discussed the probable chances of the ships getting farther south
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: in the next act. Until lately, Billy's doubt of the
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: cow-puncher had lingered, but during this intermission whatever had been
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: holding out in him seemed won, and in his eyes,
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: that he turned stealthily upon his unconscious, quiet neighbor, shone
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: the beginnings of hero-worship.' Don' t you think this is splendid?'
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: said he.' Splendid!' Lin replied, a trifle remotely.' Don' t you
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: like it when they all get balled up and get
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: out that way?'' H' m,' said Lin.' Don' t you guess it's
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: just girls, though, that do that?'' What, young fellow?' Why,
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: all that prayer-saying and stuff. I guess it must be.
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: She said to do it when the ice scared her, and,
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: of course, a man had to do what she wanted him. Sure. Well,
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: do you believe they'd have done it if she hadn't
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: been on that boat and clung round and cried and
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: everything and made her friends feel bad? I hardly expect
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: they would, replied the honest Len, and then suddenly, mindful
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: of Billy, EXCEPT THERE WASN'T NOTHING ELSE THEY COULD THINK OF,
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: HE ADDED, WISHING TO SPEAK FAVORABLY OF THE CUSTOM. WHY,
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: THAT CHUNK OF ICE WEREN'T SO AWFUL BIG ANYHOW. I'D
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: HAVE SHOVED HER OFF WITH A POLE, WOULDN'T YOU? BUTTERED
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: HER LIKE A RAM, EXCLAIMED MR. MCLANE. WELL, I DON'T
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: SAY MY PRAYERS ANYMORE. I TOLD MR. PERKINS I WASN'T
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: A-GONE TO, AND HE— I THINK HE'S A FLOOD-DUB ANYWAY.' I' ll
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: bet he is,' said Lynn sympathetically. He was scarcely a
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: prudent guardian. I told him straight, and he looked at me,
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: and down he flops on his knees, and he made
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: them all flop, but I told him I didn't care
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: for them putting up any camp-meeting over me. And he says,'
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: I' ll lick you,' and I says,' Dare you to?' I
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: told him Mother kept a lick of me for nothing,
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: and I'd not pray for her, not in Sunday school
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: or anywhere else. Do you pray much?' No,' replied Lin uneasily.' There.
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: I told him a man did, and he said then
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: a man went to hell. You lie. Father ain't going
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: to hell, I says, and you'd ought to heard the
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: first class laugh right out loud, girls and boys. And
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: he was that mad. But I didn't care. I came
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: here with fifty cents. It must have felt like a millionaire. Ah!'
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: I felt all right. I bought papers and sold them,
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: and got more and saved and got my box and
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: blacking outfit. I weren't going to be licked by her
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: just because she felt like it, and she feeling like
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: it most any time. Let me see your pistol. You wait,
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: said Lynn. After this show is through, I'll put it
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: on you. Will you honest? Belt and everything? Did you
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: ever shoot a bear? Lord, lots! Honest? Silver tips? Silver tips? Cinnamon? Black?
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: And I roped a cub once. Oh, I never shot
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: a bear. You'd ought to try it. I'm a-goin' to.
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: I'm a-goin' to camp out in the mountains. I like
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: to see you when you camp. I'd like to camp
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: with you. Mightn't I sometime? Billy had drawn near to
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: Lynn and was looking up at him adoringly. You bet,
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: said Lynn, and though he did not, perhaps, entirely mean this,
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: it was with a curiously softened face that he began
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: to look at Billy. As with dogs and his horse,
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: so always he played with what children he met, the
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: few in his sagebrush world. But this was ceasing to
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: be quite play for him, and his hand went to
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: the boy's shoulder. Father took me camping with him once,
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: the time mother was off, Father gets awful drunk, too.
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: I've quit Laramie for good. Lynn sat up, and his
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: hand gripped the boy. Laramie, said he, almost shouting. Ya, ya,
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: is your name Lusk? But the boy had shrunk from
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: him instantly. You're not going to take me home, he
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: piteously wailed. Heavens and heavens, murmured Lynn MacLean, so you're
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: her kid. he relaxed again, down in his chair, his
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: legs stretched their straight length below the chair in front.
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: He was waked from his bewilderment by a brushing under him,
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: and there was young Billy, diving for escape to the aisle,
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: like the cornered city mouse that he was. Lynn nipped
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: that poor little attempt, and had the limp Billy seated
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: inside again before the two in discussion beyond had seen anything.
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: He had said not a word to the boy, and
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: now watched his unhappy eyes seizing upon the various exits
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: and dispositions of the theatre. Nor could he imagine anything
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: to tell him that would restore the perished confidence. Why
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: did you head him off? he asked himself unexpectedly, and
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: found that he did not seem to know. But as
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: he watched the restless and estranged runaway, he grew more
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: and more sorrowful. I just hate him to think that
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: of me, he reflected. The curtain rose, and he saw
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: Billy make up his mind to wait until they should
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: all be going out in the crowd. While the children
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: of Captain Grant grew hotter and hotter upon their father's
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: geographic trail, Lynn sat saying to himself a number of contradictions.
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: He's nothing to me. What's any of them to me?
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: Driven to bay by his bewilderment, He restated the facts
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: of the past. Why, she deserted him, and Lusk, before
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: she'd ever laid eyes on me. I needn't to bother myself.
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: He wasn't never even my step-kid. The past, however, brought
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: no guidance. Lord, what's the thing to do about this?
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: If I had any home— This is a stinking world,
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: in some respect, said Mr. MacLean, aloud, unknowingly. The lady
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: in the chair beneath which the cow-puncher had his legs
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: nudged her husband. They took it for emotion over the
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: sad fortunes of Captain Grant, and their backs shook. Presently
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: each turned, and saw the singular man with untamed, wide-opened
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: eyes glowing at the stage, and both backs shook again.
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: Once more his hand was laid on Billy.' Say!' The
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: boy glanced at him, and quickly away. Look at me,
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: and listen. Billy swervingly obeyed. I ain't after you, and
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: never was. This here's your business, not mine. Are you
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: listening good? The boy made a nod, and Lynn proceeded whispering,
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: You've got no call to believe what I say to you.
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: You've been lied to, I guess, pretty often. So I'll
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: not stop you running and hiding. and I'll never give
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: it away I saw you. But you keep doing what
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: you please. I'll just go now. I've saw all I want,
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: but you and your friends stay with it till it quits.
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: If you happen to wish to speak to me about
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: that pistol or bears, you come round to Smith's Palace.
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: That's the boss hotel here, ain't it? And if you
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: don't come too late, I'll not be gone to bed.
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: By this time of night, I'm liable to get sleepy.
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: Tell your friends goodbye for me, and be good to yourself.
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: I've appreciated your company. Mr. Maclean entered Smith's palace, and,
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: engaging a room with two beds in it, did a
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: little delicate lying by means of the truth. It's a
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: lost boy, a runaway, he told the clerk. He'll not
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: be extra clean, I expect, if he does come. Maybe
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: he'll give me the slip, and I'll have a job
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: cut out to-morrow. I'll thank you to put my money
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: in your safe. The clerk placed himself at the disposal
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: of the Secret Service, and Len walked up and down,
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: looking at the railroad photographs for some ten minutes, when
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: Master Billy peered in from the street. Hello, said Mr.
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: MacLean casually, and returned to a fine picture of Pike's Peak.
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: Billy observed him for a space, and, receiving no further attention,
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: came stepping along. I'm not a-going back to Laramie, he
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: stated warningly. I wouldn't, said Lynn. It ain't half the
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: town Denver is. Well, good night. Sorry you couldn't call sooner.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: I'm dead sleepy. Oh, Billy stood blank. I wish I'd
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: shook the darned old show. Say, let me black your
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: boots in the morning. Not sure my train don't go
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: too early. I'm up, I'm up. I get around to
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: all of them. Where do you sleep? Sleeping with the
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: engine man now. Why can't you put that on me tonight?
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: Go on upstairs. This gentleman wouldn't let you go upstairs.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: But the earnestly petitioned clerk consented, and Billy was the
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: first to hasten into the room. He stood rapturous while
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: Lynn buckled the belt around his scanty stomach and ingeniously
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: buttoned the suspenders outside the accoutrement to retard its immediate
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: descent to earth. Did you ever kill a man? asked Billy.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: touching the six-shooter. No, it ain't never had to do that,
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: but I expect maybe it stopped some killing me. Oh,
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: leave me wear it just a minute. Do you collect arrowheads?
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: I think they're bully. There's the finest one you've ever seen.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: He brought out the relic, tightly wrapped in paper, several pieces.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: I found it myself, camping with father. It was sticking
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: in a crack right on top of a rock, but
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: nobody's seen it till I came along. Ain't it fine? Mr.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: McLean pronounced it a gem. Father and me found a lot,
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: and they made Mother mad lying around, and she throwed
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: them out. She takes stuff from Kelly's. Who's Kelly? He
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: keeps the drugstore at Laramie. Mother gets awful funny. That's
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: how she was when I came home. For I told Mr.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: Perkins he lied, and I ran then, and I knowed
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: well enough she'd lick me when she got through her spell,
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: and father can't stop her, and I— ah, I was sick
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: of it. She's lamed me up twice beating me, and
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: Perkins wanting me to say, God bless my mother, a-getting
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: up and a-going to bed. He's a flub-dub. And so
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: I cleared out. But I just as leaves said for
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: God to bless father, and you. I'll do it now,
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: if you say it's any sense. MacLean sat down in
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: a chair.' Don' t you do it now,' said he.' You
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: wouldn't like mother,' Billy continued.' You can keep that.' He
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: came to Lynn and placed the arrowhead in his hands,
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: standing beside him.' Do you like bird's eggs? I collect them.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: I got twenty-five kinds— sage- hen and blue-grouse and willow-grouse and lots
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: more kinds harder.' but I couldn't bring all them from Laramie.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: I brought the magpies, though. Do you care to see
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: a magpie egg? Well, you stay to-morrow, and I'll show
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: you that, and some other things I got the engine-man
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: lets me keep there, for there's boys that would steal
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: an egg. And I could take you where we could
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: fire that pistol. Bet you don't know what that is.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: He brought out a small tin box, shaped like a thimble,
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: in which were things that rattled. Mr. MacLean gave it up.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: That's kinnikick seed. You can have that, for I got
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: some more with the engine-man. Lynn received this second token also,
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: and thanked the giver for it. His first feeling had
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: been to prevent the boy's parting with his treasures, but
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: something that came not from the polish of manners and
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: experience made him know that he should take them. Billy
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: talked away. laying bare his little soul. The street-boy that
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: was not quite come made place for the child that
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: was not quite gone, and unimportant words and confidences dropped
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: from him, disjointed, as he climbed to the knee of Mr. Maclean,
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: and inadvertently took that cow-puncher for some sort of parent
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: he had not hitherto met. It lasted but a short while, however,
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: for he went to sleep in the middle of a sentence,
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: with his head upon Lynn's breast. The man held him
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: perfectly still, because he had not the faintest notion that
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: Billy would be impossible to disturb. At length he spoke
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: to him, suggesting that bed might prove more comfortable, and,
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: finding how it was, rose and undressed the boy and
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: laid him between the sheets. The arms and legs seemed
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: aware of the moves required of them, and stirred conveniently.
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: And directly the head was upon the pillow, the whole
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: small frame burrowed down, without the opening of an eye
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: or a change in the breathing. Len stood some time
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: by the bedside, with his eyes on the long curling
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: lashes and the curly hair. Then he glanced craftily at
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: the door of the room and at himself in the looking-glass.
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: He stooped and kissed Billy on the forehead, and, rising
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: from that, gave himself a hang-dog stare in the mirror,
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: and soon in his own bed was sleeping the sound
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: sleep of health. CHAPTER V. OF A JOURNEY IN SEARCH
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: OF CHRISTMAS by Owen Wister. This LibriVox recording is in
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: the public domain. CHAPTER V. SANTA CLAUS LYNN He was
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: faintly roused by the church bells, and lay still, lingering
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: with his sleep, his eyes closed and his thoughts unshaped.
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: As he became slowly aware of the morning, the ringing
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: and the light reached him, and he waked wholly, and,
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: still lying quiet, considered the strange room filled with the
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: bells and the sun of the winter's day.' Where have
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: I struck now?' he inquired, and as last night returned
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: abruptly upon his mind, he raised himself on his arm.
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: There sat Responsibility in a chair, washed clean and dressed,
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: watching him.' You' re awful late,' said Responsibility,' but I weren't
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: a-goin' without tellin' you good-by.'' Go!' exclaimed Len.' Go where?
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: You surely ain't leaving me to eat breakfast alone.' The
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: cow-puncher made his voice very plaintive. Set responsibility free after
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: all his trouble to catch him, this was more than
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: he could do.' I' ve got to go. If I'd thought
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: you'd want for me to stay— why, you said you was
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: a-going by the early train—' But the durned things got
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: away on me, said Lin, smiling sweetly from the bed.
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: If I hadn't a promised them. Who? Sidney Ellis and
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: Pete Good. Why, you know them. You grubbed with them. Shucks!
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: We're a-goin' to have fun to-day. Oh? For it's Christmas,
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: and we've bought some good cigars, and Pete says he'll
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: learn me sure. Course, I've smoked some, you know, but
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: I'd just as leave stay with you if I'd only
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: knowed sooner. I wish you lived here. Did you smoke
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: whole big cigars when you was beginning? Do you like
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: flapjacks and maple syrup? inquired the artful McLean. That's what
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: I'm figuring on inside twenty minutes. Twenty minutes? If they'd wait!
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: See here, Bill, they've quit expecting you, don't you think?
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: I'd ought to waked you, you see, but I slept
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: and slept and kept you from meeting your engagements, you see,
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: for you couldn't go, of course. A man couldn't treat
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: a man that way now, could he? Course he couldn't,
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: said Billy, brightening. And they wouldn't wait, you see. They
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: wouldn't fool away Christmas. That only comes once a year,
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: kicking their heels and saying, Where's Billy? They'd say, Bill
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: has sure made other arrangements which he'll explain to us
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: at his leisure, and they'd skip with the cigars. The
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: advocate paused effectively, and from his bolster regarded Billy with
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: a convincing eye. That's so, said Billy. And where would
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: you be then, Bill? In the street, out of friends,
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: out of Christmas, and left both ways, no tobacco and
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: no flapjacks. Now, Bill, what you say to us putting
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: up a Christmas deal together, just you and me?'' I' d
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: like that,' said Billy.' Is it all day?'' I was
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: thinking of all day,' said Lynn.' I' ll not make you
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: do anything you'd rather not.' Ah, they can smoke without me,
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: said Billy, with sudden acrimony. I'll see him to-morrow. That's you,
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: cried Mr. MacLean. Now, Bill, you hustle down and tell
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: them to keep a table for us. I'll get my
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: clothes on and follow you. The boy went, and Mr.
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: MacLean procured hot water and dressed himself, tying his scarf
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: with great care. Wished I'd a clean shirt, said he,
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: but I don't look— Very bad. Shaven yesterday afternoon was
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: a good move. He picked up the arrowhead and the guinea-guinea,
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: and was particular to store them in his safest pocket.'
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: I ain't sure whether you're crazy or not,' said he
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: to the man in the looking-glass.' I ain't never been sure.'
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: And he slammed the door and went downstairs. He found
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: young Bill on guard over a table for four, with
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: all the chairs tilted against it as a warning to strangers.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: No one sat at any other table or came into
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: the room, for it was late, and the place quite
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: emptied of breakfasters, and the several entertained waiters had gathered
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: behind Billy's important looking back. Lynn provided a thorough meal,
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: and Billy pronounced the flannel cakes superior to flapjacks, which
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: were not upon the bill of fare. I'd like to
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: see you often, said he. I'll come and see you
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: if you don't live too far. That's the trouble, said
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: the cow-puncher. I do. Awful far. He stared out of
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: the window. Well, I might come some time. I wish
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: you'd write me a letter. Can you write? What's that?
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: Can I write? Oh, yes. I can write, and I
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: can read, too. I've been to school in Sydney, Nebraska.
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: and Magaw, Kansas, and Salt Lake. That's the finest town,
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: except Denver. Billy fell into that wonderful strain of comment which,
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: unreplied to, yet goes on content and self-sustaining, while Mr.
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: MacLean gave amiable signs of assent, but chiefly looked out
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: of the window, and, when the now interested waiter said
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: respectfully that he desired to close the room, They went
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: out to the office, where the money was got out
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: of the safe and the bill paid. The streets were
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: full of the bright sun, and seemingly at Denver gates
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: stood the mountains. An air crisp and pleasant wafted from
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: their peaks. No smoke hung among the roofs, and the
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: sky spread wide over the city without a stain. It
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: was holiday up among the chimneys and tall buildings— and
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: down among the quiet ground-stores below as well, and presently
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: from their scattered pinnacles through the town the bells broke
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: out against the jocund silence of the morning.' Don' t you
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: like music?' inquired Billy.' Yes,' said Len. Ladies with their
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: husbands and children were passing and meeting orderly yet gayer
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: than if it were only Sunday. and the salutations of
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: Christmas came now and again to the cow-puncher's ears. But today,
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: possessor of his own share in this, Lynn looked at
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: everyone with a sort of friendly challenge, and young Billy
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: talked along beside him. Don't you think we could go
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: in here? Billy asked. A church door was open, and
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: the rich organ sounded through to the pavement. They've good
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: music here, and they keep it up without much talking between.
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: I've been in lots of times. They went in and
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: sat to hear the music. Better than the organ, it
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: seemed to them, were the harmonious voices raised from somewhere outside,
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: like unexpected visitants, and the pair sat in their back seat,
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: too deep in, listening to the processional hymn, to think
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: of rising in decent imitation of those around them. The
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: crystal melody of the refrain especially reached their understandings, and
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: when for the fourth time, shout the glad tidings, exultingly sing,
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: peeled forth and ceased, both the delighted faces fell. Don't
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: you wish there was more? Billy whispered. Wish there was
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: a hundred verses, answered Lynn. But canticles and responses followed,
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: with so little talking between them they were held spellbound,
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: seldom thinking to rise or kneel. Len's eyes roved over
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: the church, dwelling upon the pillars in their evergreen, the
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: flowers and leafy wreaths, the texts of white and gold. Peace,
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: goodwill towards men, he read. That's so. Peace and goodwill. Yes,
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: that's so. I expect they got that somewhere in the Bible.
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: It's awful good, and you never think of it yourself.
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: There was a touch on his arm, and a woman
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: handed a book to him.' This is the hymn we
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: have now,' she whispered gently, and Lynn, blushing scarlet, took
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: it passively without a word. He and Billy stood up
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: and held the book together, dutifully reading the words, came
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: upon the midnight clear that glorious song of old, from
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold,
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: Peace on the earth. This tune was more beautiful than all,
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: and Lynn lost himself in it, until he found Billy
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: recalling him with a finger upon the words, the concluding ones,
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: and the whole world sent back the song which now
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: the angels sing. The music rose and descended to its
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: lovely and simple end, and for a second time in Denver,
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: Lynn brushed a hand across his eyes. He turned his
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: face from his neighbor, frowning crossly, and, since the heart
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: has reasons which reason does not know, he seemed to
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: himself a fool. But when the service was over and
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: he came out, he repeated again, Peace and good-will. WHEN
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: I RUN ON TO THE BISHOP OF WYOMING, I'LL TELL
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: HIM IF HE'LL PREACH ON THEM WORDS, I'LL BE THERE.
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: COULDN'T WE SHOOT YOUR PISTOL NOW? SAID BILLY. SURE, BOY.
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: AIN'T YOU HUNGRY, THOUGH? NO. I WISH WE WERE WAY
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: UP THERE. DON'T YOU? THE MOUNTAINS? THEY LOOK PRETTY. SO WHITE.
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: A HEAT BETTER IN HOUSES. WHY, WE'LL GO UP THERE.
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: THERE'S TRAINS TO GOLDEN. WE'LL SHOOT AROUND AMONG THE FOOTHILLS.
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: To Golden they immediately went, and after a meal there,
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: wandered in the open country, until the cartridges were gone,
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: the sun was low, and Billy was walked off his
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: young heels. A truth he learned complete in one horrid moment,
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: and battled to conceal. Lame, he echoed angrily, I ain't. Shucks,
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: said Lynn, after the next ten steps, you are, and
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: both feet, Tell you, there's stones here, and I'm just
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: a-skippin' them. Len briefly took the boy in his arms
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: and carried him to Golden. I'm played out myself, he said,
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: sitting in the hotel and looking lugubriously at Billy on
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: a bed, and I ain't fit to have charge of
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: a hog. He came and put his hand on the
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: boy's head. I'm not sick, said the cripple. I tell
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: you I'm bully. You wait and see me eat dinner.
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: but Lynn had hot water and cold water and salt,
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: and was an hour upon his knees bathing the hot feet.
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: And then Billy could not eat dinner. There was a
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: doctor in Golden, but in spite of his light prescription
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: and most reasonable observations, Mr. MacLean passed a foolish night
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: of vigil while Billy slept, quite well at first, and
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: as the hours passed, better and better. In the morning—
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: He was entirely brisk, though stiff. I couldn't work quick to-day,
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: he said, but I guess one day won't lose me
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: my trade. How do you mean? asked Lynn. Why, I've
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: got regulars, you know. Sidney Ellis and Pete Good has theirs,
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: and we don't cut each other. I've got Mr. Daniels
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: and Mr. Fisher and lots, and if you lived in Denver,
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: I'd shine your boots every day for nothing. I wish
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: you lived in Denver. Shine my boots? You'll never. And
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: you don't black Daniels or Fisher or any of the outfit. Why,
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: I'm doing first-rate, said Billy, surprised at the swearing into
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: which Mr. MacLean now burst. And I ain't big enough
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: to get to make money at any other job. I
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: want to see that engine-man, muttered Lynn. I don't like
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: your smoking friend. Pete Good? Why, he's awful smart. Don't
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: you think he's smart?'' Smart' s nothing,' observed Mr. MacLean.' Pete
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: has learned me and Sidney a lot,' pursued Billy, engagingly.'
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: I' ll bet he has,' growled the cow-puncher, and again Billy
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: was taken aback at his language. It was not so simple,
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: this case. To the perturbed mind of Mr. MacLean, it
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: grew less simple during the day at Golden, while Billy
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: recovered and talked and ate his innocent meals. The cow-puncher
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: was far too wise to think for a single moment
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: of restoring the runaway to his debauched and shiftless parents.
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: Possessed of some imagination— he went through a scene in
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: which he appeared at the lusk threshold with billy and forgiveness,
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: and intruded upon a conjugal assault and battery. Shucks, said he,
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: the kid would be off again inside a week, and
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: I don't want him there anyway. Denver, upon the following day,
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: saw the little boot-black again at his corner, with his
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: trade not lost. But near him stood a tall, singular
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: man with hazel eyes, and a sulky expression. And citizens
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: during that week noticed, as a new sight in the streets,
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: the tall man and the little boy walking together. Sometimes
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: they would be in shops. The boy seemed as happy
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: as possible, talking constantly while the man seldom said a word,
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: and his face was serious. Upon New Year's Eve, Governor
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: Barker was overtaken by Mr. MacLean, riding a horse up
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: Hill Street, Cheyenne. Hello, said Barker, staring humorously through his glasses.
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: Have a good drunk? Changed my mind, said Lynn, grinning.
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: Proves I've got one. Struck Christmas all right, though. Who's
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: your friend? inquired His Excellency. This is Mr. Billy Lusk.
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: Him and me have agreed that towns ain't nice to
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: live in. If Judge Henry's foreman and his wife won't
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: board him at Sunk Creek, why, I'll fix it somehow.
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: The cow-puncher and his responsibility rode on together towards the
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: open plain. Suffering Moses, remarked His Excellency. End of Chapter
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: 5 End of A Journey in Search of Christmas by
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: Owen Wister