Recently released from the army, with a medical discharge, Whit Wadsworth was, after a dose of Spanish flu had laid him low for almost a year. Where he had been a strapping 180 pounds, he was now a staggering, stumbling 150. Upon his discharge, he had caught a train out of El Paso for Benson. Upon arriving there, he had worked his way north along the San Pedro River. Over the course of a month or so, he found himself on the banks of the Gila River. He was almost out of grub. This morning, he had made a pot of coffee and fried a small slab of bacon. He figured he had one more good meal. He needed a job, but knew he wasn't strong enough to do a full day's work. Well, if he couldn't get a job, maybe a free meal.
As he reached the top of the mountain, he saw below him, a house and barn with corrals. As he rode closer, he could see a woman dressed in a denim shirt over a pair of split riding skirts. They fell to the top of shop-made calfskin boots. The woman's hair had once been a honey blonde, but was now showing a little gray, at middle age she still held a fair figure and a face with no wrinkles. But above all that, Whit was worried, for strapped around her waist was a pistol. A lump came to his throat as he approached. He fairly needed a meal and a place to sleep, but this ranch woman looked hard as nails. He stopped twenty feet from the house and removed his hat. "Good afternoon Ma'am, is your man about?"
"No, I don't have a man. Not anymore, he's buried over in Globe. This is my ranch. What can I do for you?" She wasn't unpleasant, but still had a firm tone to her.
"I'm just out of the army, looking for a job. I've come a fair piece. Would ya have anything a man could do for a meal?" Whit was leaning on his saddle horn while he spoke.
Dennis Williams is a third generation Arizonan. He has spent his life from an early age in agriculture. His main focus has been cattle, first in feedlots, ranches and even a fourteen month stint in a large meat packing plant.
Along the way, Dennis has been a active roper in rodeos and jackpot competitions. He's been a finalist in the international feedlot team roping finals, first in Las Vegas, then Elko Nevada. In 2012 he started writing, first in memoirs of forty years in the cattle business, then moving on to cowboy fiction. Most of his work has been an enjoyable pastime.
Since he retired from rodeoing, he has started producing the 'REX ALLEN DAYS RODEO' in Rex s home town of Willcox AZ.
Rex was Dennis' hero and from early childhood, he has always wanted to be an Arizona cowboy.
