Fire brands
| Language | en |
|---|---|
| First published | 2025-12-01 |
| Rights | Public domain in the USA. |
| Gutenberg ID | #77373 |
Description
"American medicinal barks" by Alice Henkel is a scientific publication written in the early 20th century. It likely surveys North American tree and shrub barks used in medicine, explaining how to identify, gather, dry, and market them, with practical notes for botanists, pharmacists, and commercial collectors. The opening of the story plunges into a wry, fast-moving Western: cowboys Sad Sontag and Swede Harrigan land in the cow town of Oreana, tangle with bully Bill Wyatt, and befriend a hard-luck boy, Speck, and his dog. A sheriff’s sale of the Bar S ranch looms, its herd mysteriously vanishes after a fence is cut, and tensions sharpen with Bunty O’Neil, the saloonkeeper who holds the ranch’s debts. Old Eph Wyatt offers to adopt Speck, but is ambushed on the road; Speck fires back, rides Swede’s horse to raise the alarm, and a posse finds blood but no body. Sad and Swede produce a canny alibi, outwit Bill’s attempt to eavesdrop, and later are caught roping a Box 8 steer just as the scene ends in fresh chaos. (This is an automatically generated summary.)