American fiction -- 20th century; Arizona -- Fiction; Western stories
Helen realized that this ride would make up for the hideous one of
yesterday. So far she had been only barely conscious of sore places
and aching bones. These she would bear with. She loved the wild and the
beautiful, both of which increased manifestly with every mile. The sun
was warm, the air fragrant and cool, the sky blue as azure and so deep
that she imagined that she could look far up into it.
Suddenly Roy reined in so sharply that he pulled the bay up short.
“Look!” he called, sharply.
Bo screamed.
“Not thet way! Here! Aw, he's gone!”
“Nell! It was a bear! I saw it! Oh! not like circus bears at all!” cried
Bo.
Helen had missed her opportunity.
“Reckon he was a grizzly, an' I'm jest as well pleased thet he loped
off,” said Roy. Altering his course somewhat, he led to an old rotten
log that the bear had been digging in. “After grubs. There, see his
track. He was a whopper shore enough.”
They rode on, out to a high point that overlooked canuon and range,
gorge and ridge, green and black as far as Helen could see. The ranges
were bold and long, climbing to the central uplift, where a number of
fringed peaks raised their heads to the vast bare dome of Old Baldy.
Far as vision could see, to the right lay one rolling forest of pine,
beautiful and serene. Somewhere down beyond must have lain the desert,
but it was not in sight.
“I see turkeys 'way down there,” said Roy, backing away. “We'll go down
and around an' mebbe I'll get a shot.”
Descent beyond a rocky point was made through thick brush. This slope
consisted of wide benches covered with copses and scattered pines and
many oaks. Helen was delighted to see the familiar trees, although these
were different from Missouri oaks. Rugged and gnarled, but not tall,
these trees spread wide branches, the leaves of which were yellowing.
Roy led into a grassy glade, and, leaping off his horse, rifle in hand,
he prepared to shoot at something. Again Bo cried out, but this time it
was in delight. Then Helen saw an immense flock of turkeys, apparently
like the turkeys she knew at home, but these had bronze and checks
of white, and they looked wild. There must have been a hundred in the
flock, most of them hens. A few gobblers on the far side began the
flight, running swiftly off. Helen plainly heard the thud of their
feet. Roy shot once--twice--three times. Then rose a great commotion and
thumping, and a loud roar of many wings. Dust and leaves whirling in the
air were left where the turkeys had been.
“Wal, I got two,” said Roy, and he strode forward to pick up his game.
Returning, he tied two shiny, plump gobblers back of his saddle and
remounted his horse. “We'll have turkey to-night, if Milt gets to camp
in time.”
The ride was resumed. Helen never would have tired riding through those
oak groves, brown and sear and yellow, with leaves and acorns falling.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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