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Show 26 WESTERN WILDS. The first show was not inviting. A rambling, double- log house of the South- western pattern practically two cabins under one roof, with a broad covered passage between. But many a pleasant night have I passed, and eaten many savory meal, in those same double- log cabins; and in the long hot days of summer, south of latitude 40, I know of no better place to loll away the delightful after- dinner hour than in the open passage aforesaid. My host was indeed " shuck up," " doubled up," too, I should say. " Fevernager," Arkansas swamps, and prairie sloughs had done their appointed work on him, and he was that perfect wreck, a " thoroughly acclimated man." He was, in local phrase, " yaller behind the gills ; " his face was of a pale orange tint, his cheeks a dirty saffron, while along the neck his skin resembled a ripe pumpkin speckled with coffee grounds. He re-ceived me with dignified wel-come in these wilds no question is made as to lodging the be-lated traveler and referred the matter of supper to " the old wo-man." One glance at her revealed the Cherokee 1 i n e-age. The deep, dark eye w i t h slightly melan-choly cast, the straight black hair, and nose just aquiline enough to give piquancy to the countenance, indicated the quarter- blood ; while her air and bear-ing gave a hint of Ross or Boudinot stock the aristocracy of that most aristocratic of all our aboriginal races. The supper was a surprise. She had evidently learned cooking in better schools than south- western cabins supply. Like him, she seemed prcternaturally quiet, as if ab-sorbed in thought; they lived in the past, and to them Kansas was not the home of the soul. New countries should be settled only by the young, for the tree of deepest root bears transplanting but poorly. " THOROUGHLY ACCLIMATED.' |
