Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-06-13
LOSEPWS ADTENTNRE.

JOSEPIFS ADVENTURE.
Cant you tell us some of your adven-
lures? p asked of my friend Joseph, who
had returned from many years travels in the
bush, and was sitting with me and my wife
And although he had been absent so long, he
was, SO to speak, young man yet.
adventures: Well l have met with plen-
ty Rough ones, some Of them"
please tell us of one" chimed in Mary.
Joseph laughed. Il can tell you of queer
one that met with in the mountains -
"Oh, yes do What mountains :"
I'm California; up in one of its wild dis
tricts.'
THAT will be the very thing"
'Well, - said Joseph running his tapering
fingers through his hair and smiling Mt my
wife. I'm soften down things in the telling
as well as my blunt speech and unciyilized
modes of thought will admit of, and you. must
excuse the rest"
"Oh. I'll excuse anything. Please begin. "
"When | started from home to settle in un-
frequent,d districts, began Joseph, "Isctupa
theory that no man should ask woman to
marry him until he had prepared II home for
her. 1t is surprising how much you begin to
think of wife west yondcr; which arises |
suppose, from the extreme loneliness Of one 5
existence | was no exception. The land |
took up was in the Rogue river valley, and
after had got it IA bit ship-shape | worked
away with only one object in view-to bring
home wife"
"But, Joseph, had you selected wife p 1
asked
NO intended TO do that as soon MS |
could. though you may say l was rather
young to be thinking of it. | worked on, and
was pretty successful. | built me a house,
got Il considerable stock of cattle, made n
flower. garden for my wife, and even put up
the pegs and nails She would want to hang
her dresses on. intended that same autumn
to mount my horse, ride through the Walla-
met valley, find my wife and bring her home.
At the notion of counting in that off hand
style we laughed little. Joseph laughed too,
as if the recollection pleased him.
"You think it strange, see. 1t was not SO
very strange in those days out there, where
girls were as scarce as angels. There was not
IA girl within forty miles Of me and l assure
you that the very thought of one, as drove in
those nails for her garments to hang on went
through me like thrill. You don't believe
Go west yourself and try it,"
but do believe"
81 had about two hundred and fifty head of
cattle, good house with garden, a young
orchard, vegetables growing, swect-scented
flowers all in readiness for the wife hoped
to bring home to bless me and to take care of
luthc NY IOhhthhlbllH. anu hllhN AO yOu
think happened to them -
We could not tell.
'There came such n plague of grasshop-
pers upon the valley that everything perished.
Crops, orchard, flowers grass every green
and delightful and promising thing; the
grasshoppers destroyed all. You remember
the second chapter of Joel?
l nodded.
1.-The land is as n garden of Eden before
them and behind them dosolate wilderness.
l was ruined. My stock died-at least the
| greater portion of it the cattle had nothing
to feed upon. Yes it was complete and alb
| solute."
Joseph paused a moment, mentally looking
at the past.
II considered myself disappointed in love
| too" he resumed in the quaintest of tones.
Though had not yet been out to find my
| girl. | knew she was somewhere in that othe
| valley waiting for me and when the greedy
| grasshoppers ate up everything | felt that
had been Tilted. 1t actually gives me pang
now to think of those useless pegs on which
my imagination had so often seen a girls pink
cotton dress aud white sun-bonnet."
Joseph gave great sigh. He was an &C.
| centric fellow.
81 became misanthropic-sai to myself
that between fate and the grasshoppers l had
been hardly used. Packing upmy books and
| a few other traps | bade adieu to the Rogue
river valley forever, and started for the
mountains It was n longish journey, as
had to drive before me the stock which wa
left me. There, in the mountains, settled
down again, built myself fort and played
hermit No jilting girls should come near mt
now
"a fort :"
"A regular fort a stockade eighteen fee
bipL. with an embankment four feet higl
around it and strong gate in the middle
| NV tent was in the midst of the enclosure
with my books and household goods, fire
arms and all the rest of my property stoweC
away in it"
"Were you afraid of Indians -
Indians and white men. Yes, / saw I
good many Indians at first, within range O
my rifle. They learned to keep away from
uv fort, finding it did not pay to attempt al
invasion Down in the valley below Their
were mining camps and you perhaps know
what some of the hangers-on of such camp
arc. | sold beef, that is, heads OF cattle, t
The miners and as / had sometimes tidy
sum Of money by me it was necessary to b'
| careful" =,
"What strange life for young man :
said Mary. For you, Joseph"
Il herded my cattle, drove them to mar
kct, cooked, studied, wrote and indulged IN
mixture of misanthropy and rhe-p -pracuce
By the time had entered on the second sum
mer in the mountains felt quite at home ant
was getting rich. After all, the life had it
charms. A man cannot quite tire of it when h
is but few years out of his teens"
"And the girl-wifeT' p
Il am coming to her. Having had time t.
forget my ill-usage, reaction set in, you see
and | thought, after all, l must ride to tn
Wallamet TO see after my girl. But was no
in the hurry over it that l had been before
This is all very dull, you will say, but there
be- some stir presently"
1T is not at all dull.
zone Sunday afternoon (How did knoN
il was Sunday you ask. Because ! had KEEP
count of the days all along, kept my diar
rr,mlnrly)-one Sunday afternoon / was sit
tino outside writing, when a shadow tel
across the paper, and, looking up, beheld
skeleton standing there before me, Accus
toned MS | was to lonely encounters wit
strange men of all kinds my hair stood ON en'
as stared at the speoter. He was the meres
boy in years, pretty and delicate by nature
| : "a lo,,tI,y raducad IN this sladOWy stat