United States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
She whistled to Sioux and he lunged forward. Doug twisted his lariat. It
coiled round one of the bull's hind legs. Doug brought his horse to its
haunches.
"You get off that bull, Judith," he said. "You've put up the real show of
the day. Be satisfied before you are killed. Sioux is almost crazy."
Frank Day, who was one of the judges, now trotted up. "Doug is right,
Jude."
"There's not a bit of danger," cried Jude, "if you men would do what
you're told to do! Peter had to stop and look instead of hurrying as I
told him."
Her eyes were full of tears. She dismounted slowly and after freeing
Sioux from Doug's lariat, she led the uneasy bull before the grandstand
and made her bow. Jimmy Day brought her a horse and, mounting, she
trotted out of the corral followed by the now half-crazed Sioux.
The three men contestants laughingly refused to put on their exhibitions.
There was no hope, they agreed, of competing successfully against Sioux
and Judith; so Judith received the prize, a twenty-dollar gold piece.
The day ended with this award. It was some time before Douglas and Judith
freed themselves from the crowd. John and Mary, still laughing over
Peter's discomfiture, led the postmaster off that Mary might treat his
really badly skinned face at the ranch. The ranchers who had come from
distant valleys began to scatter toward the Pass. When at last Judith and
Douglas, with their string of horses and the still unchastened Sioux,
started up the trail toward the post-office, they were held up by a
stranger in a smart, high-powered automobile.
"Listen, Miss Spencer," he called, "how about your riding in the rodeo at
Mountain City, this fall?"
Doug and Judith both gasped. The rodeo at Mountain City was the ultimate
and almost hopeless dream of every young rider.
"How do you know they'd let me in?" asked Judith.
"I'm chairman of the program committee this year," answered the stranger.
"If you are interested, I'll write you details when I get back home. I've
got to run for it now."
"Interested!" exclaimed Judith. "I guess you know just what it means to
be competing in the Mountain City rodeo!"
The stranger nodded. "Then you'll hear from me." He turned his panting
car away from the plunging horses and was a receding dot up the trail to
the Pass before Judith and Douglas found their tongues.
"Well, you deserve it, Judith," cried Douglas. "You beat anything I've
seen. It's not only what you do but the way you do it. You've got to have
a good outfit. I'll help you buy it."
"Do you really think I'm good enough for Mountain City?" exclaimed
Judith.
"Good enough for the world!" declared Douglas.
Judith laughed and gave her attention to the unhappy Sioux.
Peter was at supper with John and Mary when they reached home. His whole
face was covered with boric powder. Judith and Douglas shouted with
laughter. Peter buttered another biscuit.
"I never was vain of my looks," he said plaintively. "It was mean of you,
Judith, to ruin what I had."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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