For the love of Annibel by W. C. Tuttle
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For the love of Annibel by W. C. Tuttle is a humorous Western short story written in the early 20th century. Set in the rough little town of Piperock, it pokes fun at “home-talent” theatricals, as local pride, jealousies, and bad luck—plus one infamously ornery horse—turn a simple stage melodrama into comic bedlam. Narrated by dry-witted cowhand Ike Harper, the tale begins when his towering pardner Magpie Simpkins decides to become an
actor after Madame Della Selva arrives to stage a play in the Mint dance hall. Casting churns up rivalries and absurdities: Judge Steele becomes Annibel’s father, Tellurium Woods is inked into permanent blackface, Slim Hawkins supplants Magpie as romantic lead, and the villain role lands on Magpie—while a notorious bucker, old Squaw, is chosen as the onstage racehorse. On opening night the set wobbles, whiskers slip, the pump collapses, and drunken Cobalt Williams leans on everything that won’t hold him—until Squaw explodes into a ferocious bucking spree that wrecks the stage and panics the crowd; a stray shot shatters the lights and the audience stampedes. In the aftermath they drag Cobalt from under a smashed sidewalk and learn he had “doctored” Squaw with carbon bisulfide, inflaming the chaos that Magpie had half a mind to cause anyway. The story closes with a shrug and a wisecrack, the wrecked show leaving only laughter and bruises behind. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Tuttle, W. C. (Wilbur C.), 1883-1969 |
|---|---|
| Title | For the love of Annibel |
| Original Publication | New York: The Ridgway Company, 1916. |
| Series Title | Produced from the November 1916 issue of Adventure magazine. |
| Credits | Prepared by volunteers at BookCove (bookcove.net) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | Short stories |
| Subject | Western stories |
| Subject | Simpkins, Magpie (Fictitious character) -- Fiction |
| Subject | Harper, Ike (Fictitious character) -- Fiction |
| Subject | Piperock (Montana : Imaginary place) -- Fiction |
| Subject | Plays -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 78219 |
| Release Date | Mar 16, 2026 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 240 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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