|
have seen them coming, for he was outside and had a gun. He didn't say anything, just stood there. "Horse Buster" had a lariat coiled, hanging from his belt. He got off his bronco and stood there in the moonlight, not sayin' a word for the time. The fellow must have got nervous and we figured he could see that rope and didn't like the looks of things. Then 'Horse Buster' said, 'the old man's back. This claim is his. We're here to back him up. Get goin'. This tough guy muttered a few words, laid his gun down and the boys went into the shack and pitched his stuff out. 'Horse Buster' bein' the spokesman, told him it would be healthier for him if he made tracks and plenty of them. He was never seen again in that part of the country.
Before they built churches, and held meetings, there used to be a circuit rider preacher who came through. Sometimes the people would gather in schoolhouses and this traveling preacher also held worship in the claims. Sometimes with only the family or maybe two or three neighbors would gather in. One time they met on the trail and all knelt down and prayed right there on the prairie.
When school houses got thicker they held regular meetings in them and later they built churches. We always thought this early worship, with its hardships and discomforts were more sincere and genuine. The people lived closer to God in their every day life. They walked miles across the prairie to go to a meeting. Today they ride in a fine automobile a few blocks to church and even have cushions on the seats and private pews.
A woman on a poorly improved claim was accustomed to drinking from a pool in a slough which ran through near their garden. They had no well and following a common practive she just got down and drank like a horse, not bothering about cups, glasses or such like.
One day, she went to the pool to refresh herself and lying there on the grass grown bank, she drank long and deep. Face flat to the water, her range of vision was necessarily restricted, but she got a flash of a small green snake swim right up under her nose and disappear. She gasped and struggled erect but the snake was gone and she struck with the horrible idea that she had swallowed it.
Having none of the philosophy and education of the modern gold fish gulper, the first wild fear became a fixation that the snake had taken up comfortable quarters in her stomach and lived on. She could feel it wriggle around occasionally, crawling up into her throat, but seemingly reluctant to leave its new home.
Tormented day and night, life became a nightmare. Today no doubt an educated gold fish swallower would just pass over the incident and swallow a few extra fish so that Mr. Snake could have food to his natural liking.
But it was tragic to the poor woman and day by day, she grew thinner and suffered mental and physical torment almost beyond comprehension.
Something had to be done, but what. Trying to relieve and eliminate her complex a doctor fed her strong medicine which he assured her would kill the snake. But it didn't work and she magnified her fears by imagining that the snake was growing rapidly, and its slithering movements more marked. Woman is supposed to have an inherent, traditional abhorence for serpents anyway, blaming them for her many troubles.
They finally tried pumping the snake out but this didn't work for the simple reason that no snake was in evidence.
But one day an old Half-Breed Indian healer came along. He was an herb doctor and medicine man, and seemed not much concerned when told about the woman's predicament. 'Fix her easy' he said, wasting no words. 'But must go now.' 'Come back soon.' Away he went and didn't return until the next day. Right then and there he got down to business. The woman by this time kept to bed all the time and moaned and prayed. Mixing up a particularly nauseating mess of herbs, he brewed a dark and bitter tea and called for a big pan, which he placed under the bed. Then with just a grunt he handed a cup of the vile concotion to the woman he said, 'drink.' She downed the whole mess and almost immediately began to gag and retch. Tears ran own her cheeks and she struggled to the edge of the bed and began to vomit. The old healer slid the pan out and held it for here, while the patient retched and gagged the old boy employed a little parlor magic and produced a live green snake from an inner pouch and slipped it in the pan. The snake, [somewhat?] bewildered, lay inert for a few moments and then started to wriggle and slither around the pan. With an explosive grunt the miracle man shook the patient and said, 'snake come out, you good now.' The woman took one look, let out a screech and leaped from the bed. 'I can't feel it anymore, she cried.
'I'm cured.' And she was.
|
|
