Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 13560-h.htm or 13560-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/5/6/13560/13560-h/13560-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/5/6/13560/13560-h.zip) Nancy MacIntyre A Tale of the Prairies by Lester Shepard Parker 1910 [Illustration: "I was takin' leave of Nancy, Standin' out there in the night."] _To My Wee Daughter RACHEL ELLEN PARKER this little story is affectionately inscribed_ CONTENTS Billy's Revery The Quarrel The Disappointment The Decision The Search The Return Nancy's Story LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS "I was takin' leave of Nancy Standin out there in the night" (Frontispiece) "Then I dragged him on the prairie Through a Turk's Head cactus bed" "I am standing by her dug-out, Open stands the sagging door" "Bringing back a hat of water, Through the dim light and the rain" "Loaded up their prairie schooner, And vamoosed the ranch, 'fore light" "He was startled by a stranger's Sudden presence and 'Hello!'" "Faithful Simon, weak and starving, Groaned and fell beneath his pack" "Resting calm in fancied safety Sat the elder MacIntyre" "Once again the twisted branches Of the lone and friendly tree" "Fiercer with each flying moment Drove the scorching blasts of death" "Standing there, a pictured goddess Sketched against a lowering storm" "But, instead, I shot, to scare him, All the buttons off his coat" BILLY'S REVERY 1 No use talking, it's perplexing, Everything don't look the same; Never had these curious feelin's Till those MacIntyres came. Quit my plowing long 'fore dinner, Didn't hitch my team again; Spent the day with these new neighbors, Getting 'quainted with the men. Talk about the prairie roses! Purtiest flow'rs in all the world, But they look like weeds for beauty When I think of that new girl. Strange, she seems so kind of friendly When I'm awkward, every way, And my tongue gets hitched and hobbled, Everything I try to say! 2 There's one person, that Jim Johnson, That there man I can't abide; He's been milling around near Nancy,-- Durn his dirty, yaller hide! Never really liked that Johnson; Now, each time I hear his name, Feel this state's too thickly settled,-- That is, since that new girl came. If this making love to women Went like breaking in a horse, I might stand some show of winning, 'Cause I've learned that game, of course; But this moonshine folks call 'courting,' I ain't never played that part; I can't keep from talking foolish When I'm thinking with my heart. 3