The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-04-21
AUNT PATIENCE BEGINS A STORY.
II. A. LoUeHARY.

l n
DEAR READERS OF THE New NORTHWEST:
l am really sorry that have neglected
you so long, but my head, heart, and
hands have been too full to think of
others for long time past, and do not
know as 1 should have ever reused up
agin to a sense of any duty outside of
my own household, If it hadent been for
Miss Duniway's lectures in Walla Walla
last winter. When l see as how the
doctrine she advertised was a-gainin'
favor in the public mind, and how peo-
pie what wouldn't look at her paper
year ago for fear of bein' immoralised,
was not only readin' it now, but seemin'
to find somethin' real sensible and i'm
provin' in 1t, thought it was high time
that l was given you few more items,
which l had taken down while on nv
tower of observation. Sense I wrote to
you last, ther' has been quite change in
our neighborhood. Us and the Markses
and several other families, sold out here
and bought a lot of cattle, payin' as
high as 25 to 80 dollars head for cows
what wouldent bring now more'n 10 and
Is dollars. 1 knowed it was a wrong
move, and it was the fust time that
Joshua hadent consulted me about bus
mess matters sense we were made /, and
1 think he would have done so this time
if he hadent been afeared the neighbors
would think he was under "petticoat-
government" as they call it. But, to
my story.
The range wasent good enough close
to Walla Walla, so we went to a new
country north OF Snake River, where
the grass is fine, and nice springs COM
in out all over the hills, that never freeze
or go dry, and where people could make
farmin' pay if they'd only begin right
end formost, but that we dident do; not
any of US. But they drove the cattle
up there and down into Snake River
bottom, where, people said), the snow
never laid on more'n a few days at a
time, and the winter set in furiously,
the snow covered the grass, and the
river froze over. Lots of the cattle
broke through the ice and drowned try
ing to get water, and lots more died of
starvation. 1t looked awful wicked to
let poor dumb bruits suffer that way,
but the storm came so bad and sudden
like that the people couldent get the
cattle together agin, even if they'd pro-
vided feed for 'em, which they hadent
done. Well, you see, we all had to be-
gin agin right from the bedrock, as the
sayin' is, to make livin'; but Mr..
Markse's folks, they suffered more'n
any of US, fur they were in debt; then
their only gal took sick and died, and 1
felt mighty sorry for them, for the child
was promisin' one, only years old,
glad and rosy, with hair like so many
threads of sunshine a-curIin' all over
her pretty head, and laughin' eyes that
looked as though they might be a part
of heaven itself, and 1 reckon they are
now. The whole family took it mighty
hard, but Miss Marks never seemed to
be like herself after that. We all
thought she would die when the child
died, but her boys (she has three of 'em)
seemed to keep up sort of interest in
life for her, and so the days wore on and
on, Miss Marks not complainin', but
wastin' to a shadder and lookin' SO
sorry, like. After while it was certain
that her mind was changin', not get
tim crazy, but different; and to the hor-
ror of us all we saw that the mispnided
woman was certain to get out of her
sphere, if something wasent done to
stop it. What was done, and how she
was kept in her sphere, will form the
subjec of another missile.
AUNT PATIENCE.
Walla Walla, w. 7.