Iron County register., 1885-10-15
CHAPTER Xxx.
A CLEAN OF SUNLIGHT.

But it would not do to give way to
feelings of despair. This was to be
their home and they must make the
best of it, and without word she
turned back and began arranging
things so as to give room to set the table
and get what breakfast was possible un-
der the circumstances.
Mr.. Parsons came in with his arms
full of wood gathered from fallen tree
top. and soon fire was burning in the
stove and the smell of coffee filled the
room.
No complaints were uttered, but all
worked to get things to rights. Nails
were driven into the studding of the
walls and articles of clothing and
many of the cooking utensils were
hung up out of the way, at least for the
time being.
The table was placed in the center of
the room and covered with white
and the family gathered about for the
first meal in the new home. AS they
ate they talked of how best to arrange
things.
If it had been the dry season they
could have got on so much more COM
fortably. but with the certainty of rain
one-third of the time for months to
come, the prospect was dismal enough.
However, they must do the best they
could, and after breakfast Mr.. Parsons
helped to put up the beds, one in each
corner farthest from the stove, which
stood in the center at that end of the
room where a single window of six
small panes of glass looked out upon
the mountain above them. At the other
end were two windows of twelve panes
each. through which could be seen the
hills stretching away towards the river.
There was also q similar window on
each side at the right of the doors, so
the room was not dark. however much
it might lack for conveniences.
Everything not needed for daily use
was packed in boxes and trunks and
stored away under the beds, but even
with this economy of space very little
room was left for moving about.
Each member of the family, however,
tried to be cheerful and so cheer the
rest. Lucy even went so far as to at
tempt a witticism, and suggested that
there was no lack of room so long as
none of them were obliged to leave the
house in order to get space to open the
stove door.
Strips of bright carpet were laid be-
tween the beds, about which were hung
curtains reaching from the ceiling to
the floor. The clock found a resting
place upon a shelf to the left of the
front door. A bureau with mirror
occupied the space between the Win
dows at the end where the beds stood
The table, when not in use, was folded
up and allowed to stand in the center
of the floor ready to be opened at meal
81 r.
pictures. The white curtains which
had once adorned the windows of the
sitting-room of the old home were fitted
to those of the new; and when all was
done that could be done, the room
looked so bright and cozy that the
hearts of the occupants lifted little,
and but for the thought that one was so
soon to leave them, whom they knew
not when, if ever, they would meet
again, they might have been almost
happy.
Jennie did not know what day to
look for her husbands coming, for he
could not tell, when they parted in San
Francisco, how long it would take him
to arrange his business, which consisted
in the collection of several little sums
of money owing to him, but she had
written from Phippsburg. telling him
where to go for directions how to find
her; and one dag, about week after
the family had taken possession of the
shanty on the mountain side, he came,
having walked out from the landing.
Mrs. Parsons cried little when En-
sign kissed her and called her ..moth-
er." 1t reminded her so forcibly of the
separation which his coming presaged
that she could not help it. But she
welcomed him warmly and made him
feel that she loved him already for Jen-
uie's sake.
From John Parsons he received a
hand-shake which, hardened as his own
hands were by work in the shop. came
near causing Ensign to finch. The
man whose daughter he had married