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    Western Stories: Four Tales of the West
    Western Stories: Four Tales of the West
    Western Stories: Four Tales of the West
    Ebook47 pages39 minutes

    Western Stories: Four Tales of the West

    By Marsha Ward

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    About this ebook

    Western Stories: Four Tales of the West, by best-selling author Marsha Ward. This short story collection includes newly edited editions of Cottonwood Cowboys, The Usual Game, War Party, and No More Strangers.

    Cottonwood Cowboys
    Saturday is a poor time for the boss to assign cowboys Slim and Curly the chore of cutting up a fallen cottonwood tree. In just a few hours, there will be a dance at the school house, where they expect to meet the new schoolmarm. The boys grudgingly work the two-man saw, trying to shoehorn the task into the time they have to get ready for Saturday night.

    The Usual Game
    Verl returns to his boarding house after a hard day working construction in the Verde Valley of the new State of Arizona. He's dreaming of going home to Phoenix with his wages, home to sweet Betty's arms. Then he finds his landlord, Fong, ensnared in the usual game run by the local card shark, Happy Sam. If Fong can't get away, he's going to lose the money he's been saving for years to send for his wife in China. High stakes action in early Arizona.

    War Party
    For pre-teen Rolla Wood, life will never be the same after the Apache raid on his home. Bent on avenging the deaths of his parents, Rolla sets out to hunt down the war party, and learns far more than he could wish about the realities of the Arizona frontier. This coming-of-age story features a fictional account of the Battle of Salt River Canyon.

    No More Strangers
    Elijah Marshall only wants to cross the Great American Desert to Zion to reunite with his young sister. But things get complicated when he volunteers to take responsibility for making sure a new widow, her toddler son, and their wagon get safely to their destination, as well.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMarsha Ward
    Release dateFeb 21, 2015
    ISBN9781311028693
    Western Stories: Four Tales of the West
    Author

    Marsha Ward

    Marsha Ward was born in the sleepy little town of Phoenix, Arizona, and grew up with chickens, citrus trees, and lots of room to roam. She began telling stories at a very early age, regaling neighborhood chums with her tales over homemade sugar cookies and milk. Her love of 19th Century Western history was reinforced by visits to her cousins on their ranch and listening to her father's stories of homesteading in Old Mexico and in the Tucson area.Over the years, Marsha became an award-winning poet, writer and editor, with over 900 pieces of published work. She is the founder of American Night Writers Association and a member of Western Writers of America, Indie Author Hub, and Arizona Professional Writers. She makes her home in a tiny forest hamlet in Arizona. When she is not writing, she loves to give talks, meet readers, and sign books.

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      Book preview

      Western Stories - Marsha Ward

      Western Stories includes newly edited editions of the short stories Cottonwood Cowboys, The Usual Game, War Party, and No More Strangers.

      Western Stories

      Four Tales of the West

      Marsha Ward

      Published by WestWard Books at Smashwords

      Copyright 2015 Marsha Ward

      http://marshaward.com

      Cover Photo Credit: Historic Photos, Tonto National Forest, U.S. Forest Service

      All rights reserved. No portion of this work may be reproduced in print or electronically, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations for the purpose of critical articles or reviews.

      The stories included herein are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be re-sold or given away to other people. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights and hard work is appreciated.

      Table of Contents

      Cottonwood Cowboys

      The Usual Game

      War Party

      No More Strangers

      Thank you for reading!

      Novels in The Owen Family Saga

      About the Author

      Cottonwood Cowboys

      The week ran along fine until Thursday night.

      Then the big cottonwood came crashing down on the corral.

      It about ruined my weekend.

      I guess I didn’t mind so much that I was stuck on the two-man saw with Curly, but Saturday afternoon working toward evening was a poor time to pull tree clearing duty, especially this Saturday, with the dance all laid out at the school house, and a new schoolmarm to gaze at.

      I reckon it wasn’t Curly’s fault; there wasn’t a finer hand than Curly, except maybe for me, on the whole Four Rivers, Arizona, spread. It was just that I was itching to get to that dance, having caught a beforehand sign of that schoolmarm when last I was in town.

      The trouble was, Curly was just as anxious to get duded up and out to the school house as I was, and I didn’t want him to get an edge on me.

      I guess it weren’t Amos Ramsey’s fault neither. But I sure cussed him some under my breath while I worked that saw back and forth as fast as I could stand. Old Amos owned the Four Rivers Ranch, and I thought sure he was going to leave that old, rotten tree for another day or two, seeing as how it had been laying there since the storm brought it down on Thursday night, and he hadn’t seen fit to give orders to clear it away.

      Old Amos changed his mind along about Saturday noon, and decided he surely could use some firewood from that stringy tree. While you’re at it, Slim, you might as well clear the whole mess from the corral. And after that, if you didn’t mind, you can fix the section of fence that got mashed with the tree atop it.

      Tarnation, I said, along with a few other little things, once Old Amos was safely out of earshot and I’d picked Curly

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