Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1885-1890, 1886-11-27
Hidden Treasures
ATkLE OF CALIFORNIA.
Written for tie Tribune By Y. q. TINS.
CHAPTER III
THE CABIN AND THE MAN.

Next afternoon while the sun was yet
we'll above the horizon of a clear su1nmer
sky.w we reached Chase's mill. After the
team had been cared for, was introduc-
ed by Mac tomy future quarters-his cab
in.
The exterior did not differ very much
from several others which We're built on
the outskirts of the lumber yard, but as
future comparisons proved, the interior
was furnished and arranged with farmore
taste and comfort.
On the top of a handily contrived desk
were piled thirty or forty books, the titles
of which plainly indicated that the selec-
ton had been made with a view to practi-
cal information and instruction. The civil,
criminal and political codes OF the state,
bound in customary and time-honered
calf, made a substantial looking foundation
for one of the piles. Sandwiched between
Heoker's Physiology and Blalre's Rhetor-
ic. peeped out the well worn back OF
Shakespeare, while Pickwith Papers We're
kept within sober. dignitied bounds by
Pores translation Of the Had, and Plu-
tarch's Lives. A copy of the Bible topped
one of the stacks with with a treatise by
John ". Draper reposing comfortably be-
meath it. Boccaccios' Decameron and
S~purgeon's Sermons lay peacefully side
bv side, while Webster's Dictionary and
Dickens Bleak House had no arguments
upon smurders ssof the English language.
Harper's Monthly and an old number of
the Edinburgh Review, together with cop
les of the Weekly Bulletin and Sacramen-
to Union kept each other company on the
desk below. A homemade, but very in
viting rocking chair occupied undisputed
possession of the middle of the floor. In
two opposite corners We're single beds.
The walls were decorated with cuts from
illustrated papers, pasted on, making the
whole room one picture gallery. Little
shelves hung in convenient places, chairs,
a table. stove, with iron teakettle, every
thing neat, clean and orderly.
"My Castle Bill" said Mac, as, with
semi-theatrical gesture, he waved his hand
around the room, make yourself at home;
its yours as we'll as mine; I've been want
ing a comrade for a long while, so take
possession, appropriate whatever you
choose"
That night we exchanged experiences,
talked of future probabilities. touched
lightly on books and authors and both
were surprised when the clock told Us it
was midnight.
During the evening Mac had told me
how he came to be log cutter for q saw
mill. In the days of our former acquaint-
ance he had been salesman in a large COM
mission house. My duties in a mercan-
tile establishment brought me quite often
to the local express office next door and
sometimes into the store where he was eIa-
ployed. so we became acquainted and fl
nally got to be friendly. In those days,
though several years my senior, Mac. or
Jim. as he was called, was considered quite
Il Young iudil, WOKE HIS HAL III tiIC ldSiiloEi
of the day and sported only a mustache.
One day business took me to the commits
sion house and a stranger occupied his
place. Jim was gone up the country, SO
they said. and further than that were una
bic to say.
The reason for this rather sudden de-
parture Mac explained as we were getting
ready for bed. He had been going it
rather strong and a late appearance at
the store one morning resulted in his en-
ployer demonstrating with him and yolun-
teerine some sound advice. Mac though
conscious that the remonstrance was de-
served and the advice kindly meant was
like too many young men, too much in
clined to fall out with their friends when
their faults are spoken OF. SO Mac gave
notice that on the list OF the month he in
tended to go up the country, and he did.
there depleted his pocket-book. Employ
ment was necessary to him both to occupy
his mind, which was none too easy, and to
supply that indispensable article, cash.
The first opportunity which offered he ac-
eepted. Born and reared in a city, accus-
toned all his days to the busy traffic OF
the metropolis-his implements, a pen or
pencil, and his workbench, books filed
with figures, it was no wonder that the 81
Ipnca of fields and the humdrjIm as hired
man on a farm did not suit him. A month
suficed to convince him that however N