The Argosy — page 189: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

L74 Red River Gully. 7 some on ’em hid the cards and dice as though the angel of the Lord had come to shame them of their evil ways, and no one spoke a word. She stood there lookin’ with her blue eyes from one fierce face to another, her dress all soakin’ wet, and her bare feet cut and bleedin’, and her curls a-layin’ all damp on her neck, And while we was all a starin’ at her she began and told her story. The wind had blown the trees down on their house, and Ralph was struck down and held somehow by one or the other, and the little creature, finding she could do nothing to help him, had set off down the Gully all alone to find someone who would go to his rescue. ‘The angel of the Lord must have led her, boys, for the path was washed away and torrents was pourin’ from the cliffs, and rocks was fallin’ round, displaced by that great cloud-burst; but here she was, and a miracle, I say again, as ever that tiny child reached the ‘Devil’s Own’ alive. “ Six of them devils got up and took their rifles. ‘Coyotes,’ they said meaningly to Dick, ‘we can’t get there in time.” But they went all the same, and a terrible time they had of it, climbing them cliffs and carrying that poor lad down after- wards; for they did get there in time, boys, and though Ralph was badly hurt they doctored him up amongst them, and he’s a living man in Boston city to-day. ‘Wall, I’ve kept that little angel standin’ a long time at the door, but reely ’twarnt a minute before Dick Kent had her on his knee by the fire, and Black Joe—he brought a tin bowl of warm water, and tenderly bathed the bleeding little feet, and I seen a tear fall into the water as he bent over the child. The rest of the men they crowded round, and there warn’t one but tried to do something for her. Dick Kent he kept her in his arms, and she nestled up to him as if she’d known him all her life, and I seen tears in eyes as I shouldn’t have thought would ever have shed the tear of pity in this world again. “One of them Devils went down to the village an’ spent his day’s earnings a-buyin’ bread and milk, and the t’others was most jealous when he come back, and began feedin’ the child. She ate and drank as if she’d been famished, and Dick he took up one of her little hands and held it to the light, and I seen a look come over his face as made all the fierceness die out of it. Somehow I warn’t afraid to see that child a-clingin’ to him; I guessed she’d found a friend in Dick Kent. ‘‘ Before the men came back with her brother, she fell asleep with her head on Dick’s breast, her yaller hair curlin’ in rings over his rough coat. ‘The men sat round starin’ at her. “¢There aint no place here fit to lay her down on,’ said one of them, at last. They looked round the hovel, which had contented them ere this, with supreme disgust. ‘“* And it aint a fit place for her when she wakes up,’ said another. ‘‘¢'That’s so,’ said a chorus of voices. Gomilcbooks co