The Mena weekly star., 1897-10-06

as though he had been tramping over
 the hills for two long hours. And this
 is the story he tells:
 ssThere's somethin' goin' on down
 here among the Injuns. I don't know
 exactly what it is. but think it's some.
 thin concernin' old Potts. Who's Potts? We'll. I'll tell you who Potts is. Potts is squaw-man; but that
 ain't all, Potts is crazy. But before he
 became lunatic-who was he? We'll.
 he was Potts, that's all--Levi Potts. of
 Ohio. He came out to California in the early days and he went into mining.
 He didn't pan out much at it-didn't get into the savyey of it, guess; any way. he didn't get rich, and so he went to work for people up here in the hills.
 You know Charley Coles ranch at
 Bridgeport? We'll, you've noticed them stone walls, one on each side O the road there by the house? Potts built them. He put all them big rocks in place with his hands, one on top the other. till he had fence made that I reckon uk;l; last good while longer'n he will IT. was no picnic to build them ,v,,ls either, for them rocks waS pretty heftv I tell you. But Petts was strong-ths strongest man Ai liftin' that ever came into the hilaS. Did you ever see him No? We'll, he's a six-footer, broad- 1 sbp'dldered, straight, and with arms yEong and jist big punches of muscles. He's not as strong now as he was once. but in spite of the life he's led and the years he's passed, he's strong enougl, to handle two or three ordinary men. Well, after Potts was in the hills here for awhile he got to teamin' on inc road. It was while he was teamin' that he began to git looney. The long, heavy grades. the hot summer, the sweat and | the dust, seemed to break him down. | I don't much wonder at it, for it ain't | very pleasant work-teamin' ain't. Go- in up them steep grades with two wagons loaded with all they'll carry, 1 and 12 or IA horses and mules to han dle-and sometimes balkin'-it ain't cheerful work. In the first place, the road ain't straight--it's us full of crooks and turns as the Tuba there" waving his pipe. "Of course you drive with a jerk-line-though the team generally knows as much about bringin' them wagons around turn as von do. Rn. the grade is so steep, and the wagons loaded so heavy. that you can't go more than a few yards at time; and it's the everiastin' stoppin and startin' that wears man plum out.
 Every time you start the horses and mules have to scratch gravel to git 4h ha up pretty thick and nigh smothers you. Why, I've seen tenmsters on the road that didn't look any more like human bein's than as if they was made alto gether of yaller dirt. Even their eyes seemed to have a coat of dust on 'enl. and as for their throats--well. these here teamsters generally try to keep up some sort of communication with their internal arrangements by means of bottle.
 Tt might have been this permiscus whisky drinl1in' that knocked old Potts off his nut instead of the hard team sterin', but I can't say. But, anyway. Potts went sort O daft. and finally left the road and tux up with the Injuns. Before he went crazy. and before he left teamin'. Potts was the genialest kind of a feller. Everybody liked him. He wasn't educated much, but he was good-natured and jolly and always had good word for folks, an he liked chil- dren.
 T remember of his stoppin' at my oi' mans place once, when a neighbors little girl was there This girl-Min. believe her name was-had a new doll an of course she wanted to show it to Potts first thing. So she trotted it out an put it in his lap and then turned its dress up. as doll mammas always do, and made him look at the lace on its undcrclothes. An Potts laughed--why. l can see him now, settin' there on the front porch. all dirty and smeared with wagon grease. holdin Minis new doll Ill his big hands and tellin' her that it's the purtiest dolly ever he seed. But that was long time ago. Potts is diff ferent now'
 Clark, of the Oregon house, paused in his talk and putfed away in silence for few minutes.
 The man Tt the plum box, having sat isfied himself, wiped his mouth on his sleeve t'When in Rome. etc. and now sat gazing up the river. 1t was not an uninteresting view. From a narrow gorge in the high brown hills, the river suddenly appeared. stream of dull yellow that threw itself tempestuously from the big. water-worn rocks. and then with smooth, graceful curve, A.. ~I n.