Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1888-11-02
DICK JOHNSON'S REVENGE
A SKETCH OF MORMON LIFE.

1ney were the most COntented family
in the world. The father was by turns
a prospector, trapper, or a rancher, but
he never succeeded in making a good
living any way. He was a remarka-
bly, handsome mountaineer, tall and
strong, and he looked on honest labor as
quite beneath him. His word was his
bond; he contracted no debts that he
could not pay; yet he often cut up fat
steer and divided the meat among his
neighbors, who sent him vegetables and
groceries in return, and never asked
where the fat steer had come from. Per-
haps they knew. When herd passed
along the dusty high-road the women
smiled at each other and said: 81 guess
we'll hev some fresh meat to morrow"
Sometimes he would drive into town
with team of housekeeping, smooth
coated horses attached to his rusty old
blackboard. Then his friends crowded
about him, stroking the glossy necks,
examining the white teeth, but no one
In this little Mormon settlement ever
thought of in9uiring where he got them
Dick Johnson was the kindest of men
to his friends and family, yet he had his
record. He would be Iynched promptly
if he should ever return to Montana; he
had shot bridgekeeper who demanded
toll of him, and, altogether, the deaths
of half a dozen men were caused by the
well-known fact that cole Dick wuz
mighty lively with his pistols when he
got huff whisky aboard"
His wife did not always have a good
print dress to wear to town, the chill
dren were seldom provided with shoes,
but she always seemed contented and
laZily happy, and there was not mer-
rier set OF little ones. The mother was a
tair-haired, blue-eyed woman, and the
children all looked like her.
The children mostly awl look like
me-" she would say, with an amiable
smile; ''awl of 'em 'cept Caddie, and l
guess she looks more like her pa"
"You kin jest bet l do, and Pm
mighty glad l haven't no tow-head like
these here young 'uns," Caddie would
answer. She was remarkably hand
some girl, and people who admired her
delicate, dark face, were always shocked
when her coarse Vo ce and coarser lang
uage were heard, OF course, this ener-
getic girl ruled the whole family; the
man, who, in spite of his strength and
ferOcty was as tender hearted and simple
minded as child, the indOlent. amiable
woman, and the swarm of tow headed
children.
Caddie had dreams of something diff
ferent from the vagrant life that salts
fled the rest of the family. Sometimes
she saw herself busy wife and mother,
moving about the two or three rooms of
a log farm house, with a few hardy
flowers struggling for existence in the
small front garden, with current bushes,
strawberry vines, and tiourishing vege-
tables surrounding the house, and with
waving fields of grain stretching away to
the dark mountains that bound these
Western valleys.
She confided these visions to her
mother once.
81 tell yer what, maw," she said,
|'when git married 1 hain't a-goin' to
hev no sech a ferlorn dolby shanty ez
this here It'll hev TO be log house,
and well plastered an whitewashed in
side an out. An there'll be the purtiest
rag carpet on the front room floor you
ever see, an good board floor in the
kitchen, too. An I'll hev likely colt
to ride, an some cows, SOS to hev lots of
milk an butter, an yer bet yer life I'll
be boss o. the hull ranch"
''Yew've always he'd fine idees in
yew're head, Caddie" drawled her
mother; IAN eff yew marries Bishop
Burns, like yew're pa wants yew tew,
maybe he'll Civ yew big house, but
yew knew well enuff that Dan Williams
can't do no sech thing fer ye."
Huh :" observed Caddie 'sEf that
bull headed ole Burns ever comes
a-shinin' round me he'll get sech a crack
in is jaw III make him see stars, or else
nv name hain't Cad Johnson"
''Wall, ! guess he'd better not risk it,
then" SAID the woman, with a feeble
laugh. Yew're pas a-hitchin' up the
HOSES, Caddie, an reckon yew'd better