Horse and Rider

Horse and rider lowed they're heads to shield their faces from the dust that blew hard on the trail. From over the mountain range it came with the wind obscuring everything as it swept along the way. Neither horse nor rider could make out a hand or a hoof in front of the face, which made the riding difficult if not insane. Now the rider had arranged a meeting in town and by golly if he was going to allow anything to cause him to miss it. "Let me be covered with dust but there is no way that I am going to stop now. Move on you horse you because I got myself something to do in that there town that's been long in coming." The rider thought to himself. For seven years he lived only by the hairs around his nuts and by being patient in the knowledge that his day would certainly come.

Many days has he felt the sting of dust hitting against his face and viewed the awesome beauty of the star lit night sky as he sat alone plucking cactus spurs from his backside. He knew in his heart that it was only a matter of time before that one missing link would fall into place and that he would not be void of a mate any longer. Up in the hills he had found himself a vain of gold that he kept to himself as a secret and it was starting to run thin now but he had put enough into his collection plate to make the rest of his life one of wealthy living and this was a fine thing seeing that he is still quite young of age turning only twenty-two in a few months away. Coming from back east as a young runaway who decided that he could do better if not worst on his own he had made it thus far by using his wits and unlike many he was excellent in his reading and writing abilities along with numbers and figures.

In the mountains he build himself a right fine cabin but before he started construction on it he went into town and worked for a number of home builders there and what he learned from them he used in putting his cabin together and a dang good job he did of it even if he must say so himself because you see only once in a blue moon does he receive a visitor and they were mainly rawhides who live in the woods and deals in animal skins for a living. Although it was only a temporary dwelling place he put allot of thought and effort into the job of building it knowing that he would remain until he had exhausted that one vain of gold that he had found and also because he could not see himself living in a half nailed together that likely with any falling leaf that lands on its roof would collapse like a rickety old shack. The days were not so bad because he worked his vain but it was the nights that made him feel lonely because he had too much time to think and that is why horse and rider now tracks on in the gusts of a sandstorm.

One fine day he had an idea and it took him all of one year to set it up in place and finally he was able to find himself a young lady who was willing to travel and take a chance in the blind on a mail order arrangement. From deep in Mississippi he found a young darling who wanted more than the life down there as being a black person and a woman the prevailing culture would give her and by using a local preacher for one whole years she and the young man corresponded. Now when she received the money from him to be on her way she was very excited and also very nervous and afraid however her mind was set that she wanted to make more of herself then what remaining in her present surroundings would avail. All of the letters that he had written her she kept within hands reach for support, courage and comfort and at certain points along the way there was always someone waiting to meet her by prearrangement as she made her way up the Mississippi river towards Montana as her final destination.

The journey was a long one but at every point there was a message waiting for her sent by the young man and someone to assist her on the next leg of the voyage so at no point of the trip did she ever feel abandoned or put aside to herself. She occupied her time by sightseeing and rereading the letters that he had written her visualizing in her mind the look of the face behind the words. Soon she would meet the young man who had gone to all this effort and expense to get her and they would be married and judging by the way that he wrote she knew him to be intelligent and a person who wanted the best things out of life the same as she does and the fact that he had extended his hands all the way down to the deep south to pull up one of his own let her know that he was also a man who had pride in himself and she reasoned in her heart that she would be a good wife to him and would bare him many children. For one year they have been communicating and have come to know one another as closely as if they grew up together.

As suddenly as it began it stopped and the air was as calm as if nothing before had ever blown. Fortunately in his saddlebag he had packed a brand new set of cloths and once he gets into town he would go immediately to the public washhouse and scrub himself clean of the trail before meeting his bride to be. She had not long before turned the ripe old age of eighteen, still a virgin and by the one picture that he had of her that the preacher had gotten taken, she is a sweet little dark cutie who has all the makings of a darling honey. The preacher told him that she is hard working and is very mature and responsible of her age. Out of ten that the preacher had recommended she was number eleven of them, which of course mean that she was not even on the list and it was out of curiosity that she was able to effect his mailing address from one of the others and wrote him and as it turned out it was within a few months of him receiving her letter that the ten hand picked dwindled down to none of them.

She told him that unlike himself who has no family she has a large one and that she was ready to be own her own and have a home to herself alone. She told him that she could read and write a little bit and that she was a quick learner and that she wanted to write on her own just as good as he did. She told him that the picture that he had sent her of himself had gotten wet and was not very clear and for him not to send another because from what she was able to make out he was pretty enough for her and that she would fill in the rest of the picture with his sweet words. The money that he sent to her by her insistence was enough for a round trip plus travel expenses just in case they did not hit it off when they were able to put away the letters and meet face to face. It would be a couple of hours before she arrived by train and that would give him time to make himself presentable. They would meet for the first time and from that time they will develop a home and hopefully a loving relationship the rest of course is to be continued by whatever runs your imagination.