Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

8 The Tenderfoot. with companions in the great woods of the Adiron- dacks or Maine. The lad appeared to have considerable determina- tion of character, while perhaps lacking in those sterling resources which seem to come so naturally to Western boys, often forced to depend upon them- selves and compelled to meet the hardships of life at an early age. At least, upon finding himself face to face with ill luck, he set manfully to work to make the best of a bad bargain. One last lingering glance cast around, more to get his bearings than in the faint hope of discover- ing distant signs of a camp-fire or the white-topped prairie schooners that constituted the freighters’ caravan, from which he had wandered so disas- trously. The sun was half out of sight, and the scene was one to arouse a sense of admiration in almost any human heart, but, facing a night of lonely vigil upon the broad prairie, surrounded by unknown perils, young Cuthbert Lee was hardly in a state of mind to pay much attention to these things—the poetic was overwhelmed by the practical side of his na- lg He strove to remember all he had read and heard about camping on the open plain, but made sad work of it—a little actual experience is always worth a ton of theory. Of course, he could make some sort of a fire, being possessed of matches, but the prospect of supper was exceedingly vague, seeing that he had nothing to cook. One thing he noticed that gave him some en- couragement—less than half a mile to the left the ground was broken more than usual—indeed, the presence of a bunch of trees in that quarter made him suspect the presence of a ravine or coulee, which would afford an excellent camping spot. comiclooolks.€©