Page:A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (1879).djvu/95

LETTER VI.

 

A bronco Mare—An Accident—Wonderland—A Sad Story—The Children of the Territories—Hard Greed—Halcyon Hours—Smartness—Old-fashioned Prejudices—The Chicago Colony—Good luck—Three Notes of Admiration—A good Horse—The St. Vrain—The Rocky Mountains at last—"Mountain Jim"—A death hug—Estes Park.

 

Lower Canyon, September 25.

This is another world. My entrance upon it was signalised in this fashion. Chalmers offered me a bronco mare for a reasonable sum, and though she was a shifty, half-broken young thing, I came over here on her to try her, when, just as I was going away, she took into her head to "scare" and "buck," and when I touched her with my foot she leaped over a heap of timber, and the girth gave way, and the onlookers tell me that while she jumped I fell over her tail from a good height upon the hard gravel, receiving a parting kick on my knee. They could hardly believe that no bones were broken. The flesh of my left arm looks crushed into a jelly, but cold-water dressings will soon bring it right; and a cut on my back bled profusely; and the bleeding, with many bruises and the general shake, have made me feel weak, but circumstances