The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1872-03-07


q garden. young orchard, and vegetables
gro', ing-everything in readiness for the
wife | had counted on getting to help me
take care of it. And what do you think
happened? There came such plague of
grasshoppers upon the valley that they de-
stroyed every green thing; crops, orchard,
flowers, grass, everything! My stock died
tho greater portion of them
and, l was ruined. Deep bass. I con-
sidered myself disappointed in love, too,
because, though / hadn't yet found my
girl, | knew she was somewhere in the val
| leg waiting for me; and l felt somehow
when the gras.hoppers ate up everything.
as if had been Tilted. Actually, it pierce.
me with pang now to think of those use
| less pegs on which so often my magma
ton hung pink calico dress and sun
| bonnet
Knitting his brov,, and signing as he
shifted his position, Ella once more pulled
the hair over his forehead in his peculiar
! fashion, ana went on.
| Il became misanthropic-felt myself
badly used Packing up my books and a
few traps, started for the mountains with
what stock l had left, built myself fort
and played hermit.
a regular fort -
a stockade eighteen feet high with an
embankment tour feet high around It, a
strong gate, tent IN the middle of the in
closure, all my property such as books,
feed arms, etc, inside
On account of Indians?'
Indians and white men. Yes, I've
seen good many Indians through the
bead of my rife. They learned to keep
away from my fort. There were mining
camps down in the valley, and you know
the hangers-on of those camps? l sold
beef to the miners; had plenty of money
bv me sometimes. 1t was necessary to be
strongly forted.'
What a strange life for boy! What
did you do? How spend your time
Il herded my cattle, drove them to mar
ket, cooked, studied, wrote and INDUCED ir
misanthropy, with little rife practice
By the time | had been one summer in thu
mountains | had got nv hand in, and knew
how to make money buying up cattle tc
sell again in the mines.
so there was method in your madness
-misanthropy, you mean?
Well, a man cannot resign life befor,
he is q. | was doing well, and beginning
to think again of visiting the Walamet t,
hunt up my girl. One Sunday afternoon
! | knew it was Sunday, because | kept
Journal was sitting outside my for
writing, when shadow fell across tn
paper, and looking up, 10 skeleton fgur,
, stood before me. Sephulchral tones ant
pause. Used as | was to lonely encoun
ters with strange men, my hair stood or
end as gazed on the spectre before me
He was the mercst boy in years; pretty
and delicate by nature, and then reduced
by starvation to shadow. His story wa,
soon told. He had left Boston on a yesse
, coming out to the northwest coast. haC
been wrecks 81 tho ,,,~..+, r - w.
and been wandering about in the mountains
ever since, subsisting as best he could OF
roots and berries. But you are becoming
tired p
No, [ assure you; on the contrary
growing deeply Interested
The boy was not a young woman il
disguise, or any thing ike that yon know
with an amused look at me- Il though
you'd think so, but as he comes in tn,
story as a collateral, just mentioned hi.
introduction to myself. | fed him an
nursed him until he was able to 20 to work
and then | got Sam Chong Lung TO lc
camp, promising tc favor the Chinaman il
beef contract if he was good to the boy
His claim proved to be a good one and ht
was making money, when two Chinamer
stole a lot of horses from Sum Chonc
Lung, and he offered 800 to Edwards il
ne would 20 after them AMI bring them back
Edwards oetol NJ o,l,iue, AMI | encour
aged him to 60, telling him how to take
and bring back his prisoners. Reflective
pause. You can't imagine me living
alone, now can You? Such an ecotistica1
fellow as I am, and fond Of lalies' society.
You can't believe it, can you 2
Hermits ana soitaries are ALWAYS ego
lists, | believe. A to the ladies' your lone
illness was the result of the circumstances,
as you have explained
Well, | should have missed Edwards a
good deal, if it had not been for some sin
Snlar incidents which happened during his
absence. Ella always accented the last
syllable of any word ending in emit, ike
incident or commencement giving it be-
! sides a peculiar nasal sound, which was
sure to secure the attention. The word
incident, as he pronounced it, produced
quite different effect from the same word
spoken in the usual style.
A man came to my fort one dav who
was naked and starving He was a bad
looking fellow; bat man naturally does
lock bad when his clothes are in rags. and
his bones protruding through his skin. l
| clothed him, fed him, cared for him kindly.
until be was able to travel, and then he
went away The next Sunday, l was sit
ting outside the stockade, as customary,
reading some TRANSACTIONS of the Greek
poets when, on raising my eyes from the
book to glance over the approach to nv
tort-I was always on the alert-I beheld
vision. Remember, l had not seen a
woman for a year and half. She was
slowly advancing, riding with superb grace
horse of great beauty and value, richly