The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1883-07-05
" RALDY. j."

*'Whatn they do?'
Vim sure don't know"
Sim won't work. and they're poor as pow
.R9ty It's year since the wife died, and now
the old mothers gone She brought in the
pennies right SMART
"There he is now"
The two women stopped their whispering as
the tall, loosely-bullt figure of Sim PEBBLES
came stumbling along tho ragged street Of
Dearborn City" A look of unmistakable
affection rested npon his weak but handsome
face, and rag of black stuff was tied decently
about his shabby hat Two children, little
moro than infants, came running to meet him
from the low but ferce-fronted house into
which he finally entered with them, and then
tae two women went on with their interrupted
conversation
who's adding things for them, anyhow?
Who fixed her?'
Him, guess"
Then he's smarter than I ever give him
credit for"
A young woman who was walking hastily
along the street had come clc.o upon them
while they were engaged in Watching Sim
eeeh!es, and had overheard these latter re-
marks Of that geltleman's critics She was
above the medium hight, and of large aid
imposing figure, though far from graceful
Her large hands swung almost aercely as she
Walked, and her tread Was hard and masculine
With mouth and chin handsomely and firmly
though somewhat coarsely nodded, her broad
and projecting forehead, and brilliant, fearless
blue eyes, added to the heavy braids Of flaxen
aalr which were wound neatly about her head,
made her face striking, and even comely The
women turned with start when they saw her,
and realized that she had overheard them.
Geralda, or IA sho was commonly known,
Sta!dy Scott WAS evidently a woman Of whose
opinion they stood somewhat in awe.
You didn't offer to help Sin, PEBBLES yes
:te:day," Raldy Scott said iisdainfully, .paus-
ing moment in her hurried walk. "He was
alone there With that dead woman and those
4ltae children, and yet you, his neighhcrs,
women with husbands and children 81 your
own. never offered to help him. You ought to
% sr ashame aas Of s she continued
had been much better than that of her sloven-
ly neighbors, taken on in her excitement more
OF their peculiar western twang. "And here,
instead Of walking up to his door and saying,
are standing in tie street outside won
dering who'll help him. Rady Scott
despises lazy, shftless Sim PEBBLES as
puch as you do: but she washed end dressed
r-xls dead mother for him, she fed his
children, and, not being quite brute, sho pro-
can get somebody else. He swan in, when the
dells were fall OF leo, and got my fathers BODY
80 that h:s daughters could bury him decently,
and Mart and don't forget it"
listeners half stunned with hor scathing re-
Duke.
'Humph" said one of them sullenly; 'smeb-
be Raldy Scott can't always carry things so
s'Bnt the men'll always stand up ror nor"
f4 po Sfsi Smart 6Seaass thW
or three trips up in the pines and down on the
RATS with the mon. It must a been since You
come here that she come back the last time
with her drunken old father She sorter locked
after him reckon. He had fine airy way,
he had and nothing bnt tipsy 1rishman ~
like the men, Oh"-spitefully- "sb, amt
Pertickler, Raldy Scott amt; can cwim and
pole raft with any man in the deis any day
Only since old Roy Scott died she dresses like
tho rest Of us. Her sister Mar*'s goin' to got
married. Likely she want, to, too;" and the
two women laughed vlpo; ishly.
"Perhaps she'll get Sim Peebles," said the
other, as they parted; sshe's ben 1ikely
young w1dower some time now" and they
laughed coar.e, hateful laugh as they Went
to their homes
The two or three scores Of houses, many OF
them built Of logs, which formed the honely
strage ling street Of Dearborn City, wore in.
habited almost wholly by lumbermen. Durn j
from their families cutting wood in the pines
but when the ice began to break, and the great
-spring flood of the majestic Wisconsin rolled
down from the north, they massed their log
Ahito hLilt CuuS NOdLlUR uOWn Gl0 rlV6c 10 tl0lf
homes The village had been planted IN the
midst OF the forest, and from n,any of its
houses were visible the high red walls of the
river as it shot through its wonderful dells,
and the roar Of Its torrent rose upon their
hearing perpetually. Just below the site of
the village there was break in the high red
sandstone which lined the river for miles
With occasional riffs like this one-and here,
when the current would permit, the RATS
parsed in the spring long enough for those to
r.. RI Vryko .k.l~.
conduct the unwieldly argosies to tho distant
mississippi. If the current was too strong for
the RATS to stop, rs was generally the case,
the men sprang into the boiling rapids and
swan ashore; Many life, even of experienced
rivor pilots, had been lost III the attempt, and
1T was in this way that Roy Scott had persisted
He had indeed been an Irishman, and
dlssipated one, but he had belonged to wealthy
and honorable family. He squandered has pat
rimony early in life, however, emigrated to
the new world and pushed into the wilds of
what was then the 7arthest West There he
became enamored Of the exciting life of the
; 1nmbermen of the Wisconsin, entered into it,
met and married quiet Swede girl, the daugh-
their strange union had sprung the gentle
Martha md the large featured, fair haired
Heralda, whose northern phlegm and endur-
Ance we're united with quick wit and intense
passion of her Irish ancestors
Geralda Scott chung to the memory of her
father with an almost sublime devotion. His
neFsa M R ssf9 fG7 R s Ed
entirely obliterated, and his featn OF strength
and bravery, which were many and remark
able, she loved to d,scll upon. From the
upper windows of the rude, high-fronted
'sshanty" in which sho and her sister lived,
they could see plainly, some fifty feet down
the red rocS which bound the river, and q
full zoo Above the whrling rapids, the legend,
in bold white letters,
LEROY TALBOT SCOTT,
RIVER Pilot.
1e43
Tho girl naHnr SAW thla without q secret