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FRANK'S RANCHE;
OR,
MY HOLIDAY IN THE ROCKIES.
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[Illustration: FRANK'S RANCHE, FROM A SKETCH BY HIMSELF.]
FRANK'S RANCHE
OR
MY HOLIDAY IN THE ROCKIES
BEING A CONTRIBUTION TO THE INQUIRY INTO WHAT WE ARE TO DO WITH OUR BOYS
_BY THE AUTHOR OF
"AN AMATEUR ANGLER'S DAYS IN DOVEDALE"_
"To thy bent mind some relaxation give,
And steal one day out of thy life, to live!"
COWLEY
Second Edition.
LONDON
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON
CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET
1886
(_All rights reserved_)
"Oh! happy farmers! overblest I wis,
If they could only realise their bliss!
For whom the earth, away from jingling strife,
In just abundance sheds the gifts of life."
VIRGIL'S _Georgics_.
(_R. D. Blackmore's Translation._)
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_DEDICATORY LETTER._
_MY DEAR FRIEND M._,
_I cannot but dedicate this little volume to you who have been my
pleasant travelling companion for many thousands of miles in the great
western world. But for you I should probably never have undertaken such
a journey; and for how many acts of thoughtful kindness by the way am I
not indebted to you? Can I forget that you always insisted on my taking
the best bunk in the cabin, the best seat in stage-coaches, the best
room in hotels, the best bed in sleeping cars? Can I forget that it was
your warmhearted friendship for Frank which induced you to "rough it"
with me in his little log shanty? And ought I not gratefully to remember
the inexhaustible resources of that wonderful travelling bag and the
cruse of cordials which, in time of need, were ever at my service? No
man could have had a more pleasant, unselfish, and kind companion than
you were, and my only regret is that I have not been able to produce a
record of our journeyings more worthy of your acceptance._
_Yours faithfully,
E. M._
_London,
Christmas, 1885._
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INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
"What can justify one in addressing himself to the general public as if
it were his private correspondent?" asks Oliver Wendell Holmes. He then
answers his own question by stating that "there are at least three
sufficient reasons," and proceeding to give them.
I wish I could with satisfaction to myself offer any one of those three
reasons for the existence of this little book. But, I cannot venture to
say that I have "a story to tell which everybody wants to hear;" neither
have I "been shipwrecked, or been in a battle, or witnessed any
interesting event that I can tell anything new about." It is needless to
add that I have not been hugged by a bear or scalped by an Indian. I do
not presume to assert that I can "put in fitting words any common
experiences not already well told;" and so I must assign the third
reason, which permits me "to tell anything I like, provided I can so
tell it as to make it interesting."
I cling to this third reason; it embodies the only plea I can put forth.
I have tried to make my story interesting; it would gratify me deeply to
believe that I have succeeded.
* * * * *
"What shall we do with our boys?" is a question frequently put to the
body politic through the medium of the newspapers in the dull season. My
experience has convinced me that the question is a useless one. You may
train up and control your boys to a certain age; you may make them a
present of as good an education as you can afford; you may lay down
plans for their future; you may find niches for each one to fill; you
may fondly hope that each one in his turn will quietly drop into his
niche; that they will live and work together, and in course of time
become a help and comfort to you in your declining years.
But will they do so? I have other sons besides Frank, and they have
found niches for themselves quite other than the ones I had intended for
them when years ago I said to myself "What shall I do with my boys?" Now
they have sons and daughters of their own, who will no doubt soon become
objects of the same inquiry in their turn.
Frank's erratic wanderings from the niche I had designed for him are
recorded in these pages. I have written them in the hope that they may
be, if not very interesting, at least useful to young fellows who, like
him, cannot rest content in the parent nest, however well-feathered or
cotton-wooled it may be; but who also, like Frank, seem to be impelled
by some subtle influence, or by—
"Such wind as scatters young men thro' the world
To seek their fortune further than at home,
Where small experience grows."
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CONTENTS.
PART I.
LETTER I.—My bright anticipations—Melancholy forebodings—Bound _Page_ 1
for the Rockies—Frank's start for the Far West—Farming in
Minnesota—A new scheme—Starting a creamery—Glowing
hopes—Failure and disappointment
LETTER II.—Frank's dearly-bought experience—A start for the 11
Rockies—Magnificent scenery—Indian scouts and
revolvers—Advice to parents—Frank's determination to "rough
it"
LETTER III.—A hundred and twenty miles' walk—Axe, pick-axe, 16
and shovel—A four-hundred-feet roll down the mountain—Rough
living—An Indian scare—Deadly fumes—Working round a
smelter—Fishing in Lake "Abundance"—Disturbed by a grizzly
LETTER IV.—Starting afresh on a new farm—Wheat forty to 27
seventy-five bushels to the acre—Felling trees and
fencing—"Life here is deuced hard"—Somewhat despondent—Forty
below zero—Ink and bacon frozen—Anxiety for General
Gordon—Working in snow up to the waist
LETTER V.—Never had such a hard time—Camping out in the 35
Rockies—Horses decamp—Left in the lurch—A terrible
fright—Crossing a torrent—"Old Jim" taking a roll—Pack
smashed—"Old Jim" in a snow-drift—Woke up by a grizzly—What
the newspapers said of it—Cutting fencing poles in the
snow—Christmas Day—Pickles and plum pudding—The
consequences—A dance—Cowboys and farmers' daughters—"Shall I
turn tail?"—A profitable old cow—The nicest little ranche in
Montana—Start on a sheep drive 300 miles—"The healthiest
place I ever struck"
LETTER VI.—My last letter before leaving for the United States 55
by the good ship "Cunardia"