The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-08-20
0BLIGING DRIFTER.
hs TRAVELLED $50 MILES TO MATCH
A RIBBON FOR A WOMAN.

"Why, Drifter is never happier than
when he Is holding some womans parcels
or doing the gallant on a street car. hon
estly believe he'd find pleasure on shop
ping tour with his mother-in-law.
fright you are, you cub. 4" said Drifter,
"and, what's more, as long as Drifter can
navigate he'll be at the service Of the Ia
dies The truth of the matter is, I've
lived a part of my life where a woman s
voice or the sQualling of teething baby
was rarer music than could be furnished
by all the great stars OF the Metropolitan
Opera company, and as for shopping with
woman-pshaw, youngsterl I've tray-
eled $50 miles 10 match a bit of ribbon and
buy pair of gloves for a woman, and
thought no more Of il than you dawdlers
do of calling a cab i'm Fifth avenue for
girl of your acquaintance.
OF course Drifter was asked co explain
"Talk about dancing attendance on
women" he said. "When l was up in the
Lake Of the Woods country in 1888 and
put in my time out at the mines or explor-
ing along Rainy river and Rainy lake with
few good fellows, we thought nothing
OF days tramp over the packed ice on
the lake with the temperature knocking
chance 10 hear white woman say, I'm
glad TO see you There were perhaps half
dozen women all told at the little Hud-
son Bay post in those days-the hotel
mans wife. the doctors wife, his sister,
the daughter Of the agent at the Hudson
Bay company's store, and the wife of the
man who ran the only steamboat On the
lake in the summer.
"And about that 500 mile trip for rib
bon and a pair of Gloves queried the dis
respectful cub who had started Drifter on
this tack.
ooh, yes. Well, I'm married now, set
tied down, have twinges of rheumatism
or geut once in awhile, and like New York
pretty we'll, " continued Drifter, "but id
walk that 500 miles in moccasins on
northwest prairie right now for the same |
woman under circumstances such as / am |
about 20 describe.
"Never mind her name. She was q |
dainty, black eyed, rosy checked, young |
wife and mother. Brought up in an old |
Canadian town, she had been surrounded |
not only with comforts, but luxuries, all |
her life until she married giant of a Rus
sian who had come to the new world to !
make his fortune. Something went wrong |
with them at home, and he came out on
the c. p. r., where at the time | speak
of, he was station agent and yardmaster
in that wilderness.
1T took pretty brave man To stand the
trials Of winter in those dggings, but for
a wOman-well, this particular woman
was brick. She followed her husband ms
soon as he wrote for her TO come. She
looked as much ont Of place in the crowd
of lumbermen, miners, half breeds and adj
ypptupprs at rho Uprtaga nc ono Of Won |
easy going chaps would in the stokehole
of an ocean liner-and that baby Ii was
only few months old, but the first one in
camp and some OF the old timers actually
sniyeled when they heard the youngster
cry with some iEfautile distress beyond
their comprehension. The big Russian,
during the hours when he was not work
ing for the {. Z. r., put up little rough
board house for bis pretty wife her young
sister, who came along with her from
their cid home, and the Kid. 1t was the
best lc could do, and as good as any man
our here had at that time but when the
snow cri.tCd in through the chinbs and
piled Up On tho GCor, and the wind howled
around the cabin, there were trying times
for mother and baby. Well, of course,
that husband loved her Who wouldn'tg
She never mWmurcd. She never com
planned Of the fierce cold, of the depriya-
tion or e the rough life We all made
friends with the baby, and as for the
mother-sEe was the good angel of the
camp.
"Oro day the hotel mans wife told us
boys that she intended to have dance at
the hotel. It's TO be real nice, respectable
time, she said, not one Of the blow outs
you have in the lumber camps or out on
the prairie. Not one of you men is TO have
d drink until the affair is over and you
must slick up in your best clothes If
there was one Of US hardened sinners
there were dozen who sneaked one at
time up TO the little house on the hill and
asked the station agents wife to come to
the dance. l know / quarreled with two
81 my best friends in the camp because I
told them they were intruding. They gave
me dressing down, and even went so far
as 70 go 20 the husband and ask him to
pick out an escort for his wife, IL being
well understood that he had no time for
anything but work and sleep.
Two days before the dance / went ND |
to the house 70 see how the baby's latest
tooth was coming on, or something of
that sort. The mother looked bluer than
the baby's eyes. / heard her sigh once or
twice, and at last she said:
- Do you think it's wrong, Drifter, for
a young woman TO want pretty dresses and
hats and gloves and ribbons and to fix her
self up once in awhile, even though she is
buried out here in a wildernessY
"That was enough for me. WANTED
to go. 'Fshowp / said You always
look pretty enough to eat, and so does the
ably, and
" Yes she said, with shade Of uetu-
lance, but do want 20 90 10 that dance
just as If 10 was at my old home
haven't "a decent pair Of gloves 10 my
name, nor ribbon sash Of the color |
want, and there's 10 way of my getting
them. l might as well wish for the
moon.
THAT Was enough for me- If I get
them in time, will you go TO the dance
with mef asked.
OF course | will, she answered, but
bow foolishl You emit leave hero for a
whim and take that long Jour
hey TO Winnipeg and back.
Cant II ! exclaimed. Sec me-.
,ot piece Of the ribbon 20 mitch took
he size of her pretty little hand. and e. "a