THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL by COLONEL HENRY INMAN (best fiction novels of all time .TXT) 📕

Side Of The Walnut, Where The Grass Was Green,

Before They Could Feed.  The Oxen Seen It On The Hills And They

Lit Out Almost At A Trot.  It Was 'Bout Sun-Up When We Got There,

When We Turned the Animals Loose, Corralled, And Had Breakfast.

 

 

 

"After We'D Had Our Smoke, All We Had To Do Was To Put In the Time

Until Five O'Clock; For We Couldn'T Move Before Then, As It Would Be

Too Hot By The Time The Oxen Got Filled.  Paul And Me Went Down To

The Creek Fishing; There Was Tremendous Cat In the Walnut Them Days,

And By Noon We'D Ketched five Big Beauties, Which We Took To Camp And

Cooked for Dinner.  After I'D Had My Smoke, Paul And Me Went Back To

The Creek, Where We Stretched ourselves Under A Good-Sized box-Elder

Tree--There Wasn'T No Shade Nowhere Else--And Took A Sleep, While

Comstock And Curtis Went Jack-Rabbit Hunting across The River, As We

Was Getting Scarce Of Meat.

 

 

 

"Thorpe, Who Was Hit In the Arm With An Arrow, Couldn'T Do Much But

Nuss His Wound; So Him And The Mexicans Stood Guard, A Looking Out

For Ingins, As We Didn'T Know But What The Cusses Might Come Back And

Make Another Raid On Us, Though We Really Didn'T Expect They Would

Have The Gall To Bother Us Any More--Least Not The Same Outfit What

Had Fought Us The Day Before.  That Evening, 'Bout Six O'Clock,

We Rolled out Again And Went Into Camp Late, Having Made Twelve Miles,

And Didn'T See A Sign Of Ingins.

 

 

 

"In Ten Days More We Got To Independence Without Having No More

Trouble Of No Kind, And Was Surprised at Our Luck.  At Independence

We Americans Left The Train, Sold Our Furs, Got A Big Price, Too--

Each Of Us Had A Shot-Bag Full Of Gold And Silver, More Money Than

We Know'D What To Do With.  Me, Curtis, And Thorpe Concluded we'D Buy

A New Outfit, Consisting Of Another Six-Mule Wagon, And Harness,

So We'D Have A Full Team, Meaning To Go Back To The Mountains With

The First Big Caravan What Left.

 

 

 

"All The Folks In the Settlement What Seen Paul Took A Great Fancy

To Him.  Some Wanted to Adopt Him, And Some Said I'D Ought To Take

Him To St. Louis And Place Him In an Orphan Asylum; But I 'Lowed if

There Was Going To Be Any Adopting Done, I'D Do It Myself, 'Cause

The Kid Seemed now Just As If He Was My Own; Besides The Little

Fellow I Know'D Loved me And Didn'T Want Me To Leave Him.  I Had

Kin-Folks In independence, An Old Aunt, And Me And Paul Staid There.

She Had A Young Gal With Her, And She Learned paul Out Of Books;

So He Picked up Considerable, As We Had To Wait More Than Two Months

Before Colonel St. Vrain'S Caravan Was Ready To Start For New Mexico.

 

 

 

"I Bought Paul A Coal-Black Pony, And Had A Suit Of Fine Buckskin

Made For Him Out Of The Pelt Of A Black-Tail Deer I'D Shot The Winter

Before On Powder River.  The Seams Of His Trousers Was Heavily

Fringed, And With His White Sombrero, A Riding around Town On His

Pony, He Looked like One Of Them Spanish Dons What The Papers

Nowadays Has Pictures Of; Only He Was Smarter-Looking Than Any Don

I Ever See In my Life.

 

 

 

"It Was 'Bout The Last Of August When We Pulled out From Independence.

Comstock Staid With Us Until We Got Ready To Go, And Then Lit Out

For St. Louis, And I Hain'T Never Seen Him Since.  The Caravan Had

Seventy-Five Six-Mule Teams In it, Without Counting Ours, Loaded with

Dry-Goods And Groceries For Mora, New Mexico, Where Colonel St. Vrain,

The Owner, Lived and Had A Big Store.  We Had No Trouble With The

Ingins Going Back Across The Plains; We Seen Lots, To Be Sure,

Hanging On Our Trail, But They Never Attacked us; We Was Too Strong

For Them.

 

 

 

"'Bout The Last Of September We Reached bent'S Old Fort, On The

Arkansas, Where The Santa Fe Trail Crosses The River Into New Mexico,

And We Camped there The Night We Got To It.

 

 

 

"I Know'D They Had Cows Up To The Fort; So Just Before We Was Ready

For Supper, I Took Paul And Started to See If We Couldn'T Get Some

Milk For Our Coffee.  It Wasn'T Far, And We Was Camped a Few Hundred

Yards From The Gate, Just Outside The Wall.  Well, We Went Into The

Kitchen, Paul Right Alongside Of Me, And There I Seen A White Woman

Leaning Over The Adobe Hearth A Cooking--They Had Always Only Been

Squaws Before.  She Naturally Looked up To Find Out Who Was Coming In,

And When She Seen The Kid, All At Once She Give A Scream, Dropped the

Dish-Cloth She Had In her Hand, Made A Break For Paul, Throw'D Her

Arms Around Him, Nigh Upsetting Me, And Says, While She Was A Sobbing

And Taking On Dreadful,--

 

 

 

"'My Boy!  My Boy!  Then I Hain'T Prayed and Begged the Good Lord

All These Days And Nights For Nothing!'  Then She Kind O' Choked

Again, While Paul, He Says, As He Hung On To Her,--

 

 

 

"'O Mamma!  O Mamma!  I Know'D You'D Come Back!  I Know'D You'D

Come Back!'

 

 

 

"Well, There, Boys, I Just Walked out Of That Kitchen A Heap Faster

Than I'D Come Into It, And Shut The Door.  When I Got Outside, For

A Few Minutes I Couldn'T See Nothing, I Was Worked up So.  As Soon

As I Come To, I Went Through The Gate Down To Camp As Quick As My

Legs Would Carry Me, To Tell Thorpe And Curtis That Paul Had Found

His Ma.  They Wanted to Know All About It, But I Couldn'T Tell Them

Nothing, I Was So Dumfounded at The Way Things Had Turned out.

We Talked among Ourselves A Moment, Then Reckoned it Was The Best

To Go Up To The Fort Together, And Ask The Woman How On Earth She'D

Got Shet Of The Ingins What Had Took Her Off, And How It Come She

Was Cooking There.  We Started out And When We Got Into The Kitchen,

There Was Paul And Mrs. Dale, And You Never See No People So Happy.

They Was Just As Wild As A Stampeded steer; She Seemed to Have Growed

Ten Years Younger Than When I First Went Up There, And As For Paul,

He Was In heaven For Certain.

 

 

 

"First We Had To Tell Her How We'D Got The Kid, And How We'D Learned

To Love Him.  All The Time We Was Telling Of It, And Our Scrimmages

With The Ingins, She Was A Crying and Hugging Paul As If Her Heart

Was Broke.  After We'D Told All We Know'D, We Asked her To Tell Us

Her Story, Which She Did, And It Showed she Was A Woman Of Grit And

Education.

 

 

 

"She Said The Ingins What Had Captured her Took Her Up To Their Camp

On The Saw Log, A Little Creek North Of Fort Dodge--You All Know Where

It Is--And There She Staid That Night.  Early In the Morning They All

Started for The North.  She Watched their Ponies Mighty Close As

They Rid Along That Day, So As To Find Out Which Was The Fastest;

For She Had Made Up Her Mind To Make Her Escape The First Chance

She Got.  She Looked at The Sun Once In a While, To Learn What Course

They Was Taking; So That She Could Go Back When She Got Ready, Strike

The Sante Fe Trail, And Get To Some Ranch, As She Had Seen Several

While Passing Through The Foot-Hills Of The Raton Range When She Was

With The Mexican Train.

 

 

 

"It Was On The Night Of The Fourth Day After They Had Left Saw Log,

And Had Rid A Long Distance--Was More Than A Hundred miles On Their

Journey--When She Determined to Try And Light Out.  The Whole Camp

Was Fast Asleep, For The Ingins Was Monstrous Tired.  She Crawled

Out Of The Lodge Where She'D Been Put With Some Old Squaws, And

Going To Where The Ponies Had Been Picketed, She Took A Little

Iron-Gray She'D Had Her Eye On, Jumped on His Back, With Only The

Lariat For A Bridle And Without Any Saddle, Not Even A Blanket,

Took Her Bearings From The North Star, And Cautiously Moved out.

She Started on A Walk, Until She'D Got 'Bout Four Miles From Camp,

And Then Struck A Lope, Keeping It Up All Night.  By Next Morning

She'D Made Some Forty Miles, And Then For The First Time Since She'D

Left Her Lodge, Pulled up And Looked back, To See If Any Of The Ingins

Was Following Her.  When She Seen There Wasn'T A Living Thing In sight,

She Got Off Her Pony, Watered him Out Of A Small Branch, Took A Drink

Herself, But Not Daring To Rest Yet, Mounted her Animal Again And

Rid On As Fast As She Could Without Wearing Him Out Too Quickly.

 

 

 

"Hour After Hour She Rid On, The Pony Appearing To Have Miraculous

Endurance, Until Sundown.  By That Time She'D Crossed the Saline,

The Smoky Hill, And Got To The Top Of The Divide Between That River

And The Arkansas, Or Not More Than Forty Miles From The Santa Fe Trail.

Then Her Wonderful Animal Seemed to Weaken; She Couldn'T Even Make

Him Trot, And She Was So Nearly Played out Herself, She Could Hardly

Set Steady.  What To Do, She Didn'T Know.  The Pony Was Barely Able

To Move At A Slow Walk.  She Was Afraid He Would Drop Dead Under Her,

And She Was Compelled to Dismount, And In almost A Minute, As Soon

As She Laid Down On The Prairie, Was Fast Asleep.

 

 

 

"She Had No Idee How Long She Had Slept When She Woke Up.  The Sun Was

Only 'Bout Two Hours High.  Then She Know'D She Had Been Unconscious

Since Sundown Of The Day Before, Or Nigh Twenty-Four Hours.  Rubbing

Her Eyes, For She Was Kind O' Bewildered, And Looking around, There

She Saw Her Pony As Fresh, Seemingly, As When She'D Started.

He'D Had Plenty To Eat, For The Grass Was Good, But She'D Had Nothing.

She Pulled a Little Piece Of Dried buffalo-Meat Out Of Her Bosom,

Which She'D Brought Along, All She Could Find At The Lodge, And Now

Nibbled at That, For She Was Mighty Hungry.  She Was Terribly Sore

And Stiff Too, But She Mounted at Once And Pushed on, Loping and

Walking Him By Spells.  Just At Daylight She Could Make Out The

Arkansas Right In front Of Her In the Dim Gray Of The Early Morning,

Not Very Far Off.  On The West, The Raton Mountains Loomed up Like

A Great Pile Of Blue Clouds, The Sight Of Which Cheered her; For She

Know'D She Would Soon Reach The Trail.

 

 

 

"It Wasn'T Quite Noon When She Struck The Santa Fe Trail.  When She

Got There, Looking To The East, She Saw In the Distance, Not More

Than Three Miles Away, A Large Caravan Coming, And Then, Almost Wild

With Delight, She Dismounted, Sot Down On The Grass, And Waited for

It To Arrive.  In less Than An Hour, The Train Come Up To Where She

Was, And As Good Luck Would Have It, It Happened to Be An American

Outfit, Going To Taos With Merchandise.  As Soon As The Master Of

The Caravan Seen Her Setting On The Prairie, He Rid Up Ahead Of The

Wagons, And She Told Him Her Story.  He Was A Kind-Hearted man;

Had The Train Stop Right There On The Bank Of The River, Though He

Wasn'T Half Through His Day'S Drive, So As To Make Her Comfortable

As Possible, And Give Her Something To Eat; For She Was 'Bout

Played out.  He Bought The Ingin Pony, Giving Her Thirty Dollars

For It, And After She Had Rested for Some Time, The Caravan Moved out.

She Rid In one Of The Wagons, On A Bed of Blankets, And The Next

Evening arrived at Bent'S Old Fort.  There She Found Women-Folks,

Who Cared for Her And Nussed her; For She Was Dreadfully Sore And

Tired after Her Long Ride.  Then She Was Hired to Cook, Meaning To

Work Until She'D Earned enough To Take Her Back To Pennsylvany,

To Her Mother'S, Where She Had Started for When The Ingins Attackted

The Train.

 

 

 

"That Night, After Listening To Her Mirac'Lous Escape, We Made Up

A 'Pot' For Her, Collecting 'Bout Eight Hundred dollars.  The Master

Of Colonel St. Vrain'S Caravan, What Had Come Out With Us, Told Her

He Was Going Back Again To The River In a Couple Of Weeks, And He'D

Take Her And Paul In without Costing Her A Cent; Besides, She'D Be

Safer Than With Any Other Outfit, As His Train Was A Big One, And

He Had All American Teamsters.

 

 

 

"Next Morning The