Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1902-01-02
THE BEAR THAT
BOY LOVED
a.ssassassassassasssssassAxs

= sssSeasSesa AessaSSAss sAASAEa
Boy was a little chap. Perhaps that
was the real reason he was not out
deer hunting with the men. But he
thought it was because he did not want
to go.
I'll never kill poor little deer when
am big" he said to his grandmother,
| but she did not answer or seem to no.
tee, because she knew that all men,
even the very kindest, like her son,
Boys father, saw no harm in shooting
down the soft eyed creatures, and she
thought the child would outgrOw his
opinions. So she only said:
Il guess you will forget about being
sorry for the deer when you eat him
broiled over the Goals for your dinner.
I shouldn't wonder q bit if your pa
brought in a wild turkey too. There
have been a lot of them in the woods
just below the timber line, and the
snow is covered with rabbit tracks"
Then the busy old lady hurried cheer
lily around the cabin, and Boy sat and
looked out of the window at the noun
tain peaks that rose against the deep
blue of the sky. 1t is not every little
child who can live so near the clouds
as Boy lived. But he was a whole
week above the village in the valley
that is, it took the mule train that long
to get up to their cabin in the summer.
In the winter they called 1t three
months above the town. for as long as
the snow was on the hills no one ever
thought of making the journey.
Boys father was a prOspector, and
he had an idea there was gold higher
up on the hills than any one supposed.
He had at first intended to go up alone
and camp for season and return to
the village in the fall, but Boys grand
mother put her little plump foot right
down and said:
mo. If you are going up there, Boy
and l are going too"
What can q man do when the foot
that wears the slipper that used to
spank him is put down hard? He could
not do anything but say, "All right" as
though that was what he had been
thinking of all the time, and let them
go with him.
They had to get plenty of warm
clothes and blankets and StOrmcOatS
and rubbers and high boots, and a cab
in had to be built in a sheltered hollow
under a beetling crag, where it would
be safe from the great snowslides,
which might otherwise have slipped
down and covered them.
This cabin had double walls and q
tarred and sealed roof, and all the
cracks were covered with felt to keep
Jack Frost from peeping in. The men
hauled wood and cut it to proper length
for the great fireplace that filled one
side Of the room, and they cut short
lengths for the cook stove that glowed
bright red in the opposite corner. SO
the white winter found them coy
enough and living among the clouds.
And Boys great delight was to go with
his father and Mamie snOwshOeing.
Of course, Mamie did not wear snow
shoes or any other kind Of shoes, for
that matter, because she was a CHINA
mon bear, but Boy and his father each
wore the queer things, which look more
like tennis Tackets than shoes, only
there are straps across to fit over the
instep and secure them to the feet. Boy
had hard work to walk on them at first,
for you have to step with feet wide
apart and take long strides, and some
times, when the snow is soft, at every
step you seem to be lifting a ton. vt
was on one of his first excursions that
Boy met Mamie. His father had shown
him just how to manage and started
him out nicely, and then he got to
thinking about something else, as IA
theirs will-they are different from
grandmothers in some respects-and let
Boy struggle on alone as best he could.