Morris tribune., 1895-09-25
copya,enT. 1855. BY rREDeRlckA. Stokes comoANW
CHAPTER /.

have called her rare exotic. For the
climate of the Canadian northwest j:
not particularly conducive to female
loneliness; it's extremes are too trying
the fierce, whitening dry heat of sum
mer and the keen biting winds of win.
ter have tendency to roughen and rol
the fairest and softest cheek Of its
bloom. But then, perhaps, on this the
southwestern slope of the Cypress hills,
Just across from the Sweet Grass hills
in Montana and toward the foothills of
the Rockies, little more immunity
from such ravages is granted. For here,
on the illimitable stretches of coulee
SCARED prairie, the soft warm winds
from the Pacific ocean find their way
over and through the breaks and passes
of the Rocky mountains, to temper the
chill breath of the frozen north. There
lis mo mystery about these chinook
winds; they come from sleeping south
ern seas where perpetual summer reigns.
No wonder before their breath the snow
melts like magic. No wonder the red
man in this quarter of the great lone
land regards them with a superstitious
awe. But it is only because their inf1u-
ence possibly kept Marie St. Denis
complexion-which was as pure and
velvety as the skin of a peach-from
whitening that these chinook winds are
mentioned at all.
She leaned against the doorway of
the long, rambling log house, with it's
sod roof, ornamented by innumerable
elk antlers, and watched her father as
he converted wand of willow into
hoop, on which he meant to stretch the
skin of a beaver. But before we describe
the daughter-an excusable tendency
it would be as well to say few words
about the father-age before beauty is
die aged, of good physique and with
pleasing expression on his face. His long
hair was perhaps prematurely gray, and
his skin was tanned by the sun and
wind until it was brown as berry.
His figure was not an unpicturesque
one, suggesting, as it did, that of the
old French trapper Or voyager.
He wore an unplucked beaver cap, d
buckskin shirt lowered and fringed
and pair of high hee1ed cowboy boots
of the orthodox pattern. He was a typ
ical old timer; he was hunter, trapper
and rancher In fact, like most men in
that country where picturesque past
is fast vanishing, he was anything that
would enable him to earn q few dollars
And here perhaps lay the mischief. For,
alas these were the days of prohibit
tion (only in 1892 it ceased to exist) in
the territories. and rumor had it that
Gabriel ST. Denis was not above run
ming cargo of liquor from across the
lines into Canada on an odd occasion
1t was paying if a wrong thing to do.
Besides there was an indisputable senti
ment among many that there was no
disgrace i'll so doing Indeed Gabriel
was continually telling himself that
what might be crime need not neces-
sarily be q sin. The antiprohibitionists
said that the laws prohibiting liquor in
the country were made for a time when
there were ten Indians to every white
man, but now that state of affairs was
reversed. Why, they said, should the
white population be saddled with a law
that was meant for Indians, who were
now in minority? Gabriel did not
smuggle liquor for Indians nor yet re-
tail it. Neither did he introduce into
her majesty dominion what was either
termed ''forty rod, Z ,s'coffin
varnish' or tang lefoot, but sound, !
frye" whisky. The country
was crying out against the abuses that
the law engendered. The mounted police
and the very judges of the land found
it difficult to reconcile their real senti-
ments regarding prohibition and what
was to them their evident straight
course of duty. It was wonderful, how
aver, how elastic the Interpretation of /
the law had become-gutta percha or
india rubber was nowhere compared TO
it. There is a case on record when the
Judge OH the bench, when trying a whis-
~ smuggling case, said: 81 have known
The accused for very long time now,
and he is very decent fellow. He is
not responsible for what his servants
III buOI6IUI0 uISuL SS tIl6 sCitSS. VI
words to that effect Then there was an
for refreshments-of pro-
libited nature-in which all parties in
crested participated, the judge, the ac-
used and the mounted police them
elves. They were all jolly good fellows,
the accused. But let us get
Jack to an infinitely more interesting
jubject--the girl
Marie, as has been said, was watch
ng her father as he tied the ends of the
ong willow wand together. The house
vas situated just on the edge Of thick
dump Of cottonwood trees, and just
where the corlee ran out into the praI
lie. 1t was we'll sheltered from the
lorth, east and west winds. A creek
lowed feebly past, and there was a large Il
orral aud garden on either side. TWAS
lltogether snug and beautiful little
pot One could appreciate such haven
when the billiards. were raging, or
when, il the deathly stiffness of the
ong winter nights, the thermometer
egistered from 10 degrees to 30 degrees
,elow zero, when the snow obliteraed
reek was solid channel Of ice, and
when the aniense coldness was dead