The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-05-29

year 1874, by Mrs. A. J. Duniway, In the Office OF
the Librarian OF Congress at Washington City.
CHAPTER /
A low-roofed cottage, of the most
primitive pattern, peeped timidly in
the gathering twilight from behind a
high rail fence, its one little window
sending CHEEKY light into the misty
gloom, revealing well-kept row Of gar
den vegetables aud a muddy pathway,
with here and there a piece of bark to
serve as a protection to the foot of the
pedestrian as well as to the plain, white
floor inside, which had long been worn
into fantastic little cutters, faithfully
following the grain of the wood, by the
ineessant or alternate scrubbings and
sweepings of a hollow-visaged, ner-
vOus-eyed housewife and her pretty,
rosy-eheeked daughter.
The cottage stood out in bold relief
upon clearing thiekly studded with
stumps, and against a background Of
fre-blaekened fir trees.
Annie Lee stood in the doorway, gaz-
ing earnestly at the moon as it peeped
playfully, at intervals, from behind q
driving network of vapory clouds that
went scudding before the fitful gusts
that roared sullenly among the skeleton
trees as they stood in grim defiance of
the settlers energies, holding their bony
arms aloft, as if in solemn protest
against the ruthless invasion of man
and the ruin that ran riot in his wake.
go, dear, 1 am so lonely" said the
girl, turning TO her mother. "Do you
think it was right in father to remove
us from civilization and bring us here to
stay in the wilderness, where the same
hum-drum duties must be gone over
every day forever ?"
"Yes, darling; though I won't under
take to say that never rebelled against
it. But Pve tried to do my duty as a
Christian woman, and faithfully obey
my husband, as promised when took
the VOWS upon me. But, Annie, rather
than see you tread the same road that
have travelled, would willingly hang
you by the neck TO one of those black |
ened boughs, if knew I'd be hung for
it the next minute r and laying aside |
her broom, she took the teething and I
fretful baby upon her lap and began to
rub its swollen gums.
'Mother, Pm astonished at you %
said her daughter, firmly, as she shook
her raven curls, her fine black eyes
flashing with intensity of thought, her
petite figure drawn to its fullest height.
as she brought down her little foot with
sudden emphasis. 'Pm astonished at
youw she repeated, yet more earnestly.
eff it is the will of God that you should
implicitly obey your husband against
your own sense Of justice and right,
why did God give you reasoning facul-
ties at all ? Never will I yield my in
alienable right to carry out my own in
dividual convictions to any man! Catch
men' and she began drawing out the
supper table, preparatory to filling the
seven hungry mouths that constituted
the younger portion of the Lee family,
and which had by this time begun to
grow clamorous for the regular trien-
nial supply. Her mother, not answer
ing either the inquiry or declaration,
bent low over the rude cradle where the
year-old baby lay, and wept as Annie
had so often seen her, that the effect, if
any had been intended, was lost.
Mother" continued the girl, ''if you
would rather hang me, and be hung
yourselffor committing the deed, than to
see me tread in your footsteps, why do
you tread in them yourself? am no
better than you"
Supper ready?" interrogated an
overgrown, honest-featured boy of fif-
teen who came in, splashing the mud
from his boots upon the well-scoured
floor Of the one living and eating room
the house afforded. ''Come, hurry up.
I'm hungry as a wolf You know, Sis.
the old man will be home tomorrow
night. Pve been diggin' stumps all day,
tryin' to get my stint done again he gets
back, and Pm hungry and lame and
tired in the bargain.n
''Will you finish your stint before
father comes ?' queried Annie, giving
her head toss to replace the jetty curls
that had fallen over her face in bending
over a skillet where delicate white bis
cults were filling their tempting bodie:
with atmospheric globules, distending
themselves to bursting proportions as
they baked.
'T reckon I'H finish. If 1 don't ]
know what I'll ketch, that's all, }" giving
little Tot kick because the child had
asked to have the reins mended that had
been broken in an attempt to subdue q
refractory team Of chairs with which he
had been amusing himself TO the dis
comfort of his mother, and the annoy
ance Of Annie and Fan and Sue.
Three-year-old Tot ran screaming 10
his mother, his little lips quiverine
with pain.
"oh, Henry, why are you so cruel ~,
was the mothers anxious and exnostn.
latory interrogation.
Pm not cruel" was the boylsh
answer. "Pm only givin' the younSone
little taste of what pll catch when IN.
cid man comes home from Ilectiop
He's left me a job that two strong mo,
couldn't finish, aud I've been a fool 4,
strain my back all day, diggin' awav =