The Young Cowgirl and the Prospector, a Western

By Burr Cook

This is a romantic, action packed, western adventure novelette 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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Nov 9, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312665187

Book preview

The Young Cowgirl and the Prospector, a Western

The Young Cowgirl and the Prospector, A Western

Copyright 2014 Burr Cook

All rights reserved

ISBN:  978-1-312-66518-7

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 shear 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.

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