Cottonwood report. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1893-1901, 1898-03-25


Drowned and parched amid the ashes
on the wide hearth. Mrs. lilly still
manipulated the conversation between
the dips, having much ado to spit clear
of the andirons into the bank Of ashes
that climbed up in the chimney corner.
Thus had passed the first year Of
'Kiah's conrtship, and in all the twenty
of them that followed the gossips had
been able to detect no difference. The
only change had been, perhaps, that
'Kiah himself had grown bigger and
broader and more shambling in his gait;
the freckles on his face were hidden by
the sandy beard that struggled over 1t
like weeds in a neglected fence corner
after the fall frosts, but nothing could
hide the blush that mounted to his
cheek the same now as it had done that
first Sunday afternoon when he pee.ed
the first peach for Ria. As for the girl
herself, she had grown little taller
and little more slender, perhaps;
there was a shade more wistfulness In
her blue eyes when she looked across
the fields to the smirch of pine hills be-
yond; perhaps, sometimes, there was
touch of asperity in her voice when
she said: Don't keer eff do, Kiah,"
but that was about all.
Mrs. Tilly still dipped and talked and
spat clear of the chicken trough or the
dog irons as of yore. But of the boys"
key only was left. Nose and Pete
had married and lived with their wives
people down the creek. and this Of
course had left more work for Ria to
do, helping her mother indoors and
Ikey out. Perhaps this last had some
thing to do with 'Kiah's increased en-
ergy in log hauling, for, though the
years went by, he was still at the same
old boys business.
The gossips, who always knew more
than other people, said 1t was down
right shame that old man Burnett had
never given 'Kiah a chance to do some
thing for himself.
1.-THE OF man mought "a give 'Kiah
a strip er Ian an mule an COW
| anyhow. an sorter let the boy "a felt
like he had some chapst to start with
little scrap er sump' mother to call
his own. Hits dog mean or oil Burnett
to keep the boy under like he done"
This is what one of the most highly
respected gossips had been heard to re-
mark, whereupon another of the same
ilk, though next in rank, had said
"Leastways, the oil man mought "a
up an died at decent age, fur he must
be turned err 70, an lef' 'Kiah his own
man TO all the pith O. youth is Slapped
outen them big, loose-j'inted bones er
his'n."
Sometimes I gifts out er all patience
with 'Kiah "a not standin' up fur his
own self mo-; then reckon faint be-
holden er me to judge him when them
as ought to amt never GIN him no en-
couragement."
That's so; we all know 'Kiah's a
good boy; main better in the settle
ment, and maybe so If Ria had "a
been a little mo- demandin' of him
Kiah he'd "a been little mo respond
in IT any rate, hit would have pes
tered me fourth Sunday after fourth
Sunday these twenty years, when
church meetin' was over an 'Kiah
would come up an ak Ria eff so be as
he mought g'long home with her, tc
hear the gal say in that same onex.
pectin tone O. hern, Don't keer eff you
do, 'Kiah,'"
'Yes'm, that's so, but maybe Ria
amt lost nothin' by not bein' forward
an too expectin'. Hits wuth sump'I
to gal nowadays to KEEP her dignity
an Ria cert'nly is proud. Pity some 81
the other young ones wasn't er little
less forwarder than what 'Kiah and Ria
is"
That's so, an they do say that 'KiaI
had the strenk to stan ag'in' his father
one time"
"You don't say?"
"Yes'm. Seems s'ef the OIL man hat
min to hire boy to drive the los
wagon an meant Kiah to stay 'rount
the mill an run one er the rip saws
But then an thar 'Kiah made the stan
cit who you please to hep at the mill
pa he says, but as fur me, l drives
the log wagon"
"You don't say?"
eyes, but in course 'Kiah KEEP to thu
log wagon case the road lay by thu
lilly place an he could contrivate t.
see Ria an hip her out with the fiel
work"
1t is true that the gossips further
related that old man Burnet himself
said 'Kiah had refused to accept tn,
elevation from long hauler to rip saw
yer, because the boy was too dog-gon,
lazy to drive ducks to water" but as i
requires nd effort even for lazy maj
to drive ducks to water, and there il
az similarity between that occupation
and running a rip saw in the solt
mill of pretty good-sized settlement
it is possible that the gossips were RICH
ia their assumption of 'Kiah's reason
for refusing the elevation. If he haC
nothing better to offer Ria than tn,
daily help of his two big hands, a
least that counted for something in thu
meager sum of her years toll.
Well, in all the twenty years of it
tagging process there had been in tn,
neighborhood nothing more exciting