Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-10-24

II Was the Slillt voice OF MIS-. butlS,
issuing from the door of a rough lum-
Der cabin, an apparent protest OF man
against the grace and beauty of nature.
The boards stood on end from roof to
ground, the cracks between them
weather stripped with narrow pieces.
The roof was covered with shakes. and
several small, square windows let in
the light of day and the resinous, health
giving air of the mountain forests Al
one end was built a sun baked chimney
of clay, whose yellow-brown top pro-
jected a short distance above the roof.
and resembled somewhat the complexion
OF the angular woman who stood in the
doorway and shaded her head from the
ardent rays of the August sun with her
apron. DIETING no response to her call,
she again raised her voice in still louder
and shriller tones:
'~Jin-n-e-e! Oh-h-h, jimmy
Yes, ma, came in faint tones ON
some distance Town the steep bank of
the canyon, where the shade of the frs
was deep n the cool breeze blowing
down from the snowy sides of Mount
Hood. made sweet music in the branches.
Come up here and go to work" and
having delivered this command. Mrs.
Butts dropped the hand holding the
apron, revealing a head Of scragsly gray
halr and a thin face. made harsh by the
years of toll and worry of a life into
which little of JOY had conle. and disap-
peared into the cabin.
scarcely had the echo of that shrill
voice died away dow the canyon when
the Inquire of a girl approached on the
steep trail leading up from the spring
to the door. 1t vas a somewhat slight
fsure. but we'll formed and graceful.
The girls face was we'll rounded and
the color of health glowed through the
tan on her cheeks. AS Jenny was now, so
had her mother been % years before when
Joshua Butts had taken her from her
Missouri home into the western wilder-
ness. She had followed him from place
to place, as he moved On, with that rest
less spirit of the pioneer, until now she
was buried in the dense forest of the Cas-
cade Mountain, in a canyon half a mile
off the stage road leading from the CO.
Iumbia rive to giant snow peak, tn
kingly Mount Hood.
so you've bin down t. thuh spring a
listnin' t. huh birds un crickits I'm thuh
wind I'm dawdlin' away yuhr time std
uh bein' t work. Moonin bout that good
fur nuthin' Tom Cooper, l s'pose. Pity
yuh can't set yuhr min on some decent
man like Mr.. Brush. Here he is a comm
up t thuh mill with yuhr paw tonight,
un it's time supper was a gittin'., Thuh
stage II be ere in a couple uh hours. Now
gitt' work un peel them 'taters lively
Yes, ma"
Lord knows I never open my head,
but SIGH COINS on I can't stand;. this
moonin' un snfckerin' with a wuthless
Woodchopper as is off on uh spree with
that scamp Lon Jones this very mint,
whilst decent men r t work. Spose he
has uh leetle more book larnin' un kin
talk soft like, if he's good fur nuthin?
Seem t me girls hain't no sense. l never
say nuthin', goodness knows. I don't
never pen my head, but l kin see what's
goin' on" and further to prove that she
never opened her head nor said nuthin'"
Mrs. Butts continued the theme for
about ten minutes longer, While Jenny
got out the potatoes from the dugout in
the side of the hill and sat down in the
cabin door to take their jackets off.
Jinny's influence over Tom Cooper was
strong, but it had power only when she
could exert it personally. Away from
her he seemed to forget her very exist
ence and plunged into debaucheries of
drinking and gambling as recklessly as
the widest of the lunbermen. He was a
good aXeman when sober, and the fore
man kept him on in spite of his unre-
liability. Just now he was absent with
the characteristic Lon Jones, and both
In Portland. Jenny thought of this as
she proceeded with her task. it is not
at all strange that some of the peelings
taken from the tubers We're SO unusually
thick as to bring down upon her head an
other ten minutes of ''sayin' nutllin' >
from her mother. This she bore as meek
ly as before, and for the same reason.
Her mind turned to the other lover, the
steady, careful, earnest usiness man,
the superintendent of the mill. With lit
tie education except that picked up in
the hard school of life, Silas Brush had
risen to his present position by force of
his w energy, brains and executive
ability, and promised to rise higher. In
every way he was a desirable husband
for a girl in her station Of life It was the
telephone bell that aroused her from her
mental struggle and at the same time
threw her mother into another fit of
'sayin' nuthin'" in speculations upon
hat was wanted. Jenny did not specu-
late; she acted, and in a quarter of a
minute she had the receiver to her ear
and was saying "Hello!'
Now it must be understood that this
was a private inc. running from the
office of the superintendent, at the sta
ton, on the bank of the Columbia, to the
mill, ten miles up in the mountains and
to the house of the foreman, with a half
way station, where it was necessary tc
keep a watcher for the flume, by which
lumber was foated from the mill down
to the railroad. The road to the mill fol-
lowed up a long, deep canyon, now on
one side of the creek that runs noisly
down it, and now on the other. The deep
wooden box f1ume was supplied with
water from the creek, and ran sometimes
or the same side of the canyon as the
road, and sometimes or the opposite side
An even grade had to be preserved, anG
often it crossed the canyon on a high
treStle, and occasionally it chung to IFS