CONCLUSION
RETROSPECTIVE--THE OLD TRAPPER PASSES AWAY--MR. AND MRS.
THOMPSON ARE DEAD--GENERAL CUSTER AND COLONEL KEOGH ARE
KILLED--ERROLSTRATH BELONGS TO JOE AND ROB
TWENTY-NINE years have elapsed since the events related in this story.
The Indians, buffalo, and antelope have all disappeared. There is no
longer any frontier. Granite monuments mark the dividing line between
great states. The children of this generation will never know by
experience the hardships, the perils, and the amusements which so
conspicuously characterized the life of Joe, Rob, Gertrude, and Kate at
Errolstrath.
General Custer, Colonel Keogh, and nearly all of the famous cavalry
regiment commanded by the great Indian fighter went down to their death
in the awful massacre at the battle of the Little Bighorn, or Rosebud,
as it is sometimes called.
The old trapper, Mr. Tucker, who was such a warm friend of the family,
has long since passed away. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson are buried in the
quiet cemetery on the hill, near the ranche. Kate and her sister have
been married for many years and still live in Kansas, but not at the
dear old home. Errolstrath belongs to Joe and Rob. It is now a large
ranche, comprising many thousand acres. Where the buffalo and the
antelope used to roam in such vast herds are to be seen, peacefully
grazing, hundreds of mild-eyed Jerseys and the broad-backed Durhams. A
new house with all modern improvements has been erected on the site of
the old one. On its broad veranda may be seen every evening in summer
the children of the two brothers, to whom, as the shadows lengthen, they
tell of their own early experiences when they too were children and when
the ranche was far out in the wilderness of the great central plains.
The shrill whistle of the locomotive may be heard at the ranche as the
palace trains with their load of living freight dash along the bank of
the Smoky Hill, toward the Rocky Mountains. Ellsworth has grown to be a
beautiful town with electric lights and all the appliances of our
wonderful nineteenth century civilization.
The moon shines as brightly and the birds sing as sweetly as of yore
around Errolstrath, but of all the familiar faces that knew it so many
years ago, only those of Joe and Rob may be seen. Even they are bearded,
their hair is slightly mixed with gray. They are growing old; but the
laughter of their merry children serves to keep green the memory of
their own happy childhood.
* * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Obvious punctuation errors were corrected.
Page 127, "lighting" changed to "lightning" (like lightning and forced)
Page 225, "lightedl" changed to "lighted" (prairie was lighted)
Page 225, "th" changed to "that" (and mellow that)
Page 226, "n" removed from text at start of new paragraph. Original read
(n When the leader of the)
Page 226, on the line below the previous note, "hu" changed to "the"
(the spot where his)