The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1879-02-25


rather young TO be thinking of II. l
built house, got n considerable stock
of cattle, made flower. garden for my
wife, and even put up pegs and nails she
would want to hang her dresses on. i
intended that same autumn to mount
my horse, ride through the Wallamet
Valley, find my wife and bring her
home"
At the notion of courting In that off
hand style we laughed little. Joseph
laughed too,as If the recollection pleased
him.
"You think IL strange, L see. II was
not so very strange in those days out
there, where girls were as scarce as
angels. There was not girl within
forty miles of me; and / 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 believer Go West yourself and
try it,"
I" But do believe"
81 had about two hundred and fifty
head of cattle, good house with gar
den, young orchard, vegetables grow
ing, sweetscented flowers, all in readl-
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 them There came such
a plague of grasshoppers upon the val
ley that everything perished. Crops,or-
chard, flowers, grass,-every green and
delightful and promising thing; the
grasshoppers destroyed all. l consider
ed myself disappointed in love too.-
Though 1 had not yet been out to find
my girl, i knew she was somewhere in
that other valley waiting for me; and
when the greedy grasshoppers ate up
everything felt that 1 had been Tilted.
1t actually gives me pang now to
think of those useless pegs on which
my imagination had 80 often seen q
girls pink cotton dress and white sun
bonnet. L became misanthropic-said
grasshoppers had been hardly used
Packing up my books and few other
traps, bade adieu to the Rogue River
Valley for ever, and started for the
mountains. 1t was long journey, as
had to drive before me the stock which
was left me. There, in the mountains,
l settled down again, built myself fort
and played hermit. No jilting girls
should come near menow. A regular
fort-a 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 gods, fire.
arms and all the rest of my property
slowed away in it,"
"Were you afraid of Indians"
Indians and white men. Yes, l saw
good many Iadians at first within the
range of my rifle. They learned to keep
away from my fort, finding 1t did not
pay to attempt an invasion. Down in
the valley below there were mining
camps and you perhaps know what
some hangers-on of such camps are.
l sold beef--that is, heads of cattle = to
the miners and as had sometimes a
tidy sum of money by me, it was neces-
sary to be careful.
81 herded my cattle, drove them to
market, cooked, studied, wrote and in
dulged ina mixture of misanthropy and
rifle-practice. BY the time had enter
ed on the second summer in the noun
tains felt quite at home, and was get
ting rich. After all, the life had its
charms. A man cannot quite tire of 1t
when he is but few years out of his
teens"
"And the girl-wifeY"
4" am coming to her. Having had
time to forget my ill-usage, reaction
set in, you see, and 1 thought, after all,
/ must ride to the Wallamet to see after
my girl. But was not in the hurry
over 1t that had been before. This is
all very dull, you will say, but there'll
be some stir presently.
g 1 was sitting outside writing, when
d shadow fell across the paper, and look
ing up, beheld a skeleton standing
there before me. Accustomed as was
to lonely encounters with strange men
of all kinds, my hair stood on end as ]
stared at the spectre. He was the
merest boy in years, pretty and delicate
by nature, and evidently reduced to this
shadowy state by starvation. His story