The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Moccasin Ranch, by Hamlin Garland

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Title: The Moccasin Ranch
A Story of Dakota

Author: Hamlin Garland

Release Date: November 11, 2006 [EBook #19764]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: "STAND OUT O' MY WAY, OR I'LL KILL YOU!" See page 104]

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THE MOCCASIN RANCH

A STORY OF DAKOTA
BY
HAMLIN GARLAND

AUTHOR OF
"THE CAPTAIN OF THE GRAY-HORSE TROOP"
"MAIN-TRAVELLED ROADS" etc.

NEW YORK AND LONDON
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
MCMIX

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Copyright, 1909, by Hamlin Garland.

All rights reserved.

Published September, 1909.

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CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. MARCH 1
II. MAY 24
III. JUNE 33
IV. AUGUST 49
V. NOVEMBER 67
VI. DECEMBER 86
VII. CONCLUSION 128

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THE MOCCASIN RANCH

I

MARCH

Early in the gray and red dawn of a March morning in 1883, two wagons
moved slowly out of Boomtown, the two-year-old "giant of the plains." As
the teams drew past the last house, the strangeness of the scene
appealed irresistibly to the newly arrived immigrants. The town lay
behind them on the level, treeless plain like a handful of blocks
pitched upon a russet robe. Its houses were mainly shanties of pine,
one-story in height, while here and there actual tents gleamed in the
half-light with infinite suggestion of America's restless pioneers.

The wind blew fresh and chill from the west. The sun rose swiftly, and
the thin scarf of morning cloud melted away, leaving an illimitable
sweep of sky arching an almost equ