Biographical fiction; Jones, Charles Jesse, 1844-1919 -- Fiction; Pioneers -- Fiction; Western stories
"Get down, get down," was Frank's welcome—a typically Western one, for
we had already gotten down; "an' come in. You must be worked out. Sure
you've come a long way." He was quick of speech, full of nervous
energy, and beamed with hospitality.
The cabin was the rudest kind of log affair, with a huge stone
fireplace in one end, deer antlers and coyote skins on the wall,
saddles and cowboys' traps in a corner, a nice, large, promising
cupboard, and a table and chairs. Jim threw wood on a smoldering fire,
that soon blazed and crackled cheerily.
I sank down into a chair with a feeling of blessed relief. Ten days of
desert ride behind me! Promise of wonderful days before me, with the
last of the old plainsmen. No wonder a sweet sense of ease stole over
me, or that the fire seemed a live and joyously welcoming thing, or
that Jim's deft maneuvers in preparation of supper roused in me a rapt
admiration.
"Twenty calves this spring!" cried Jones, punching me in my sore side.
"Ten thousand dollars worth of calves!"
He was now altogether a changed man; he looked almost young; his eyes
danced, and he rubbed his big hands together while he plied Frank with
questions. In strange surroundings—that is, away from his Native
Wilds, Jones had been a silent man; it had been almost impossible to
get anything out of him. But now I saw that I should come to know the
real man. In a very few moments he had talked more than on all the
desert trip, and what he said, added to the little I had already
learned, put me in possession of some interesting information as to his
buffalo.
Some years before he had conceived the idea of hybridizing buffalo with
black Galloway cattle; and with the characteristic determination and
energy of the man, he at once set about finding a suitable range. This
was difficult, and took years of searching. At last the wild north rim
of the Grand Cañon, a section unknown except to a few Indians and
mustang hunters, was settled upon. Then the gigantic task of
transporting the herd of buffalo by rail from Montana to Salt Lake was
begun. The two hundred and ninety miles of desert lying between the
home of the Mormons and Buckskin Mountain was an obstacle almost
insurmountable. The journey was undertaken and found even more trying
than had been expected. Buffalo after buffalo died on the way. Then
Frank, Jones's right-hand man, put into execution a plan he had been
thinking of—namely, to travel by night. It succeeded. The buffalo
rested in the day and traveled by easy stages by night, with the result
that the big herd was transported to the ideal range.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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