The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1895-02-09

uldLcu Ou hccOunL Oh MS river cidlIu,
while I wasn't much account. from a
ready-money point of view. Then, of
course, had fallin' out with Prot
about nothin' in particular on the sur
| face, as can recollect Of. did pretty
much all the quarlin', I'm free to
allow, for Prot said nothin', but just
laughed in a way that. made me
madden, and moved out of the shake
cabin to an old adobe higher up the
hill.
Next day / started off before sun
up on my regular trip with the mail
for Brown Bear and Roundout. al
ways got the best start could. SOS to
get well up the range while the crust
was hard and before the sun had been
| up long enough to mellow things up
and make it awkward for me, for /
| wasn't very handy even yet with them
long Norwegian snowshoes. / never
stopped on the trip for nothin', bein'
always more anxious to get through
than to rest; but this partic'lar morn
in I'm tellin' of, I'd started out, feelin'
languid and dispirited, and by the
time I'd strnclx the summit. l felt sort
of dead beat out. My feet was cold
and cramped from too tight bucklin'
of the shoes. and. altogether, l made
up my mind to sit down for minute
or two and get pulled together again
before started on.
There wasn't much wind and the
sun was out warm and comfortable,
and the idea of stretchin' out there on
l hn mr. Far ac' irxcf
| suited me. ] sat down with my back
restin' against an old dead stump that
came up through the snow, unbuclled
the shoes, unslung the mail pouch
from my shoulder, and took out her
| little snack of bread and meat I'd
brought along, and which generally
eat on the way without making any
special stop for it.
while was eat in lookin' off down
the slope I'd just climbed up and
thinkin' what bad luck I'd struck all
along the last few months. my eye
caught on to some lines in the scrap of
newspaper I'd wrapped round the
lunch, and which was lynn spread out
on my leg under the second piece of
bread just within good readin' dis
lance don't just recollect no W how
the words read, but the drift of 1t was
that lots of men failed gettin' what
they wanted in this world just because
they didn't want it hard enough and
didn't keep up askin' and prayin' for it
until they got it. Those lines some
how hit my case, it seemed to me.
hadn't had much early religious
/ sv1tvr nj Ea - 81 -,
hard for what you wanted and gettin'
it, struck me as somethin' new and
simple and very satisfactory. There
was no end of things wanted, and
wanted bad, and il they was to be had
by just wan tin 'em bad enough and
askin' for 'em violent enough, was
goin' to get 'em sure.
Then l says to myself, why not
start in right now with a silent
prayer? So l set at it. closed my
eyes and squeezed my lids together
hard--I was so dead in earnest 1t was
terrible, sweepin' vigorous prayer l
handed in. First, wanted good luck
in a general way, and asked for it
hard. Then l got more down to par
tic'lars, and asked to be rich and pros |
porous, and wound up with a sort of |
side-handed suggestion that it would |
suit me down to the ground to have |
Prot fall off his luck and get poor,
while l grew rich. All this wasn't |
right, of course, as see now, ma am. |
But wasn't SO much prayin' for bad |
luck to Prot for its own sake, as for |
the effect of it all on my gettin' on
with Kitty German.
when prayed for the blight on
Prot, was SO sorter wrought up by |
the whole business that-just, l sup
pose, to give things particular point /
Il fred out my right leg SO vigorous
like, and struck the snowshoe to
which I'd buclxled the mail pouch so
hard that-zip! whizz-lilze a shot it
was on its way down the hill. 1t made
clear shoot for about five hundred
feet, every now and then spinnin'
about, when an end would strike
snag, until it brought up short against
a ledge that cropped out across its
track, sending splinters of stone all
about when it struck. for with the
mail pouch buckled on to it, it picked
up considerable speed and hit hard. 1t
bounded up nd turned clean over, and
then stopped altogether, held from
sli din any further by the croppin's.
'sWell, ma'am, while that snowshoe
was piroue tim down the slope, was
that surprised and mad all through
that, although I'd just been within in
prayer, as you might say, l let loose
line of language which was that strong
a nd pointed that if there'd been any
stop or feelin' to that snowshoe, it
would have brought up within fifty
feet! mention this with regret,
ma'am, because see now that if l
hadn't been moved to make them re-
marks, just fresh on top of the prayer.
things would have turned out differ
emit. But bein' young, and hot-headed,