The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-07-05
THE HEAVENLY SNOW SHOE.

pine-oak BRUSH on the neighboring hHI-
I side
Thus It came about that the ruddy
! light Of Caiz.n-s campfire again attracted
I u.s. The conversation took a wide range
| az first. but approached focus when one
[ Of the party. the old lady with the black
/ mltis. referred 20 the generally prevail
| ing drought. Sne mentioned. in this con-
/ nerton. a recent newspaper report o. a
/ churrh meeting in some arid section OF
/ The northwest. whore general prayers for
rain we're offered with such immediate
effect taat the congregation. who We're
unprovlded with umbrellas. were drenched
On their way home.
Purely coincidence" hippantly sug-
gested Msnton, a recent importat ton from
the east.
Il regard 81 az "a most striking illus
trau0n Of the efficacy Of all sincere and
earnest prayer" reprovingly remarked
the old lady with the mitts.
What do YOU say, Mr.. CalkinsG' in
quired MantOn, unabashed. I'm sure
you'N agree with me.
our most stirred up the fire before ex-
pressing himself You're dead right.
ma'ami" he at length replied ignoring
Manton. There's nothing prayer won't
do. II you're IN earnest. and pray hard
enough. and don't pray for too much nor
for too little. and stOp right there But
you can handicap "A good. strong. wilin'
prayer, as you can anything else. and
then it's bound TO ba TX and make trouble"
II fear / do not quite grasp your mean
ing, Mr.. Calkins," said the old lady with
the mitts. laying down her knitting and
regarding Calkins with a look Of puzzled
inquiry.
Perhaps ] wasn't very clear. ma'am.
but / had In mind a queer experience
OF my own in the earnest prayer line.
some years ago, way up north. In
Trinity, which'll illustrate my meanin'
bettern any explanation ! can give
Calkins settled himself again out of the
line of the sparks and smoke. which his
late attention TO the fire had provoked,
and began:
1T was in the winter OF rs, and was
carryin' mail from German s-Over to the
Brown Bear and ROundout camps-and
made the round trip once week on
snowshoes. When I was at Germans,
which was four days in the week, ]
stopped with a Frenchman named Prot
who worked shift claim on the river.
We bunked in a shake cabin, back of the
hotel corral and got along middlin well
for the first month we was together.
Evenin's we'd generally turn up at the
hotel, and, after sittin' by the fire with
the rest in the saloon for awhile, we'd
finally drop into old man Germans priv
ate parlor and listen to Kitty German
playin' on the parlor organ. I always
liked music, but / hadn't no faculty al
producin' It, so ia just sit and listen
while Kittie'd play and PROT who had a
big thrOaty voice, would now and then
sing TO Kittie's accompaniment.
This was all well enough at first, but
after two or three weeks / found II dull
and uninterestin', Just sittin' there by
myself on the cold slippery black hair
cloth sofa, with never a word nor
chance for one with Kittie, who seemed
all took up with Prot and the music,
and only'd speak to me when she want
nl a Ter
a while. ! stopped goin' into the parlor,
and would sit in the saloon until bed
time. feelin mad all through to hear
Prot singin' and Kittie playin' away
for dear life to keep up with him on that
gaspin' old organ in the next ROOM Then
/ grew bitter, because l knew that while
naturally Kittie liked me the best Of the
two, at the same time she was worldly
minded, like her father, old man Cor
man, an felt Prot was a better match
on account of his river claim, while
wasn't much account from a ready-mon-
ey point of view. Then, Of course, ! had
a fallin' out with Prot, about nothin'
in particular, on the surface, as l can
recolect OF. / did pretty much all Of
the quarrslin' I'm free to allow, for Pr
rot 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 1 started off before sun up
on my regular trip with the mail for
Brown Bear and Roundout 1 always
get.th best start 1 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 Norwe-
gian snowshoes. l never stopped on the
trip for nothin' bein' always more anx-
ious to get through than to rest; but
this particular mornin' I'm tellin' you
| of I'd started out feelin' languid and
dispirited, and by the time I'd struck the
I'M I Of RI Of hpa ~
feet was cold and cramped from too
tight bucklin' of the shoes, and altogether
] made up my mind to sit down for
minute or two and get pulled together
again before l started on.
There wasn't much wind and the sun
was out warm and comfortable, and the
idea of stretching out there on the snow
for ten minutes rest jest suited me. l sat
down, with my back restin' against an
old dead stump that came up through
the snow, unbuckled the shoes, unsung
the mail pouch from my shoulders, and
took out the little snack of bread and
meat I'd brought along, and which l gem
| orally eat on my way without making
any special stop for it.
while l was eatin 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 scarp of newspaper I'd
wrapped round the lunch, and which was
! lyin spread out on my leg under the sec
ond piece of bread just within good read
in distance. l don't recolect now how
the words read, but the drift of 1t was
that lots of men failed in gettln' what
they wanted in this world just because
they didn't want it hard enough and
didn't keep askin' and prayin' for 1t until
| they got it, Those lines somehow hit my
case, 1t seemed to me, l hadn't had much
early religious trainin and the idea of
Just prayin hard for what you wanted
an gettin It struck me as somethin' new
and simple and very satisfactory. There
was no end of things l wanted, and want
ed bad, and If they was to be had by Just
wantin' EN- bad enough and askin' for
'em violent enough was goin' to get EN-
sure!
Then 1 says to myself, why not start
in right now with a silent prayer? So
set at it. l closed my eyes and squeezed
my lids together hard-I was dead in
earnest. 1t was a terrible, sweepin', Wig
orous prayer 1 handed in. First I wanted
good luck in a general way and asked
for ii hard. Then I got down to par
tic'lars, and asked to be rich and pros
porous, and wound uD with a sort of side