The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-05-25
VOLUME vi.

kitchen, dining-room, and everywhere.
Her Mongolian help had found the work
too hard for him when Court met, and,
when increasing crowds of men mate
rally increased the kitchen efforts, had
taken French leave and no other help
was to be had.
The harvest that Circuit Court brings
is never to be dsspised by the inn or
boarding-house keeper of a country
town, and those engaged in that busi-
ness in Idaho Flat were no exception to
the general rule.
1--WE have heavy bills to meet, mother,
and am depending upon this harvest
season to pay for our winters wood and
lights, and many other necessaries that
must come. want to build an addition
to the house, also, and can't afford to
turn away a single boarder, so we must
make hay while the sun shines. Every
bOdy's money will help us along, SO
don't be squeamish, but just help me
out this month and we'll get several
hundreds ahead"
Mrs. Rutherford and Sue Randolph
each needed the advice thus freely
given, and the hotel became place of
gaiety and noise and money changing,
which Edna would never have con-
sented for it to become had she been
permitted by her legal head, or even ad-
vised by her minister, to keep up legiti-
mate and wholesome amusements of
the intellectual character that she had
at first inaugurated.
But, as we have said, she was busy to
her eyes in work. In all the married
years of her life she had not felt 80 free
and happy. Business was unusually
brisk, even for a mining town. There
were many intellectual legal gentlemen
in attendance at the Court, and though
her time was all taken up with her culi-
nary cares, she managed to keep herself
and children tidy and apparently COM
Portable, SO that she was ready at any
moment for brilliant sally of wit or a
brief dissertation upon legal technicali-
ties, mining stocks, theology, philOso-
ply, or recipes for cooking.
The county sheriff was very import
ant parsonage in Idaho Flat. He was
short and obese, with a thick neck and
fleshy jaws set squarely upon shoulders
slightly rounded, and he carried a pair
of fiabby fat bands with the digits in
bis pantaloons pockets and the stubby
thumbs protruding awkwardly. From
the day that Edna had first met him he
had been her pet aversion. True, his
habits were more correct and his con-
duct more circumspect than that of her
boarders in general, but there was an
air of selfshness, and want Of fine
sensibility about him that was particu-
larly offensive to her feelings.
He had a habit of making broad as
sertions that were generally as wide of
the truth as they were broad in utter
ance, and clinching the same bya coarse
guffaw that would silence, though 1t al
ways failed to convince, those holding a
different opinion.
'I have a document in my possession
that particularly concerns you, Mrs.
Smith," he exclaimed, as, thrusting his
burly figure inside the kitenen, he
broke into loud ha! ha ha!
IA document concerning me ~ cried
Edna, rubbing the flour from her hands,
and reaching to take the paper from his
pudgy digits and pudgier thumb.
~ wonder il John isn't applying for q
divorce ?" she asked herself, and then
came the pleasing reflection that di.
vorces were easy to obtain in Idaho
Flat.
But Edna did not comprehend the
import of the mysterious document. Il
was loaded down with the ambiguous
technicalities that usually overshadoW
papers of its ilk, and after a moments
reflection she looked enquiringly at tht
officer for an explanation, while darE
forebOding, as underlined as dismal
crept into her heart.
"It's a writ of election from thes,
premises by old Sol, the saloon-keeper
Ha ha ha" said the legal protectO
of women.
"I don't see how that can be-" replied
Edna, turning deathly pale. az neve
, owed him a dime in my life."
= "But, madam, John Smith and MI
Brief have been boarding at his che6an,
? all summer on the strength of John
. claim upon this business. You'll hav
3 to liquidate. Ha! ha hal"
"But 1 Shan't" exclaimed Edna
$50 there"
e The guffaw that followed was SO exas
t perating that Edna refrained with diff
t Guilty from Delaying the officer with he
e rOlling-pin. But she felt instinctivel
that she was at the mercy of the Law
g and wisely held herself in restraint.
:, "You see," he continued, "John ha
: to have some place to stay, and whe
d you turned him out he went over t
d SOps, and as he had no money, he CAV
a his note. Mr.. Brief has been his cour
Q selor all along, and John gave him hi
d note Of hand also. Ha! ha! ha W
: "Stop that guffawing, or plI das
your brains out w cried Edna, in
d frenzy of indignation that made th