Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-11-05

JueTe, VI COURSE IL uOG IuslSL; Out II we
live to come back this way I'll ride I'D
and see the boys"
g All right! I'm on it, if you are in
airnest about wantin' to 90 now" said
Bill, riding forward to turn the pack
mule
mo, no; never mind. Come back,
Bill. Let the mule go ahead as he is
well" said Bill, dropping into line
again, 'jist as you like. I'm none of yer
GROWERS that wants it all his own way,
and can't humor pard's curiosity. That's
not me. can give and take, and allus
d0-on a trip like this"
| Hereupon William proceeded to tell
me, as we rode along, of the various
| prospecting trips he had been on in the
sage-brush; interfering his narrative
with estimates of human character
worked up from quiet observation of
men IN what he called "cIose, hard
games, and tight places, " from which a
man had to fall back on his lore in re-
! verse" and just dig OUT or die-all of
which he concluded with this piece of
wisdom. Said he:
a man may live in a civilized coun-
i try, and be as iowery, and messy, and
| sweet to look at and be with as butter
I cup dell on a seashore mountain, while
all his life long he's slippin' on the bed
| rock; but you bring that man into this
! dry country, where all the posies die and
| the leaves burn up, and he is soon
stripped so that, if he amt got the clean
! grit IN him, you can pan him down till
he peters on the bedrock in a week"
Well, William, my boy, you've got
the advantage of me, [ think. You have
had experience in panning-both mines
| and meanwhile | never yet handled a
pan"
"That's it, is it," said Bill, chucKling.
4 was talking hyperbowl-but you'll
see. Eff you don't have a higher or
lower opinion of me, and me of you,
when this trips over, then | don't know
| the road to breakfast. Frills IL do at
social party, and made-up faces will pass
| in church; but, out in these mountains,
you come right down to mammy's boy,
good or pad. What you are, you are;
and you amt no more, nor can't be-"
William Wilson's conversation is not
very interesting without Williams man
ner, especially without his peculiar into
nation; which latter, though making no
disagreeably perceptibIe suggestion of
| halting, still has that interrOgative-re-
opOAIoAN y u StSdlOLOI1 SGJlC, uOI GAdCll1
EmersOnian, yet bearing such a likeness
thereto as to require a similar habit of
elOCutiOn in reducing it to reading. For
instance, like many Pacifc-slopers, he
has at least six ways of saying Eyes"
three ways Of asserting with the
word, two Of doubt and one which is
neither assent nor doubt. In this last
yes" there is assent, dissent, doubt, adj
miratlOn and wonder
said to Bill after we had ridden some
time in silence, broken only by the ring
ing jingle of the great Spanish spurs on
our heels as they tangled among the tops
of the brush, or by the voice Of Bill urg-
ing Sancho, the pack-mule:
Bill, | think it's our luck to find q
staving mine on this trip"
Bill looked at me from under his hat
rim as he swung rapidly round in a cir
Gle the knotted end of his picket-rope,
and said, Y-y-e-e-us."
What do you mean by that kind Of a
yes?"
well, [ meant mean" = looking
straight over his horses ears, past the
coils of the flying rope, Cit a-e-up,
Sanch!-I mean, as near as I can make
out, sort o. yes, sort O. no and mebbe so
Pm willin'."
l don't like that kind Of a yes, Bill
1t hasn't much faith in it."
Then Bill said: N-o-o-uh," with a
peculiar cooling, rising infection.
g our no is as queer as your yes"
Then Bill said: Y-y-e-e-us;'' and
laughed at the sound of his own words
DO you think you used your words
that way before you came to California;"
q dun know. Don't reckon | did,
though. | think that kind of use in the
words comes from Teller taIkin' when
he is busy. If Pm in drift, piekin' and
gaddin', and lookin' out for rocks over
head and you are wheelin' out, and you
tell me sOmethin' that | don't know
about, one way or t'Other-can't agree
to in full, nor yet 60 back on it-and
amt got much time to talk, anyway |
throw all the answer into one word.
"That's a new style of elocution, Bill"
Don't know, never elOcuted any my
self; but it fills the bill as we'll as a ser
mon could.
There is not a great deal to startle the
gaze of a rider through the sage-brush
where the gray of one valley has its re-
tieX in each other valley, and the ranges
of mountains have, at first view, about
the SamenesS of burrows in a new-plOwed
field. But in the utter absence Of bright
green pastures and the myriad seamy
palms of leafy woods, with the CLINT and
glitter of gliding waters pooling under
meath, there is a wonderful play and
delicate blending of subdued Colors
along with grand and varied lining-out
of mountain tops against the blue-white
canvas of the sky; while every change
| in the atmosphere alters this shading and
blending in degrees so slight as to be
scarcely perceptible to a strangers eve,
and yet to be felt, even when not taken
into exact account. Over these gray
valleys and sOber-hued mountains
travel the images of the floating
clouds, painted by the sun-a NOV
ing panorama, with nature shifting the
weird lights; and the naked geology Of
the country modeStly changes color IN
der the inqUiring glances of the sun.
said: William, my boy. do you see
anything pretty or sublime in the sur
rounding scenery"
"Sceneryw exclaimed Bill, suddenly
refining up his horse and looking round,
"which?-where?"
''Why, " said /, waving my unoccupied
/ hand in a lofty manner, ''this grand,
quiet chapter in the wide-open history
of the universe; where the great central
Intelligence has written in lines indeli-
ble-not subject to proof-imprint, or
printers revise, error or errata-the pre-
historic Sermon on the Mount"
"Eh?" calculated Bill. EFF you come
that agin, you'll make my eyes bung out
like a butterfy's. You skeer men'
"Wen, William, l will desist; but
there is, nevertheless, lofty repose,
grand reserve of tone, in these silent sur
roundings, which seem to hold the