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Newspaper Page Text
A GOLDEN HARVEST By Selina Elizabeth Higgins. Big Bear was an -institution in Ty ler. For five years lie had been as much a part of Doctor Wharton's household as the watch dog, the fam ily horse, or the chickens. In fact, Big Bear spent most of his time with these domesticated pets. He slept up- wawpMwwpi' wwiwyg They Had a Terrible-Fight stairs in the -barn in winter, under a shady tree in the garddn in summer and was a trusty sentinel, a swift, obliging messenger and the loyal and devoted adherent of the doctor and his- little family, especially pretty Claribel, just budding into perfect womanhood. "He's like some faithful dog," re marked a townsman to the town marshal. "He is certainly 'a good Indian,' " was the hearty reply "never drinks or fights, makes me no trouble. In fact, when some of the half breeds float into town and try to get into a rumpus, he quietly persuades them to go on their way." "Well, he ought to feel grateful to wards Wharton. Poor old Doc! Times haven't been going any too good with him of late." "I hear that. The family is poor, they say. That bright girl of his has been compelled to go clerking in a store to keep the pot boiling, I learn. Well, that shows she is made of the right stuff." "Especially when she might have married half a million with that grandson of old Reuben White." "Mistake that's just what she couldn't do. The old miser broke up the match and Ellis Waite, his grand son, has nothing of his own. The old man threatened to disinherit him if he married. The young fellow was of the right sort. He just packed up bis duds and left home. He's working somewhere west of here as a station agent. Some day he'll come back and claim his bride. "Where did the doctor run across Big Bear, anyway?" inquired the townsman. "Over across the divide. It seems that the old chief had a wild son who got desperate and vicious after the Indian agents got about all the land they had away from them. He had a terrible fight with some gamblers and killed two of them. The strung him up. The doctor found a mere spark of life in him after they had cut him down where the old chief was mourn ing him. Secretly the doctor revived him. He got safely out of the district and to an Indian school. He develop ed into a remarkably bright fellow, lie is studying in Paris now and a credit to his old father." "The old man don.'t seem to have much stir about him in the Indian fighting way." "He had once, andthat is .a strange .AaaaMafragyVjfrsa ovh. ,.,.MC&ii ;ii.-.-.:Tii ----