Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 38: what you’re looking at

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

32 Chased by a Prairie Fire. In truth, the picture as seen by the light of the dying sun, was one long to be remembered—the whitewashed buildings, the boundless, flower-stud- ded prairie, as yet unsullied with that latest triumph of civilization, the barbed wire fence; the lowing herds wending their way toward the corral, the cir- cling cowboys who darted thither and yon, slapping with their hats now and then at refractory animals that showed a disposition to kick over the traces and wander off by themselves, and above all the glorious heavens, painted as no cunning hand of man could ever equal on canvas. | Yes, it was an introduction to Sunset Ranch which Cuthbert would long remember—it fulfilled his wild- est dreams and opened to him a new life where the adventurous spirit within him could find such as was denied in the East. As they came galloping up, loud voices greeted Karl in a hearty manner, and Cuthbert knew his young friend was “‘hail fellow well met,” and a favor- ite with Kelly’s herders. He could not but notice the peculiar glances cast in his direction, and knew many a rough joke would be cracked among these free-souled riders over the advent of the tenderfoot with his tailor-made suit of corduroy; but all that could be endured, for Karl was his friend and Karl had assured him that in the main the cow punchers were a good-natured set; and besides, the Eastern lad was grimly determined to make himself at home as one of them from the start. Now they were in the midst of the lowing herds, and rode up to the porch of the long, low house, where Mr. Kelly and his wife stood waiting with smiles to receive them. And this, then, was the way the tenderfoot came to Sunset Ranch. comclooolkks.€©