The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-01-14
UNCLE BILL AND NOAH
Ham Was a Great Favorite Of the
MiSSoula Assessor.
PREPARING FOR THE FLOOD
The Old Man Wasn't Allowed to
Shelter His Mule and Do-Do Bird
In the Ark, So They Perished
"A Big Chinook.

liar seasons in early years. There have
been tales galore of ploughing in jan
uary and planting in February and
there has been the usual rivalry among
those who inhabited this valley in pre-
historic times as to who could tell the
biggest story. Uncle. Bill Berry has
been sick for a week and the lesser
lights in the story telling line have had
q picnic There was such a dearth of
stories for several days that any old
thing was good and the stalest of yarns
was applauded. But Uncle Bill finally
came out on top in his wrestle with the
black angel and gave his card to the
expectant delegation from Hades that
he saw waiting for him as he fingered
on the shores of the Styx and told them
TO call again. as he had engagements
booked ahead that would keep him
busy until after the next general cleo
ton. A day or two after his recovery
he hobbled down town and sat for a
while in the warm sunshine in front
of Bob Fosters place. The pleasant
warmth and the balm of the springlike
breezes that gently swirled up and
down the street, began to work on
Uncle Bill and he evidenced all of the
symptoms of becoming reminiscent.
He looked up at the sky and across the
valley to the mountains and then de-
luged with tobacco Juice a bold fly that
had ventured to crawl upon the side
walk That was the last symptom and
the little crowd of friends listened ex-
pectantly. Then the story came.
This spell of weather reminds me-"
said Uncle Bill, "of the time that Noah
and went into the ark. We had been
working hard to get the boat finished.
as we knew that our time was getting
short 1t was one Friday night that
i
box stall and the ark was completed.
Noah and Japheth had been at work
getting in the supplies for our house
keeping and food for the animals and
they finished their work a little while
after we got through. We ate supper
and spent the evening getting things
slowed away in shipshape order As
we went to- bed, Noah said TO me. L
reckon we'd better get up early i'm the
morning and get the animals rounded
up. as IL will be big job and those
reviling sons of Satan are liable TO try
to stampede the herd before we can
corral them
so we walked around the ark to see
that everything was all right and then
turned in. i slept in the ark to see
that nobody broke in, while Noah went
TO his tent with his wife. For about
a month we had been having cold
weather and plenty of snow and we
Idu on having an easy time
collecting the animals, as they had all
been driven out of the hills by the
snow and the feed was so short in the
valley that they were rather tame and
would be driven in without much diff
Guilty.
We'll. as I said before, 1t was Friday
night when we got things ready in the
ark. That morning IL turned warm
and the snow began to melt. When we
got up Saturday morning at 4 O'Clock
the snow was nearly gone in the valley
and small rivers were running down
from the hills, where the snow was
going rapidly. The animals had nearly
all gone back into the hills and all our
plans for an early roundup were knock
ed higher than kite. Noah was mad
as a wet hen and said that he knew
we would have bad luck If we finished
the ark on Friday. He stamped around
and made himself disagreeable TO
everybody. When he was in one of
these spells, he usually took to drink
ing and this one proved TO be no ex-
ception to the rule. BY breakfast time
he had hit the jug so often that he was
OF no use TO us and we left him to
look after the camp. while the boys and
i went out to drive in the animals.
You talk about hot sport! That
roundup was a little the best fun /
ever had and I've seen some lively |
times. II was much more exciting than |
when We rode into Troy inside of the
wooden horse and had fun with the |
Trojans. But that's another story. |
Ham and took the hills and Japheth |
and Shem rode the valleys. OF course |
the work was hard but there was a lot |
OF excitement about IT that made il in |
teresting. Ham and l didn't have any |
trouble except with an old bull moose |
We got him almost to the ark three |
times and he broke for the hills every |
time Hams horse gave out but / |
rode little gray mule that could go |
all day and when the moose, broke |
away the last time the mule and / |
went after him and literally ran him
down. When he began TO staeger I |
headed him and got him back 10 the |
ark just as he dropped from sheer ex- |
haustion.
He was the last animal 10 come in.
All the rest We're there in pairs and |
they made a big bunch Noah had So |
bered up and we let him take the night |
herd and we turned in at MIDNIGHT |
We went to bed but Noah called us in |
couple OF hours and told us that the |
HOOD was coming. We jumped into |
our clothes as quickly as we could and l
ran out 90 see il IL were really so or AZ /
Noah had broken into the wine room.
But Il was on the square. The animals
were stopping around in the water and /
were all getting mighty restless. You
see the tnaw had started the snow to 4
melting so fast that the whole valley
was under water and the river Eu-
pirates was a raging torrent.
I'VE had expected TO give the ami
mails days rest before we drove them
into the ark but the water was coming
too fast and we started in at once. Al
3 O'Clock Sunday morning we had the
whole herd in the rak and the wafer
was Topping against the sides OF the
boat There was one bird that got
away from US. You have heard OF the I
dO-do. / suppose. Well. we had a Enc |
pair. but they swan away as we wera
driving them in and the water got TO-,
deep for US 10 chase them. 1 was al
ways sorry that We had to let the spe-