Mrs. Wilson Woodrow

“ You don't know what it means to the women in this camp to feel that they's one woman they can come to an' kind o' talk things over with. Frank an' me owes a lot of our happiness to you, an'—oh, Missioner,"—with a long sigh,—"I am so happy!"
"Myrtle, I'm so glad." Frances spoke with heartfelt tenderness, and eternal sisterhood expressed itself in the smile that passed between them.
Myrtle suddenly leaned forward and gazed excitedly through the door. "I thought that was her dress," she explained. "Say, Missioner, it's the Pearl goin' up the hill with Bob Flick. ”

“ There's a somethin' in me that's tired, somethin' that's played the game fer a thousand years an' knows there ain't nothin' in it; an' there's somethin' in me that's got to live, an' that somethin' says, 'Everything comes to you so easy, reach out an' enjoy it'; an' maybe that's the reason that it don't never seem of no account. 'Cause it always comes so easy."
The pine needles fell about them. New arrows of sunlight pierced the soft gloom, and for a time they sat in the silence of the hills, the Pearl's wistful eyes searching the past. ”

“ She sprang to her feet, livid with fury. "They say, they say——" She broke into a torrent of oaths. "Yes, Bob Flick," growing calmer, "it's true. He's hit me, an' he's hit me more'n once. But why? 'Cause he was jealous." ”

“ An' all those horses! Well, Walt can certainly afford it. Why, Missioner, Walt's gettin' richer 'n' richer every minute. They say that in a year or so, when his mines is more developed, he'll be one of the richest men in the whole country. Frank says he's thinkin' now about goin' into politics. Well, it didn't take long to forget poor Lutie, did it? Though 'course nobody expects a man to mourn like a woman, it ain't in 'em. Do you think the English girl's pretty?"
"Very," replied Frances briefly. ”

“ They's always plenty of men to go crazy about you, Pearl; to lie, an' steal, an' to kill each other fer you, an' make damn fools of theirselves generally. There's a-plenty that likes to show off that a-way ”

“ I suppose not,"—with infinite scorn,—"but any woman would. Why, he loves me so much that it drives him plumb off his head to see another man look at me. An' when he gets that way he ain't no idea what he does. An' he ain't never raised a bruise on me, not once, that he ain't cried like a baby an' broke his heart over it when he come to himself. Maybe you think, Bob Flick, 'cause I kind of like to talk over old times with you, that I'd go off with you an' leave him. ”

“ After due respect had been paid the conventionalities, by inquiries concerning Frances's welfare, she skilfully turned the conversation into those channels wherein the fluid thought of Zenith was at present running.
"My! Did you ever see such goin's on as they're havin' over to Walt Garvin's? Why, they say there's the greatest load of provisions sent up from Denver every day; fruit and vegetables an' all kinds of delicacies that ever was. ”