The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-09-11
THE SUN. SUNDAY. SEPTEMBER II. 1904.

continued the Senator, waving his pipe to
and fro, after q pause. Slick as q crick
eel. Plumb luxurious, In fact, and a sort
Of misty, light OF recollection appeared
wouldn't have looked upon this as heaven
away back yonder in the tan gle OF years,
when we were struggling along best way
We knew how
The young matron had bee been op picking out
and sat down by her husband;
-Didn't have any such things as oosey
corners when Mary. and ! made, our first
went on, crossing his legs. leaning back and
scrumtiferous fxings OF any kind, for the
matter OF that. ,, .
aFact Is, II was a shack and on top Of
that a one-room shack. Built u myself
after WORKING hour n and S SYt the scrub
Il wasla timberman then In o new silver
twenty-five a week, which wasn't murh,
counting how costly Y was to live,
after got the hst shack Ma 6il. w vent
teaching school there. Mary was agree
able-wed been beaus since first we met
year before, although after l went to
work In the new mine didn't have much
chance to zee her.
t4But Mary was ready. and we got married
in Boise, and took her to the shack. Mar
vellous days, those-both OF US young, you
see, and not caring much about anything,
nor minding any sort OF inconvenience,
30 long as we We're close enough to each
other SOS could holler across the ,gl.lch
on my way to work and on my way home
And It was home, plumb and proper
never have had any such home since.
II made the stove myself, too. out OF an
old rusty two horsepower boiler that |
cribbed from the mine engine house, Made
- 81, "a, tt,,r
bed, spare times. Wagon freighting was
costly, and beds and gear like that, ready
made, cost a heap Of money out there III
those days-anyhow, they were way be-
yond me.
Had a rag carpet on the floor of the
shack that Mary'd been making herself
after school hours, for year. Dishes
were mostly wooden--I was pretty handy
,, with jack knife those days Had calico
curtains In the one window-Mary had an
artistic eye and the way Sa s araped
Il got the water from the creek, about
four hundred yards back Of the shack,
Used to fill up the three big barrels once
week, and let the water, which was ire
quenny roily, settle, ,o,, T
shot 1t O. Sundays -freighters used to fetch
the salt meat In twice week, over the
trail. Canned vegetables, too, and scandal
ously high they were.
I'D started a truck patcn, Dut the soi,
| wasn't adapted for truck raising. Al
right for flowers, though. Mary got hold
| of some flower seeds-subscribed to
| dollar-a- weekly, / believe. and got
| the seeds as a subscription prize-and she
had the prettiest little open air conservatory
In front Of the shack you, ever saw.
.She used to sit in that teenchy aower
garden Of summer evenings and play or
| the little old ten stringed either. fixed out
| with numbers that I got for, her dowr
| in Boise. Mighty fetching and sweet the
music from the either sounded, too, ou'
| there In the open air, with the wind stirring
| through the branches overhead, and Mary
with her pretty head tilted back against
| tree, humming the tunes she played.
! aOur firstborn arrived in that snack
| The medical man who officiated on tina,
! occasion was a fellow who'd been arrested
| and locked up in Pocatello for horse thiev'
| ing. They allowed him to come to .oul
| shack in company with deputy marshal
and then they took him back again.
We'll Mary and land, later, the frs
one-kept house in that little old hanc
made shack, squatttng at the base OF th'
bare mountain. for three years. Speak ins
| for myself-and If Mary was on earth she
| join me in saying it-those were far ant
away the happiest years OF our lives.
After some music, the old Senator tool
his leave, with CHEEKY praises OF the yount
| wife for her dinner OF shoulder and greens
| The two Young persons sat pensive ant
| silent for quite a while after the old gen
| tleman had gone.
| Il guess our little old layout OF fiat ism
80 dinky after all. Ell, little woman?' sal:
| the young husband, then, pinching HI
| wife's cheek.