Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1893-10-02
CHAPTER l.

Tom and Jake lived together most
amicably in a rough log hut in one of
the widest wooded parts of that great
frozen tract which we know as the
Hudson Bay Company's territory. If
they'd ever had surnames they'd al
most forgotten those needless append
ages themselves long since, and cer-
tainly nobody else GU earth had ever
heard Of them. They were Tom and
Jake to one another and all the world
besides, that world in their case con-
lssisting Of a few distant neighbors some
fifty miles of on either side, and the
with whom they exchanged their skins
and furs at long intervals for tobacco,
salt, clothing, and other simple neces-
saries, of life in q far northern clear
ing.
For Tom and Jake were trappers by
born and bred in the
Hudson Bay district, who had shout
idered rifles almost as soon as they could
walk mile, and knew no other mode
of life but that lonely existence in the
wild woods, sharing beaver and mus
xuash, and silver fox and wolverine.
Forest and snow were all their scenery.
They were men Of action, not men Of
words. Their speech was infrequent,
direct and natural. When they had
nothing to say to each other they held
their tongues. And as their life af-
forded few occasions for philosophic
reflections, they seldom exchanged q
sentence between themselves through
the long, cold winter and the short,
hot summer, except in so far as it was
necessary to give and receive instruc-
lions about joint action against some
particular four-footed enemy, generally
. bar or stray northward wander
ing summer painter" Save at these
rare moments they were mostly mute,
going about the two rooms of their
bare log hut with their pipes between
their lips, and very little else in their
mouths or fancies.
Still, in their own way, these two
were deeply attached to one another.
They loved like brothers, undemon-
stratively, but none the less truly.
When Tom me back from q long
hunting expedition alone he held up
his skins for q show in his hand, and
said, Hello, Jake!" and Jake held up
his In return, and said Hello, Tom!'
and both Of them felt glad to see the
others face, with profound conscious
ness that in that simple greeting they
had fulfilled all the duties of back
woods pOliteness. and satisfied the
claims of eternal friendship.
Perhaps one reason why they liked
one another SO much was because each
formed the others entire environment.
Though, to be sure, if you had told
them 90 they would have smiled blank
'ly and answered, "Sure!" in profound
surprise that they should possess any,
thing on earth that had so fine q name
without even suspecting it. They had
grown up together from the time they
were boys, and no wOmankind had ever
come in between to divide their allie
gi1nce one to the other. The only
female society they ever saw, indeed,
was when a party of wandering In
dams passed that way to exchange their
furs with the whites for spirits
or gunpowder. On such occa-
rare old frolic with the youngest
and prettiest squaws. They organized
"a moonlight entertainment on the
cleared space in front of the hut, and
danced to their hearts" content for
hours at stretch with their dusky
partners, while the Indian men sat by,
smoking their pipes, and looked on inn
passive, wrapped in their blankets, and
In the true impenetrable Indian silence.
At the end Of it all, when Tom and
Jake could dance no more, they stood
glasses of grog to the tribe. all around,
and the Indians sang, "He's jolly good
Ifellow!" to the familiar tune and in the
Objibway language. But with the
ltrifling exceptions Of these primitive
orgies once in a twelve-month Tom and
Jake never saw woman's face from
years end to years end. They lived
their own monotonous life alone among
the trees and SHOWS, contented to do so
because they knew and could conceive
no other.