The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1899-02-14


tiresome we found it as we tore our
stumbling, falling way through the
underground, catching our dresses on
berry bushes, inadvertently Selling
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 ludic-
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 a place which
suited our location. My sister and L
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. / became SO
enthusiastic that with my own hands,
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
peared, and gardens, filled with mon
strous cabbages and potatoes and ruta
bagas, appeared; chickens, a COW, a
horse anda little cottage embowered in
roses came before the minds eye.
Dut these things were all in the fu-
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 fringes from their wrists
-as sorry-looking 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 all 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, a 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
pony could do to travel that trail and
we were thankful to get the bare neces-
stiles of life.
Our shanties were only short dis
lance apart, though hidden from each
other by the trees. There was soon a
well-worn trail between them. l had a
ditch run through portion of my land
to drain it, and my sister hired man
TO clear small part of the river bot
tom.
We put in crops wherever there was
a cleared spot and waited with great
hopes for our gardens to produce. And
they did produce, for we had more veg
own hands we cleared a good deal of
land that summer.
Once / went around my claim, and a
rough trip it was, too. Then fully I'M
derstood what blazing out" a claim
meant. When the survey of the town
ship is made the surveyor marks the
boundaries with three strokes of the ak
and by carving the name of the town
ship at each corner. The locator of my
claim marked the boundaries with one
blaze instead of three and carved my
name on each corner.
Take it altogether, it was a very
pleasant summer. We had plenty of
company. Pretty little squirrels and
chipmunks came boldly up for scraps,
sometimes venturing into the house in
search of dainty morsels. Hosts of blue
bottle flies rendered life miserable in
the spring and early summer. Flocks
of gaudy, harsh-voiced bluejays made
raids on our gardens, utterly regard
less of the formidable scarecrows we
erected. Several times when we were
salmon berrying a big black bear,
ANuSA9 dAStuiDSu III his leaSt. numbered
clnmsily away into the bushes. Occa-
sionally we heard the whistle of an elk.
the scream of a cougar or the howl of
timber wolf. None of these animals
ever disturbed us, however. At night
skunks, minks and wild cats visited us
with alarming regularity, and woe be-
tide any uDlucky fowl not safely housed
nNVau in the hannarx-
Two families lived in the settlement
four miles away, but the road was too
rough for frequent visits. We were
not very lonesome, however, for we
were busy all the time out in the fresh,
pure air, and sometimes a hunter or
claim-holder came that way. More
than once settler who had not seen
civilization for months came by-just
to see woman again.
Yes, ii was very pleasant summer;
but summer does not last. and all too |
soon winter was upon us with its short.
dark days, its long, dreary nights and
its steady down-pouring rain. The
gloomy impenetrable forest closed
around us like the mighty walls of a