the Courting Of Griselda Read online

  So I found a grassy ledge above the pool and alongside an outcropping of rock , and there I settled down to wait for a deer. It was early afternoon and a goo d bit of time remained to me.

  There were pines on the ridge behind me, and the wind sounded fine, hummin g through their needles. I sat there for a bit, enjoying the shade, and then I r eached around and pulled a wild onion from the grass, lifting it up to brus h away the sand and gravel clinging to the roots ...

  It was sundown when I reached my shanty, but I didn't stop, I rode on into th e settlement. The first person I saw was the Welshman. He was smiling from ear t o ear, and beside him was the baker woman.

  "Married!" he said cheerfully. "Just the woman I've been looking for!"

  And off down the street they went, arm in arm. Only now it didn't matte r anymore.

  For two days then I was busy as all get-out. I was down to the settlement an d back up above the narrows of the canyon, and then I was down again.

  Putting my few things into a pack, and putting the saddle on that old mule o f mine, I was fixing to leave the claim and shanty for the last time when wh o should show up but Frank Popley.

  He was riding his brown mule with Griselda riding behind him, and they rode u p in front of the shack. Griselda slid down off that mule and ran up and threw he r arms around me and kissed me right on the lips.

  "Oh, Tell! We heard the news! Oh, we're so happy for you! Pa was just sayin g that he always knew you had the stuff, that you had what it takes!"

  Frank Popley looked over at me and beamed. "Can't keep a good man down, boy! Yo u sure can't! Griselda, she always said, 'Pa, Tell is the best of the lot' an' sh e was sure enough right!"

  Suddenly a boot crunched on gravel, and there was Arvie, looking mighty mean an d tough, and he was holding a Walker Colt in his fist, aimed right at me. Did yo u ever see a Walker Colt? Only thing it lacks to be a cannon is a set of wheels.

  "You ain't a-gonna do it!" Arvie said. "You can't have Griselda!"

  "You can have Griselda," I heard myself say, and was astonished to realize tha t I meant it.

  "You're not fooling me! You can't get away with it." And his thumb came forwar d to cock that pistol.

  Like I said, Arvie wasn't too smart or he'd have cocked his gun as he drew it , so I just fetched out my six-shooter and let the hammer slip from under my thum b as it came level.

  Deliberately, I held it a little high, and the .44 slug smashed him in th e shoulder. It knocked him side-wise and he let go of that big pistol an d staggered back two steps and sat down hard.

  "You're a mighty disagreeable man, Arvie," I said, "and not much account. Whe n the boys down at the settlement start finding the marks you put on those card s you'll have to leave the country, but I reckon you an' Griselda deserve eac h other."

  She was looking at me with big eyes and pouty lips because she'd heard the news , but I wasn't having any.

  "You-all been washing gold along the creek," I said, "but you never stopped t o think where those grains of gold started from. Well, I found and staked th e mother lode, staked her from Hell to breakfast, and one day's take will be mor e than you've taken out since you started work. I figure now I'll dig me out a goodly amount of money, then I'll sell my claims and find me some friends tha t aren't looking at me just to see what I got."

  They left there walking down that hill with Arvie astride the mule making paine d sounds every time it took a step.

  When I had pulled that wild onion up there on that ledge overlooking the dee r run, there were bits of gold in the sand that clung to the roots, and when I s craped the dirt away from the base of that outcrop, she was all there ... wir e gold lying in the rock like a jewelry store window.

  Folks sometimes ask me why I called it the Wild Onion Mining Company.

  [28 May 2002] Scanned and proofed by (unknown) on a . B. E-b [04 Jun 2002] converted to HTML by NickL