Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1880-04-16
THE ODD EGG.


THE ODD EGG.
The Danger of Having Thirteen to Dozen.
he was rather tall and bony, and
showed heavy, dragging limp in his
right leg as he sided up to the bar.
His clothes had worn smooth on the
cuff and collar, and were disposed to
ventiiate at the elbow, but were still
sufficient to keep out ordinarily cold
weather. With not ungraceful move
ment, and sleight that could only
come of long practice, he dropped
well-chewed quid into his left hand,
which he placed behind him, leaning
forward with his right elbow on the bar.
"Egg-nogg? no, thank you. Jest
leetle whisky straight, barkeep', no
sugar. I know it's liable to occasion re-
mark shyin' at egg-nogg- near the
holiday season, too-and it's very kind
and perGte in you, stranger, calling on
me to come for'ard here with these 9th
er gentlemen-an' egg-nogg bein' the
drink of the crowd-it's not the dose
do to refuse, but the truth is, I hain't ct
egg or tackled any fruit of that do,
scription fur goin' on six years. Sing
lar, you think? Well, I've got my rea-
sons. P'raps you never knowed Dave
Gilchrist?s No? Well, me an Dave
was ode pards.. We was both in the
same regiment in the last war. I'm
older'n Dave. He was only boy when
he was shot through the lungs at Stone
river. Well, I nussed him through it,
an after the war we both cum here to
Indiany. I never was much account
for farmin', but I went to work on
Dawes fathers farm.
Dave was a mighty good-lookin
young teller, and his father owned
quarter-section of as good land as the
sun ever shines on, with just two heirs,
Dave and his sister Artemesia- 'Meeshy
for short-and the gals began to purr
round him like cats round cream
crock. soon saw he was hooked, an
by grass wilder who hadn't been in
the neighborhood but few weeks. She
hadn't seen me, but I had her, and
knowed her from the, jump. Well, 1
tried to reason with him to give her up
She knowed every keerd in the matri-
monial deck, as it were, and she could
stock the deal on him every time. Then
says I to him:
You don't want to marry woman
with husband liable to turn up at any
minute like sEnick Arden in the play,
: What's that to You? 2 says he.
"'Much,' saysI. I've been married
an divorced, an know the ropes
well, it was party tough fur him.
but he said he'd give her up. But he
couldn't stay there, he said. +
Got to get her out of my mind,
somehow, and the best way is to put a
thousand miles between me and her,
says he. 20.
"tIve got brother says I, thinkin'
of him all to wunst-hadn't thought of
him afore for years-'a brother out in
Washington Territory, steady Teller,
not a bit like me; and, if you say the
word, Dave, your old pard as recon-
mends the vermifuge will help you
take it,
$50 we packed up our traps one
night, very sudden, an Dave left let
ter to his sister Meeshy, an I writ one
to the wilder. We intended to go to
California, and from there to Washing
ton Territory, but, when we got to
Frisco, we changed our minds, and
went down to Arizony, and went into
the mines. Well, we went there, and
were gettin' along purity well, when
Dave took down with the rumatiz
Stranger, you don't know what the
square John Henry rumatiz is, and you
never will till you get it in the mines.
Dave poked along for several months
couldn't work, couldn't even wait on
himself-an' the little money We had
begin to melt away. I knowed he'd
never get we'll there. So one day I up
an tells MIN, I'm a-goin' to California
At this he means out that he'd never
a-thought I'd give him the dirty shake
that way, after the years we'd been
together, and broke down cryin' like q
baby. Dave was game boy, you
betcher your boots, but. when we git
weak an low, stranger, sometimes the
best of us'u squeal. You jist turn off
that hydrant,' says I; f..we're both goin'
together
"sBut can't walk says Dave.
-" What's the diff says I; you cal
ride, an here's y'r mule. You'll go if I
have to carry you every step of the
way
$50 off we starts. Well, we got to Los
Angeles, on the coast, in four, weeks,
an 1t was no time at all after that before
Dave begin to pick up. Then we went
up to Frisco, the boy still improvin',
an from there We worked our way to
Fort Klamath, in Southwestern Ore
gon. Then I told Dave we'd rasseled
round about long enough; that I was
goln, to see my brother, who lived in
Washington Territory, about twenty
miles from Walla Walla. Dave had got
tolerable hearty, but do you suppose
he'd stopped frettin' about that widder z
Not bit-he still had her on the brain
bigger'n straw stack. Now an then,
when he'd get blue, he'd give me the
wire edge of his tongue for havin' drug
him away from Indiany. But we
started for Walla Walla, cat-a-cornered
acrost Oregon, an fouerin' the trail a
clean 400 mile. We walked it all, iev-
cry step of the way. I had to carry
most of the traps myself, for Dave was
weak in the chest, and had to 60 light.
Dave had on a pair of moccasins !; I had
a heavy pair Of boots. Dave carried
the revolver; I carried the double-bar-
relied shotgun an the other traps.
Purity soons his moccasins cut. to pieces,
an gave him my boots, which made It
easier for him, That sasmi ghty lonesome
trail from Klamath to Walla Walla, and
people are sprinkled over it about as.
thick as gold nuggets is here. We
didn't have much money, and some
times were two days together without
food. Then we'd take up notch or two
in our belts, to reef in our gstomacns to-
suit the supply of grub, and go ahead.
One day we'd jist crossed the Oregon
line, an was nearin' Walla Walla, when
we see q. thin curl of smoke risin, above
the timber. i knowed from the wind
in it that that smoke didn't come from
any open fire, but came through O.
chimley, an We soon sighted q cabin ii
a clearin. Then up flies big, yalIer
rooster an gives a how-de-do that put
more strange feelin's in me than I'd he'd
fur long time poetry. and music to-
gether, you know. Carried me back to
the days when / was 8 boy on the old
farm, an a lump came to my throat an
my eyes got moist. What do you sup
pose Dave said2 Says he: Jim, Wesll
have eggs for dinner, as sure as the
Lord made little apples 4.
The very thing I was, thinkin' Of
says I ], IS IS s.