The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1879-05-17
JOSEPH'S ADVENTURE.

ooCAIA h - AL Y LIN Il u hEs
Can't you tell some of your adven-
aures?" | asked of my friend Joseph,
who had returned from his many years
travels IN the bush, and was sitting with
me and my wife. And, though he had
been absent 50 long, he was, so to speak,
young man yet.
Adventures? Well, | have met with
plenty. Rough ones, some of them"
:" Please tell us of one," chimed in
Mary.
Joseph laughed. 81 can tell you of a
queer one that | met with in the noun
taips."
''Oh, yes, do Which mountains?"
" In California; up in one of its wild
districts"
That will be the very thing"
Well" SAID Joseph, running his
tapering fingers through his hair and
smiling at my wife. CPL soften down
things in the telling as well as my blunt
speech and uncivilized modes of thought
will admit of, and you must excuse the
rest"
ooh, I'll excuse anythings Please
begin"
When / started from home to settle
in unfrequented districts" began Joseph,
set up a theory that no man should
ask woman to marry him until he has
prepared home for her. 1t is surpris-
ing how much you begin to think Of a
wife west yOnder; which arises, [ sup
pose, from the extreme loneliness of ones
existence. | was no exception. The
land | took up was in the Rogue river
valley, and after | had got it bit ship
shape | worked away with only one
object in view-to bring home wife"
But, Joseph, had you selected a
wife," l asked.
No. | intended to do that as soon
as | could, though you may say l was
rather young to be thinking of it. l
worked on, and was pretty successful. /
built me house, got a considerable
stock of cattle, made a 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 nay horse, ride through the Wall
amet 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 an
gels There was not girl within forty
miles OF me; and as | assure you that
the very thought of one, as / drove in
those nails for her garments to hang on,
went through me like a thrill. You
don't believe? Go west yourself and
try it."
But do believe"
" | had about two hundred and fifty
head of cattle, a good house with gar
den, young orchard, vegetables grow
ing, sweet scented fowers-all in readi-
ness for the wife | hoped TO bring home
to bless me and to take care of these my
possessions. And what do you think
happened to themw
We could not tell.
There came such plague of grass
hoppers upon the valley that everything
persisted. Crops, orchard, flowers, grass
every green and delightful and prom
ising thing; the grasshoppers destroyed
all. You remember the second chapter
of ,JoelW
| nodded.
'' The land is as the garden of Eden
before them, and behind them a desolate
wilderness | was ruined. NV stock
died--at least the greater portion of it :;
the cattle had nothing to feed upon.
Yes, it was complete and absolute ruin"
Joseph paused a moment, mentally
looking at the past.
considered myself disappointed in
love too" he resumed in the uuaintest
of fThnnmh I hol
to find my girl, | knew she was some
where IN that other valley waiting for
me; and when the greedy grasshop,,eIs
ate up everything felt that had been
Tilted. 1t actually gives me pang now
TO think OF those use less pegs on which
my imagination had so often seen girls
pink cotton dress and white sun bonnet"
Joseph gave great sigh. He was an
eccentric fellow.
became misanthropic-said to N.Y.
self that between fate and the grass
hoppers | had been hardly used. Pack
ing up my books and few other traps |
babe adieu to the, Rogue river valley for
ever and started for the mountains. 1t
was longish journey, as | had to drive
before me the stock which was left me.
There in the mountains | settled down
again, bullt myself tort and played
hermit. No jilting girls should come
near me now"
" A fort7'
" A regular fort; stockade eighteen
feet high, with an embankment four
feet high around it and strong gate in
the middle. My tent was in the midst
of the Enclosure, with my books and
household goods, firearms and all the
rest of my property slowed away in it. !"
"Were you afraid of Indians?''
Indians and white men. Yes, | saw
a good many Indians, at first, within the
range Of my rife. They learned to keep
away from my fort, finding it did not pay
to attempt an invasion. Down in the
valley below there were mining camps;
and you perhaps know what some of the
hangers on of such camps are. | sold