Iron County register., 1892-01-07
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT
WHERE is THE CROWS NEST7

frescoed and upholstering hadn't been
put on the chairs yet: still, it was q
pretty nice sort of place to live in,
and as time passed they managed to
make 1t more and more eomforta BILE.
They took turn and turn about in
tending to the housework. Each one
had one day of securing the pans and
boiling the mush, and then two days of
pick and shovel
One day it happened to be Grinninr
Jim's turn to tend to the chores. The
boys called him Grinning Jim, not be-
cause he did u great deal of grinninr
himself, but because he was always
advising others to do it When
ever any body struck bad luck.
Jim said, "Grin and bear it. nv
boy; grin and bear it" Now, on
that morning Jim got up first and start
ed the fire and put on the kettle to
make the coffee. and the pan to fry
some bears steak. But somehow the
hre wouldn't draw. He put on moro
lSindlings. He got on his knees and
made d bellows of himself. but the fire
just sIaoldered and the cabin filled up
with smoke. The other men began to
grumble i'll their hunks and to rub their
eyes, and the tears began to run down
their cheeks as if they were thinking
of their past sins. And when they sat
down to breakfast and found their cof-
fer lukewarm and the steak half done,
they just swore. But Jim didn't swear
He was Methodist and had religion.
He just said. "Grin and bear it, bows,
perhaps it'll be better bimeby." 1t was
the Same way at dinner and at supper,
and to look ut those men. you would
think their best friend had gone back
on them.
The next day it was Mad Toms turn.
He was q terror He would fret and
howl and stamp when anything went
wrong. till you would think creation
was out of joint He had vowed any
mum Der of times the day before that if
he had the thing to do, there wouldn't
be any more smoke in that cabin.
So after breakfast he went at it
They had an old stovepipe to their
stove, which they had bought of another
miner who had quit his claim on the
other side of the gulch. 1t went
through the wall in an elbow joint and
stuck straight up outside. and they
were rather proud of it. Now Tom in
vestigated the stovepipe.
He found little hole way up where
the smoke was coming out and he
plugged that with some chewing tobac-
CO. He thought that would settle it.
but it didn't Now the smoke came
out of n crack little lower down and
there was an awful smell of burnt to-
bacco 1 forget what he stopped the
crack with, but it took him about an
20 40 hot tho hn1a
was open again and the smoke as bad
as ever When the other two came
home at noon they found Tom very
griny and very mad, and nothing to
eat but some cold mush. Tom kept at
it most of the afternoon He stopped
the cracks He famed the fire. Once
he poured on some kerosene. but he
concluded he wouldn't do that again.
Finally he got SO mad that he hit the
stove-pipe a terrible whack with stick
of wood, and started off for the grocery
at Dead Horse gully. When the other
two came home at night they found
nothing to eat and q big dent in the
stove pipe.
The next day Old Silence took his
turn. His real name was Silas. but it
was handy to call him Silence. because
he never did say very much. However,
he did a powerful lot of thinking. He
didn't much believe in Jim's grin and
bear it policy. He said he guessed it
was all right to be patient under the
dispansations of providence. but he
didn't see that it was the Lords fault
that the smoke kept coming into the
cabin. He didn't take much stock
either in Mad Toms plan of stopping
the cracks, and he started to tell Tom
so. but Tom turned the air so blue that
Old Silence shut up. But when the
men were gone, he lit his pipe and
thought the thing over.
Every weed has got some root" he
said to himself land you haven't got
the weed out till you've got the root
out It amt material fer smoke to come
down instead o goin' up,
There's somethin' stoppin' up that
fiue If 1 kin git that out, the smoke
will ae1 all right. and if that don't come
out, that ere smoke will poster us for
ever and ever, amen"
He got up and laid down his pipe. He
found out the topmOst crack where the
smoke came out He climbed on the
roof and looked down, but he only got
a cinder in his eye ard saw nothing. 1t
must &c in the elbow-joint of the pipe,
He would get at that thing, if he
brought all the SCOT west of the Rocky
mountains into his cabin. He twisted
the Joint out Down came the SCOT,
over the floor and over his oyeralls, but
he stuck to the job. He put in his arm.
He felt something. He pulled it out
Il was big chunk of dirt and broken
S+;.l.S and feathers He looked it over
carefully and then he chuckled. He
went outside and looked into the old
pine tree over the cabin. Suro enough,
the old crows nest had come down at
last and part of it had fallen plumb
down the pipe.
Old Silence guffawed, and then snick-
cred. He laid the crows nest care
fully by the stove, knocked the sootout
of the pipe. hammered out Mad Toms
dent. put the pipe up, swept the floor,
bindled a roaring fire. and got a glori-
Gus dinner for Jim and Tom. Boys"
ha cold nointinr to the nest, 1.-The