But here comes Lizzie saying, "Why, Sims, you look like a witch hiding
away up here; do come down." And I go and take a walk with Mrs. K. down
to see their cattle corral. The name of corral was so foreign I was
anxious to know all about it. It is a square enclosure built of heavy
poles, with sheds on the north and west sides with straw or grass roof
for shelter, and is all the protection from the cold the cattle have
during the winter. Only the milk cows are corraled during the summer
nights. A little log stable for the horses completes the corral, while
of course hay and straw are stacked near. Then she took me to see a
dugout in the side of a hill, in a sheltered ravine, or draw, and
surrounded by trees. It is not a genuine dugout, but enough of the real
to be highly interesting to me. It was occupied by a middle-aged man
who is Mr. K.'s partner in the stock business, and a French boy, their
herder. The man was intelligent, and looked altogether out of place as
he sat there in the gloom of the one little room, lighted only by a
half window and the open door, and, too, he was suffering from asthma.
I asked: "Do you not find this a poor house for an asthmatic?"
"No, I do not find that it has that effect; I am as well here as I was
before I came west."
The room was about 10×12, and 6 feet high. The front of the house and
part of the roof was built of logs and poles, and the rest was made
when God made the hill. They had only made the cavity in which they
lived, floor enough for the pole bed to stand on.
To me it seemed too lonely for any enjoyment except solitude--so far
removed from the busy throngs of the world. But the greater part of the
stockman's time is spent in out-door life, and their homes are only
retreats for the night.
We then climbed the hill that I might have a last view of sunset on the
Keya Paha. I cannot tell you of its beauty, as I gaze in admiration and
wonder, for sun, moon, and stars, have all left their natural course,
or else I am turned all wrong.
_Tuesday._ Another pleasant day. Mrs. K., whom I have learned to
regard as a dear friend, and I, take our last walk and talk together,
going first to the grave of a granddaughter on the hill, enclosed with
a railing and protected from the prairie wolves by pieces of iron. Oh!
I thought, as I watched the tears course down Mrs. K's. cheek as she
talked of her "darling," there is many a sacred spot unmarked by marble
monument on these great broad plains of Nebraska. "You see there is no
doctor nearer than Keya Paha, and by the time we got him here he could
do her no good." Another disadvantage early settlers labor under.
Then to the river that I might see it flow for the last time, and
gather sand and pebbles of almost every color that mingle with it. I
felt it was my last goodbye to this country and I wished to carry as
much of it away in my satchel and in memory as possible.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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