The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1878-06-14
He Ate the Pie He Didn't Like.

bret Harte, in the April Scribner,
tens US oi case Of pie eating In Cali
fornia more humorous to hear related
than to experience:
! The pies aud cakes made nv the old
woman were, think, remarkahIe rather
Tor their inducing the same lovsI and
generous spirit than for their Intrinsic
excellence, and IL may be said appealed
more strongly to the nObler aspirations
of humanity than its vulgar annette
HOwbeit, everybody ate NANNY Dow
ney's pies and thought of his childhood
Take 'em, dear bOys,n the old lady
would say; sit does me good to see Won
eat 'em; reminds me kinder Of my poor
Sammy, that eff he'd lived, would have
been ez strong aud big ez you be, but
was taken down with lung fever at
Sweetwater. ! kin see him yet; that's
forty year ago, deari comini out o. the
lot 10 the bake-hOuse aud smilin' such
a beautiful smile, like yours, dear boy,
as ] handed him a mince or a lemming
turnover. Dear, dear, how / do ruu on
and those days is pastl but | seems To
live in you againr' The wife of the
hotel-keeper, actuated by low jealousy,
had suggested that she Seemed 10 live
of tbem,n but as that person tried to
demonstrate the truth Of her statement
by reference TO the cost of the raw una
terial used by the old lady, it was con-
sldered by the camp as too practical and
economical for reconsideration. BESIDES"
added Cy Perkins, "ef old Nanny
wants to turn an honest penny in her
old age, let her DO it. How would you
like your old mother to make pies on
grub wages, eh2' A suggestion that so
nj Ira f..-E
that he bought three on the spot The
quality Of these pies had never been
discussed but once. 1t is related that
young lawyer from San Francisco, din
ing at the Palmetto Restaurant, pushed
away one of Nanny DOwney's pies
with every expression of disgust and
dissatisfaction. Atthisjuncture, Whisky
Dick, considerably affected by his favor
ite stimulant, approached the strangers
table, and drawing up chair, sat unin-
vited before him.
"Mebbee, young man." he began,
gravely, "ye don't like Nanny Dow
ney's pies ?"
The stranger replied, curtly, aud in
some astonlshment, that he did not, as
a rule, "eat pie"
young man." continued Dick, with
drunken gravity, "mebbee you're ac-
e--'-Nt-ANA " NAiAllNAAE luSh5 anu ulue
mango; mebbee you can't eat unless
your grub is got up by one o. them
French cooks? Yet we-us bows var in
this camP-calls that pie good, a COM
pe-tent pie"
The stranger again diselaimed any
thing but general dislike of that form
OF pastry.
young man, continued Dick, ut
terly unheeding the explanation, ''young
man. mebbee you onct had an Ole-a
very ole mother, who, tottering down
the vale O. years, made pies. Mebbee,
and it's like your black epicurean soul,
ye turned up your nose on the ole wOm-
an, and went back on the pies and on
her. She that dandled We when ye woz
baby-a little babyl Mebbee We went
back on her, and shook her, and played
of on her, and gave her away-dead
away! And now, mebbee. young man-
l wouldn't hurt ye for the wOIld-but
mebbee, afore ye leave this var table,
yell ea pie!"
The stranger rose to his feet, but the
muzzle OF a dragOOn revolver in the un-
steady hands of Whisky Dick caused
him to sit down again. He ate the pie,
and lost his case before a Rough-and-
Ready jury.