Buffalo Bill's Best Bet; Or, A Sure Thing Well Won — John Shaqi
Buffalo Bill's Best Bet; Or, A Sure Thing Well WonIngraham, Prentiss
General
Buffalo Bill's Best Bet; Or, A Sure Thing Well Won
Ingraham, Prentiss
Buffalo Bill, 1846-1917 -- Fiction; Dime novels
“You look it. There, landlord, lead him in to ther hash bar. I’ll bet
he kin git away with viands, or he ain’t like ther parsons as uster
come ter my old mammy’s home when I were a kid. Jerusha; ther chickens
uster skip, ther sheeps bleat, ther turkeys gobble, an’ pigs squeal
whenever they saw ’em comin’, fer they knowed thar was ter be eatin’
done.”
The landlord came to the rescue and led the doleful preacher and his
deeply veiled daughter into the house; which they left an hour after
in an ambulance, drawn by two large mules, to follow the western-bound
train.
Behind the ambulance were hitched two splendid horses, which the parson
had purchased for himself and daughter, to enable them to vary the long
ride by horseback exercise, and in the vehicle were many little things
to add to their comfort. To the captain of the train, Lew Simpson,
Parson Bristow brought a letter of introduction from the general in
command of that department.
The letter asked that every courtesy be shown the minister and his
daughter, who were going West as missionaries to teach the Indians
at the agencies. For several days the train wended its way westward,
making slow marches on account of its size and the large number of
cattle along.
At night, when gathered around the camp fires, the train people tried
to draw the dismal-looking parson and his veiled daughter into their
enjoyment. The girl pleaded illness, and the parson said he never
indulged in light amusement, and besought them to prayer and psalm
singing.
This course naturally caused the cheerful members of the outfit to
leave the parson and his daughter severely alone, a circumstance with
which they seemed to be pleased. Each day the daughter, whom persons
at first thought to be shamming, grew more indisposed, until at last
she was unable to leave her ambulance, and her condition excited the
sympathy of all.
Like a tender, loving nurse her father hung over her, riding in the
ambulance, supporting her head through the long day’s march, and
attentive to her every want. Touched by the suffering of the girl,
several of the emigrants’ wives and daughters offered their services;
but the father said he alone would care for her, and she seemed unhappy
if he was out of her sight for an instant.
At last, one beautiful moonlight night, when a hush had fallen on the
train encampment, the spirit of the young girl took its flight.
The wails of the stricken old man were pitiful to hear. Two of the
women of the train dressed her for her grave, a shroud of blankets
encircled the fair form, and in a snowy bank, by the edge of a crystal
creek, her grave was dug and the body was placed in it just as the sun
arose above the prairie horizon.
“Do not hide her from my sight; I will fill the grave myself; leave me,
my kind friends, leave me, and ere long I will follow you,” said the
parson.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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