The Uphill Climb by B. M. Bower

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"Oh, I don't know! I never did know. Somewhere out West, we thought. I
used to make believe the letters came from Helena, or Butte, because
that was where she heard from him last. He was always promising to come
home--in the letters. That used to make her so much better," she
explained naively. "And sometimes she'd be able to go out in the yard
and fuss with her flowers, after one like that. But he never came, and
so she got the notion that he was wild and a spendthrift. I suppose he
was, or he'd have written, or something. She had lots and lots of money
and property, you know.

"Well," Josephine took one of Ford's hand and patted it reassuringly,
"she got the notion that I must marry Frank, when he came home. I tried
to reason her out of that, and it only made her worse. It grew on her,
and I got so I couldn't bear to write any more letters, and that made it
worse still. She made a will that I must marry Frank within a year after
she died, or he wouldn't get anything but a hundred dollars--and she was
worth thousands and thousands." Josephine snuggled closer. "She was
shrewd, too. I was not to get anything except a few trinkets. And if we
didn't marry, the money would all go to an old ladies' home.

"So, when she died, I felt as if I ought to do something, you see. It
didn't seem right to let him lose the property, even if he wouldn't
write to his mother. So I had the lawyers try to find him. I thought I
could marry him, and let him get the property, and then--well, I counted
on getting a divorce." She looked up quickly into Ford's face.

"And you know you did promise not to bother me--just to desert me, you
see, so I could get a divorce in a year. I thought I'd come and live
with Kate till the year was up, and then get a divorce, and go back
home to work. My father left me enough to squeak along on, you see, if I
lived in the country. Aunt Ida--that's Frank's mother--paid me a salary
for staying with her and looking after her house and her rents and
things. And then, when you followed me out here, I was furious! Just
simply furious!" She bent her head and set her teeth gently into the
fleshy part of Ford's thumb, and Ford flinched. It happened to be the
sore one.

"Well, but that doesn't explain how you got your loop on me,
girlie--though I sure am glad that you did!"

"Why, don't you see, the time was almost up, just for all the world like
a play. 'Only one day more--and I must save the pa-apers!' So the lawyer
Aunt Ida had for years, heard that Frank was--or had been--at Garbin. I
rushed out here, and heard that there was a Cameron (only they must have
meant Campbell) at Sunset. So I got a license, and the Reverend
Sanderson, and took the evening train down there. At the hotel I asked
for Mr. Cameron, and they sent you in. And you know the rest, you--you
old fraud! How you palmed yourself off on me--"

"I never did! I must have just been in one of my obliging moods; and a
man would have to be mighty rude and unkind not to say yes to a pretty
girl when--"

That is as far as the discussion went, with anything like continuity or
coherence even. Later, however, Josephine did protest somewhat
muffledly: "But, Ford, I married you under the name of Frank Cameron, so
I don't believe--and anyway--I'd like a real wedding--and a ring!"

Mrs. Kate, having been solemnly assured by Rock that Ford was sober and
as nearly in his right mind as a man violently in love can be (Rock made
it plain, by implication at least, that he did not consider that very
near), ventured into the kitchen just then. She still looked scared and
uncertain, until, through the half-open door of the pantry, she heard
soft, whispery sounds like kissing--when the kissing is a rapture rather
than a ceremony. Mrs. Kate had only been married eight years or so, and
she had a good memory. She backed from the kitchen on her toes, and
pulled the door shut with the caution of a thief. She did more; she
permitted dinner to be an hour late, rather than disturb those two in
the pantry.

* * * * *

The uphill climb was no climb at all, after that. For when a man has
found the one woman in the world, and with her that elusive thing we
call happiness, even the demon must perforce sheathe his claws and
retire, discomfited, to the pit whence he came.

There was a period of impatient waiting, because Josephine and Mrs. Kate
both stoutly maintained that the "real wedding" could not take place
until Chester came back. After that, there was a Mrs. foreman at the
Double Cross until spring. And after that, there was a new ranch and a
new house and a new home where happiness came and dwelt unhindered.

THE END

STORIES OF RARE CHARM BY
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heroine a beautiful girl perversely christened "The Blight." Two
impetuous young Southerners' fall under the spell of "The Blight's"
charms and she learns what a large part jealousy and pistols have in the
love making of the mountaineers.

Included in this volume is "Hell fer-Sartain" and other stories, some of
Mr. Fox's most entertaining Cumberland valley narratives.

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his meagre past, express the love, the passion and the tragedies of life
and all its happy phases as can the master who has lived life in all its
fulness. But a girl comes into his life--a beautiful bit of human
driftwood that his aunt had taken into her heart and home, and through
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give--and his soul awakes.

Founded on a fact that all artists realize.

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_YOUNG WALLINGFORD._ By George Randolph Chester. Illust. by F. R. Gruger
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_THE HAPPY FAMILY_

A lively and amusing story, dealing with the adventures of eighteen
jovial, big hearted Montana cowboys. Foremost amongst them, we find
Ananias Green, known as Andy, whose imaginative powers cause many lively
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_HER PRAIRIE KNIGHT_

A realistic story of the plains, describing a gay party of Easterners
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the effusive Sir Redmond, become living, breathing personalities.

_THE RANGE DWELLERS_

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action, a range feud between two families, and a Romeo and Juliet
courtship make this a bright, jolly, entertaining story, without a dull
page.

_THE LURE OF DIM TRAILS_

A vivid portrayal of the experience of an Eastern author, among the
cowboys of the West, in search of "local color" for a new novel. "Bud"
Thurston learns many a lesson while following "the lure of the dim
trails" but the hardest, and probably the most welcome, is that of love.

_THE LONESOME TRAIL_

"Weary" Davidson leaves the ranch for Portland, where conventional city
life palls on him. A little branch of sage brush, pungent with the
atmosphere of the prairie, and the recollection of a pair of large brown
eyes soon compel his return. A wholesome love story.

_THE LONG SHADOW_

A vigorous Western story, sparkling with the free, outdoor, life of a
mountain ranch. Its scenes shift rapidly and its actors play the game of
life fearlessly and like men. It is a fine love story from start to
finish.

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