The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1895-11-30

said it was but right that he should
know whether she could cook a dinner.
AS for him. he might ask home any get
tleman he liked. He should be "A nice gem
tleman. Ellen said. who would like to
talk with Minna, who was a very
charming girl.
Fergus grumbled a little at the ne
cessty of being hospitable. But Ellen
told him-what he knew very well be-
fore-that there was no Thanksgiving
unless they shared what was provided;
and intimated that if he ami she spent
the day together, with or without Mrs.
Odonto's company, they might become
tired of each other too soon. 1t ended,
of course in her having her own way.
Mrs. Odonto said she would take the
morning car for New Herkimer, and The
young people were to work a. their own
sweet will in the kitchen and dining
room. Nay before Thanksgiving day
came the kitchen was given over on
Tuesday afternoon to Ellen and to her
friend Minna. And there, in the
secrecy of a cabbala whose oracles no
man shall interpret, they created pies
and tarts and jellies, now of Yankee,
now OF German northumberland
one would have said, for a dinner Of 20
covers; but in truth all prepared for one
of four.
Fergus hesitated a little about the
guest he should bring, to be agreeable
to the Fraulein Minna. College profess
sors, resident graduates, unmarried
ministers in the town passed in process
sion before his mind, as he determined
which of them should have the honor
Of being selected as fourth hand in this
select game of Thanksgiving day. But
Fergus, also, was under the influence of
the day; and he finally gave his invi-
tation, not to one of these people who
We're to choose between four or five
parties. but to a new found friend of
his, whose room was in the attic
of the Two-Good House, and who would
have taken his chance at the stage din
ner of that inn, had not Fergus remem-
bered him. This was a seedy looking
man, named Pugh, whom Fergus had
found at the Union. At the Union he
had a sort of natural history class,
made up of factory hands and shop
clerks, whom he was initiating into the
mysteries of mineralogy and geology.
Fergus had been drawn toward him
since the first time he saw him Pugh
had asked him to let him use the labora-
tory, to make some rather intricate
examinations of some bog-ore the boys
had brought back from vacation
ramble. The man seemed to have had
a specialists training. Very crude in
some things he was, very shrewd in
Others He was very lonely in the town,
and, as Fergus knew, would hardly call
any one his friend excepting him. But
Pugh knew very well what Thanksgiv-
ing day was Even in his loneliness
he had found it the loneliest day in the
year, ever since he had been in America (;
and the tears fairly stood in his eyes
when he received and accepted Fergus
! invitation.
Fergus compelled Pugh to go to
! meeting" with him. No man would
| dare to say whether Pugh had fulfilled
| Righteousness in that way before since
he had lived in New Padua But they
heard Mr.. Cross preach a sermon on the
Indian policy of the general govern
! ment. they put their surplus earnings
! into the contribution box and then, as
| instructed by the woman folk, they took
a long walk before they re-
turned to dinner. They found the table
set; and in a little while the ladies
came in, with their faces aglow, but
not too much aglow, and condescended
to let the gentlemen bring in the heavy
turkey and the chicken pie, while they
followed with trays laden with side
| dishes. In this self service there was
quite frolic enough to break the ice.
Fergus asked a blessing with good
heart and from Boothia Felix to the
Farallones Islands there was not a iol-
lier Thanksgiving dinner that. day than
this proved to be.
Minna Ville-Fosse was, indeed what
Ellen had represented her-a sweet,
pretty girl. French blood mixed with
German in her bushes, and French
brightness and German sense in her
talk. Her English was, like Kossuth's S,
just broken enough and unidio-
matte enough to be suggestive
and entertaining. As for Pugh, you
never knew where to find him. The new
education, which is just now showing
its result, certainly brings curiosity
and surprise into conversation. You
never know what a man will under
stand nor where his mind will be a
blank. Mr.. Pugh sat perfectly silent
when the others tried some quite ia
miliar themes of literature. On the 9TH
er hand, he would come out with a world
of curious and entertaining Informal
ton, about things where archangels
might be pardoned for ignorance.
OF all which talk, now very serious
and now very merry, the only part
which much concerns this story fell af-
ter dinner. when they were wasting
Mrs. Odonto's hard cut logs in a great
open fireplace in her parlor. Fergus hac
been grinding an ak by making Minna
Nille-Fosse explain to him some phrases