The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1898-08-09

L.
pouring, penetrating and dreary and
tiresome we found it as we tore our
stumbling, falling way through the
underground, catching our dresses on
berry bushes, inadvertently seizing
devils clubs in our hands, overhang-
ing branches slapping our faces. Often
we found it easier to roll under logs
than to climb over them, and a ludie-
rous sight enough we presented plas-
tered as we were from head to foot |
with mud.
At last, just at night fall of the sec
ond day, we reached place which |
suited our location My sister and /
chose adjoining quarter-sections, my
claim being mostly marsh land and
hers river bottom. The settlers had
told us that river bottom raised the
larger crops at first, but was more
trouble to clear, and the marsh land,
while the crops were not good at first,
yielded better returns each year it was
cultivated.
We cut down several trees, carved
our names on four logs and laid them
on each claim in the shape of square.
These were the first of the improve
ments required by law. l became SO
enthusiastic that with my own hands, L
cut down ten trees as large around as
myself. ! know how large they were
for, having nothing else to measure
with, took off my belt and it exactly
fitted those trees.
As we looked over that wild forest
and thought of it as soon to be our own,
homely castles in the air fioated before
! us; forest and Jungle and marsh disap-
peared, aud gardens, filed with mon
| strous cabbages and potatoes and ruta-
bagas, appeared; chickens, COW,
horse and a little cottage embowered In
roses came before the minds eye.
But these things were all in the flu
ture and the stern reality of that rough
journey home now lay before US.
Two days after that, the people in the
little settlement of Hoquiam beheld
emerging from the woods a tattered
man and two forlorn looking women,
bruised and scratched, red rags tied
around their heads, their blue skirts
hanging in fringcs from their wrists
-as sorry-lool1ing specimens as you
could find in long days journey. We
had no trouble in finding the way home
for bits of red and blue rags decorated
the bushes ali the way.
In six months we returned to hold
down our claims During that time a
rough trail had been made; our claims
! had been blazed out, little space
cleared and a one-room shack built on
each of them. We took no pianos nor
, plate glass mirrors with US. 1t was all
a pony could DO to travel that trail and
: we were thankful to get the bare neces-
: stiles of life.
l Our sbanties were only a short dis.
3 tance apart, though hidden from each
I other by the trees. There was soon a
e well-worn trail between them. / had {
r ditch run through portion of my lant
r to drain it, and my sister hired mar
n to clear small part of the river bot
$ tom.
: We put in crops wherever there wa!
! a cleared spot and waited with grea
. hopes for our gardens to produce Ant
/ they did produce, for we had more veg
{, etables than we could use. With on
own hands we cleared good deal 0
land that summer.
Once I went around my claim, and
) rough trip il was, too. Then fully un
derstood what blazing out" CLAIM
meant. When the survey of the town
: ship is made the surveyor marks tn
boundaries with three strokes of the a,
1 l.. 4ber fsf ha
:, ship at each corner. The locator of m
! claim marked the boundaries with on
: blaze instead of three and carved m
E name on each corner.
Take it altogether, it was YER
= pleasant summer. We had plenty Q
, company. Pretty little squirrels an
chipmunks came boldly up for scraps
! sometimes venturing into the house j
= search Of dainty morsels. Hosts of blu
: bottle flies rendered life miserable
! the spring and early summer. Flock
: of gaudy, harsh-voiced bluejays mad
i raids on our gardens, utterly regarC
less of the formidable scarecrows W
:, erected. Several times when we wer
- salmon berrying a big black bea
j rudcly disturbed in his feast, lumbere
j. clumsily away into the bushes. Dec;
d sionally we heard the whistle of an ell
~ the scream of cougar or the howl of
n timber wolf. None of these animal
q ever disturbed us, however. At nigf
II skunks, minks and wild cats visited l
with alarming regularity, and woe b
70 tide any unlucky fowl not safely house
90 away in the hennery.
IN Two families lived in the settlemei
or four miles away, but the road was tc
rough for frequent visits. We WEI
:, not very lonesome, however, for "
m were busy all the time out in the fires
he pure air, and sometimes hunter {
~ claim-holder came that way. Mo
90 than once a settler who had not see
III civilization for months came by-ju
&c to see woman again.
es Yes, it was very pleasant summe
r. but summer does not last, and all Il
ed soou winter was upon us with its shoi
u, dark days. its long, dreary nights al
ny its steady down-pouring rain. III
Ike gloomy, impenetrable forest clos
he around us like the mighty walls of