"Trader came by today," the station master greeted the rider as he pulled up at the station that night. "Left a lot o' trinkets an' sech junk behind 'im. I traded in a couple o' purty good pelts fer it all."
"What'd ya do it for... if ya thought it was all junk?" the rider laughed.
"Wal, thought it might come in handy... fer tradin' with th' natives an' all. Come on an' look it over. Mayhap ye'll find somethin' fer yer sunshine girl," the station master grinned sideways at the rider, noting the red flush that spread over the young man's tanned features.
"Go on with ya," he frowned. "I don't even know her name."
"There's a way t' remedy that. Seems t' me... if ya want t' find out someone's name, all ya got t' do is ask."
"Sure, an' when would I be able t' do that? North Platte is smack in th' middle o' my route... forty miles one way an' fifty th' other. I can't just go ridin' into town t' go calling. Got t' hold m' job, ya know."
"Ya'd better figure somethin' out purty soon. If she's purty, like ya said, she won't be waitin' around fer long. Now ya'd better look over these trinkets. Anythin' she'd like?"
oOo
When the express rider rode through North Platte the next day, Eliana was waiting with her latest batch of baking. He caught the cookies with his rifle and as he rode away, tossed a little paper package towards her. Eliana knelt quickly to retrieve it and smiled as she read the words scrawled across the package:
"For the Sunshine Girl"
She tore it open, surprised and yet delighted to find a silver chain with a tiny silver horse dangling from it. And with it, a note, in the same hurried scrawl.
"Thank you for bringing a ray of sunshine into my life."
So that's what he meant when he said "Sunshine Girl". Eliana pressed the note to her heart for just a moment, then slipped it into her pocket. When she reached to clasp the chain around her neck, she realized that her hands were trembling... and her heart was beating to match the rythm of the galloping hoofbeats in the distance.
YOU ARE READING
A Shadow on the Plains
Historical FictionIn the background of a rising and growing new country, the shadows of the Pony Express fly over the plains. Nobody really knows who they are, nobody really seems to care. They are nothing more than a nameless link from the East to the West. They def...
