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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 1906)
T 7 4 y THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, PORTEAJfD, OCTOBER 21, 1906. TR1 AM" EUR lR-"3 IP UTM. J olrJ by "Giinmie Fadden'-EdwarJ W. TownsereL B. Cory Kilverh V " . " ' '-k . 30e& -a3f??J l ' 1 : HETfAVI? CO. WHEN" Bob and Mary came back from their wedding journey we had a rlrping time at their house warming, though the house was warmed days before they came home. As soon as the furniture began to arrive from New York grandma paid the house must ta urea, and "Aunt Jane said it must be warmed, so Eggy and I passed days open ing doors and windows for grandma and building: grate fires for Aunt Jane, until Uncle Tom said sometimes when he came in he though It was a cold storage ware house and sometimes a bakery. It really was a bakery and a cook house the day before they returned, for grand ma brought in Kggy"s mamma and they started in early in the morning baking and cooking such a lot of things it made a fellow wish to be married, too. and coming home to a house-warming. Grand ma said that she knew perfectly well that the poor children hadn't had a decent thing to eat all the time they were gone. She often calls Bob and Mary "poor children." though they are ever so old and Bob Isn't a bit poor. Grandma has never been In New York, but she is sure she knows all about It. and the surest thing she knows about it Is that people there eat only lobsters and messy stuff stewed in copper pots by heathen French cooks froge and snails, mostly enough to poison a God-fearing body, she says. The "poor children." when they ar ' rived didn't look a bit starved, but as if they'd been rather well fed while tear ing about with my papa and mamma. They didn't neglect any of Grandma's nd things, though, and after supper Bob and Mary brought out the present they'd brought for us ail. and then the house began to warm up. I tell you; and we kids (Eggy was there) were allowed to sit up until we sang "Home. Sweet Home." which Mary played on the piano, and grandpa played on his flute, looking like a tanned old angel that he is. Eggy and his mother are living in the cottage out at the farm now, but Eggy comes in to school every day, carrying a new pair of boots, which he puts on only for school hours and shinny. His feet won't wear out he says, but his boots will. We are good friends again, though we had a deuce of a row after he played croquet with Pussy when I went to sleep to cure what ailed me after the hard cider. I told him I thought It was a mucker thing to do to leave his shinney game and break into my croquet game without being asked. He said he knew Pussy Wentworth before ever T came to town and he had as much right to-play with her as-T had when he was aeked. I wish girls were not so pretty, for if they were ugly one wouldn't care. Anyway. 1 sajd to Eggy that since I'd seen what a Jolly lark It was to come home from a weeding Journey to a house warming with rive kinds of pie (preserved huckleberry pie!) I'd made up my mind to marry Putsy and I'd thank him not to go about all the time looking for invita tions from her to play croquet. That made him mad. and he said that when he wore shoes he had as much right to play with her as I had. and. what was more, he wasn't so sure but that he'd marry Pussy himself. "We'd stopped our game of shinny to jaw out our row. and as we stood there who in ever should we see 'vrlnr along but Pussy herself, ao I said that if he wanted to be Pussy's beau when I wanted to be we'd settle it right then and there. "How?" said Eggy. "By a fight?" I said I didn't mind a fight, as he very well knew, but I wasn't ashamed to say that I'd hate to fight with him. especially about such a stupid matter as a woman's love. What I proposed to do was to ask Pussy which of us she'd rather marry, and he'd have to hurry about agreeing to that way of settling it, as she was almost up to us. Eggy said all right, so I stepped forward and said to Pussy: "Which of us would you rather marry?" "Neither"' snapped Pussy. I was so flabbergasted I couldn't say another word, but Eggy gasped out: "Why neither?" "Because I scorn you both for not get ting me an Invitation to the house-warming. Five kinds of pie and me not there!" Then she swept on as haughty as an actress on the stage, leaving Eggy and me standing there, a couple of sillies, with the other fellows jeering at us. After a while Eggy began to giggle, and he said: "How does the game stand. Ham?" "What game?" I asked. "Our shinney game, of course. Come on." Shinney is better than girls, after all. for. while a crack on the shin hurts worse than a woman's scorn, you can swipe back at the other fellow's shins. There was a tangling old frost that night, so I hustled out to Grandpa's early in the morning and found Eggy waiting for me. Chestnuts! We gathered a pail ful in just no time. Then Grandpa told us to go down to the pond and catch some fish, Ha built a fire on the basic and Bob, who turned up smiling, went over to the wood lot and we heard his shotgun pop a couple of times. When we'd caifght a mess of fish we rowed ashore, and there by the Are was Mary, and with her. smiling as if she'd never done anything else all her life, was Pussy Wentworth. I never saw such a girl! Just plant her where she sees a fair- chance for some thing good to eat and you'd think she'd never broken hearts in haughty scorn, but had always been an angel of sweetness and light, like a heroine in a poem. I knew what she was looking so sweet about when Mary began to unload a bas ket of Grandma's cakes and pies. But we men ate no such silly stuff, for Grandpa gave us a dinner fit for sports men, though soft kids who play croquet with girls might not have liked it. Grand pa had taken our fish, and with the big blade of his old pocket-knife he'd cleaned each with a turn of his wrist. The two fat gray squirrels Bob brought in Grand pa dressed and cut up with no more trou ble.' The fish, he gave to Mary to fry; the squirrels he put into a stewpan. with some butter, pepper, salt, shreds of onion and little squares of potatoes, with a lit tle water. He covered the pan and put It into a circle of hot stones he drew from the fire, and let it alone. Then he threw handfuls of chestnuts into some hot ashes and let them alone. "Camp cooking is mostly to let things cook themselves." he said. But he made Eggy and me roast some apples on the ends of switches, and I guess that was to keep us from poking into the stew which I was dying to do. But I could see the stewpan cover hop ping up under the steam, could hear it ieiirgie and blob, and could smell the rlp- pingist odors from it even if I couldn't poke into it. When that meal was served I made up my mind that I would camp out the rest of my life! Honestly, Eggy and I ate so much of that stew, poured over bread, that we couldn't eat a single piece even of mince pie. When we got to the roasted apples and chestnuts with cider (new cider for kids, hard for the grown-ups) Grandpa winked at Mary and said to Bob "Well, son. you seem to enjoy this as much as do Ham and Eggy you, a mar ried man!" "Dear Grandad." said Bob. filling Grandpa's glass and bis own, "if I seem to enjoy this my looks belie roe. I am doing his from a sense of duty. If I pur sued the dictates of my heart, gave rein to the impulses of my ambition, I should plunge Into the vortex of this Industrial age, mix in the struggle for gold and things. But those insistent yearnings I subdue in order to help preserve for pose terity the traditions of our forefathers and grandfathers. At times I am content to deny myself the idle delights of the world to be found in the aforesaid vortex and return to In order to preserve those stern Puritan habits, customs; return-to the meagre fare Mary, my love, if you give Pussy yet another pie the child will explode. Granddad, my regards." Pussy and Eggy and I are good friends again now. HAM bukk. iliupa nujacu - " - j - "Dogs Arc Indispensable for Carrying Burdens The native Alaska dog: is known as the "huskie" or "malamoot" and Is a mongrel one-half timber wolf. He has characteristics which especially fit him for his work he is heavy set. witn a thick coat of long hair, im pervious to cold, and with Just enough wolf In his nature to make him rest less, eager to go, and with a- sufficient mixture of dog to temper a fierceness and treachery which might, and some times does, become dangerous. Ali this is understood In fact, care fully studied and watched by the Alaskan, and those qualities which manifest themselves In fidelity and gentleness are encouraged by .kind treatment, while the wolfish side of their nature is quickly and effectually subdued by numerous whippings. These animals have not yet learned to ex press tbemselvea by, barking, and .tbo only noise they can make is a dismal howl. It is a rare occurrence for them to bite a human being, but they will fignt among themselves on the slight est provocation, and it is not an un common sight for half a dozen "hus kies" to hold a pitched battle on the main street of Fairbanks. A bucket of cold water will generally put them to flight, but in the majority of cases the miners pay no attention to the melee and allow the dogs to fight It out. The wolf nature manifests itself In their thieving propensities, and all food must be "cached" out of their reach. A hungry "huskie" will open a box of canned beef with ease by bit ing through the tin. He will lie be fore the door of a tent or cabin, pre tending to be asleep, when in reality he is waiting for a chance to ransack the kitchen. One day I saw a miner's I dinner, jweaked, bi bis pwa dog. a J splendid, big. wolfish fellow, who over, turned a pot of beans and in the most unconcerned manner walked oft with, the hot bacon in his mouth. No matter whs-t, depredations they may commit, severe punishment, so aa to cripple or kill them, is out ot the question, on account of their great value in the transportation of supplies. It is an inferior dog that is not worth $40, and many of them, say their mas ters, are not for sale. Two good dogs can haul a man 40 or SO miles a day on a good trail or carry from 500 to 6.10 pounds of freight about 20 miles in six hours. They are faithful to the last degree, and will work even when weak from lack of food. When in this condition, how ever, they sometimes become danger ous, and should the driver fall he may be attacked, but these instances are rare, and more often the dog is sacri ficed to save his master from starva- lion- J-slle'a -Weekly, 1 I
