The Cowgirl and the Prospector and Other Western Stories

By Burr Cook

Book 1 is “The Cowgirl and the Prospector.” This is a short, action packed, western adventure story about a prospector who finds himself in charge of bringing up a girl child named Sandy. He raises her to be a typical cowgirl after he decides to abandon his search for a get rich quick scheme and takes a job on a cattle ranch. Together they have many adventures on the banks of the Snake River in Idaho. Book 2 is “Cowboy Cattle Call Songs.” In this story James Riley is sought by a bounty hunter and has adventures in Fort Laramie, Montana and the Black Hills of Dakota. He falls in love with Winona, a Lakota Sioux Native American before returning with her to Laramie. Book 3 “Heart In Hand, a Western Romance” is a fast moving fictional western romance. The location moves from Buffalo, New York to a Montana cattle ranch. A lonely widow answers an ad in a lonely hearts magazine and gets involved with a hard drinking cowboy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Burr Cook
• Release date: Jan 27, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311821966

Burr Cook

Burr lives in Syracuse, New York, has 4 children, several grandchildren and says that Great grandchildren are arriving at an alarming rate. Burr is a history buff and works hard on his family's genealogy and has a web site at www.burrcook.com which is partially biographical. He may be contacted through this site. He has traveled extensively throughout the US, Europe and Asia by air, rail and highway. Burr has enjoyed a 50 year career in information technology, has owned a worldwide seminar business and a company called “Cyburrsource” providing the public with internet connections. He is now semi retired and enjoys a life as a freelance writer of action/adventure/romance stories primarily in a historical western setting.

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The Cowgirl and the Prospector and Other Western Stories

Copyright 2015 Burr Cook

Published by Burr Cook at Smashwords

Second Edition

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Preface

Book 1 The Cowgirl and the Prospector

Chapter 1 From Prospecting to Ranching

Chapter 2 Taylor Brown, Hero

Chapter 3 Prospector Again

Chapter 4 Meanwhile Back at the Ranch

Chapter 5 A New Home

Chapter 6 The Cowgirl Emerges

Chapter 7 Trouble in Happy Valley

Book 2 Cowboy Cattle Call Songs

Chapter 1 Bounty Hunter

Chapter 2 Leaving Laramie Behind

Chapter 3 The Bursdales

Chapter 4 Dakota

Chapter 5 The Homesteader

Chapter 6 Home

Book 3 Heart In Hand, a Western Romance

Chapter 1 East

Chapter 2 West

Chapter 3 Buffalo

Chapter 4 The Flying-j Ranch

Chapter 5 Off to a Rough Start

Chapter 6 Church

Chapter 7 Prairie Fire

About

Books by Burr Cook

Preface

Book 1 is The Cowgirl and the Prospector. This is a short, action packed, western adventure story about a prospector who finds himself in charge of bringing up a girl child named Sandy. He raises her to be a typical cowgirl after he decides to abandon his search for a get rich quick scheme and takes a job on a cattle ranch. Together they have many adventures on the banks of the Snake River in Idaho. Book 2 is Cowboy Cattle Call Songs. In this story James Riley is sought by a bounty hunter and has adventures in Fort Laramie, Montana and The Black Hills of Dakota. He falls in love with Winona, a Lakota Sioux Native American before returning with her to Laramie. Book 3 Heart In Hand, a Western Romance is a fast moving fictional western romance. The location moves from Buffalo, New York to a Montana cattle ranch. A lonely widow answers an ad in a lonely hearts magazine and gets involved with a hard drinking cowboy. These stories are also available as separate Novelettes.

Book 1 The Cowgirl and the Prospector

Chapter 1 From Prospecting to Ranching

Taylor Brown was thirsty. He had been a prospector for 10 years now with nothing to show for all of his hard work. His canteen was empty last night when he fell asleep on the desert sand from sheer exhaustion. Now it was morning and the heat of the day was just beginning. Yesterday he had shot his horse who had stumbled when he stepped in a hole that was probably made by a jack rabbit or prairie dog. He wasn’t sure what it would be since he had never wandered this far into Idaho before. So now he was riding his burro which was just able to carry his 160 pounds. He had hidden his prospecting tools about 20 miles back. The burro, whose name was Grey Beard, couldn’t carry him and the equipment both. He knew that the Snake River wasn’t very far away now but he had doubts about his and the burro’s ability to get there in the heat of the day with no water.

His partner, Qantus, an Indian left two days back. He knew how to find water but not gold. He had said that it was useless to go on searching, there’s no gold around here.

Qantus had family with the Bannock Tribe, near Fort Hall where the California Trail parted from the Oregon Trail. He very likely had a squaw waiting for his return. Taylor thought out loud I should have gone with my Indian friend. If I had a family I’d want to see them. Right now I’d trade all the gold in the world for a cold glass of water.

By noon time Taylor could go no further. Even the burro was refusing to move so he sat down in the shade of a small butte and went right to sleep. He awoke in the middle of the afternoon. It was the hottest time of the day and his mouth was so dry that he couldn’t make a sound to call Grey Beard so he started looking around. He was 35 years old and not ready to die. He really hadn’t done much with his life so far. He had grown up on a cattle ranch but preferred prospecting for gold.

When he heard noises from behind some rocks he checked it out and found the burro slurping from a small water hole. It was more like mud than water and when he knelt next to his faithful burro he tried to slurp some of the foul stuff himself. He couldn’t drink the awful tasting stuff but he managed to wet his mouth.

Now that at least the animal had a drink he mounted Grey Beard who balked a little but eventually started moving. They trudged on for several miles before the sun started to set. He still had a bag of beans and coffee but no water to cook with so he rolled out the small blanket that he was using for a saddle and was soon blessed with sleep.

The next day he tried to go on but the burro would no longer carry him, the animal balked and just stood there until Taylor dismounted so he tried walking some more. His lips were cracking open with sores and his tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth. He knew he would die if he didn’t find water within hours and Grey Beard wouldn’t be far behind. By noon time in the hottest time of the day he could no longer stand. He was crawling on all fours. He knew it was a long ways to water; otherwise the burro would smell it and head for it.

Sometime in the afternoon he fell into deep sleep. As he drifted into oblivion he thought he might never wake up.

In the early hours of the next morning while it was still quite dark he became restless and began to awaken. He wasn’t sure at first but what he might be dreaming when he thought he was hearing gunfire. It was that sound that was waking him. When he finally found himself fully awake all was very still at first but soon he felt a gentle cooling breeze then he was startled to see a flash of lightning and suddenly he jumped up fully awake now and realizing that he had been hearing thunder. A storm was coming and that most likely would mean rain. He was elated beyond belief.

Taylor sat on a rock for about an hour waiting and hoping. When the rain finally came he removed his shirt and danced around the rock whooping and howling like an idiot. He held out his hat catching water to drink; then filled his canteen and his pot in which he carried beans. Once he had filled everything he had that would hold water he bathed himself and as soon as he finished the rain stopped as abruptly as it had started. Daylight was a little late in coming due to the storm but as soon as the sun came out things started to dry up again. Some small pools lingered for a short while but soon disappeared.

There weren’t many trees nearby but he was able to gather enough wood for a fire. His matches were in a waterproof leather bag so they were dry and soon he was cooking some beans and tossed in a few scraps of jerky for flavor. The food tasted good. He gave some of it to Grey Beard but was sorry he’d done it when the burro had an attack of bowel gas for the rest of the day, brought on by the beans. He walked most of the day so he wouldn’t be so close to Grey Beard.

It took two days to find the Snake River. Taylor was planning to find work for a few months. He needed to purchase a horse and some prospecting tools. He knew that he would never find his tools again. The only work he really could do aside from prospecting for gold was herding cattle so he approached a ranch house on the bank of the river and was hired immediately. The ranch was called Happy Valley and it was owned by Larry Wheat.

He was allowed to bed down the burro in the horse corral where it would get fed daily. Not having a horse was no problem since there were wild horses in the nearby hills. Taylor was shown to the bunkhouse where he was assigned a cot which was as good as a feather bed after sleeping on the ground for so long.

The first night he met some of the cowboys when the chuck wagon arrived followed by a group of about a dozen men. He ate more food that night than he had in the last month. The next day Taylor