The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1905-07-28
CHAPTER NNT.
HOW WE KEPT LENTEN yIGT

II, TKINITYTIDE.
IWouid weary you beyond the limit
Oh good nature We're L to try to picture
out at large the varied haps and haz-
ards of our ~uatchings in the savage
wilderness. Fol the actors in any play
the trivial details have their place and
leahinS momentous enough, it may be;
yet these are often wearisome ia The
DON or stall yawning impatiently for
the climax.
So, if You please, you are to conceive
us four. the ~strangest ill-assorted COM
panY on the footstool, pushing on from
day to day deeper and ever deeper INTO
the painless forest s%olitudes. vet al
with the plain-marked trail to
guide us.
AT times the march measured a full
days length amid the columned aisles
of the forest temple through lush green
giades dank II steanling in the Au-
gust heat, or over hillsides slippery
with the fallen leaves OF the pine trees.
Anon it traced the crooked windings of
some bra,wling mountain stream
through thichet tangles where. YOU
would think, no woman-ridden horse
could penetrate.
One day the sun would shine re-
splendent and all the columned dis
tances would fill with soft suffusings of
the gray II green and gold, with here
and there a dusky flame where the
sweet-gum heralded the autumn, whilst
overhead the leafy arches were fine
lined traceries and arabesques against
the blue. But in the night, mayhap, a
dismal rain would come, chill with the
breath of the nearing mountains: and
then the trees turned into dripping
| sprinkling pots to drench us where we
of exhaustion.
Since the hastinS pursuit was a thing
to tap the very fountain head of forti-
tude and endurance, we Jared on silent
for the better part: and in a little time
the hush of the solitudes laid fast hold
of us, scanting us of speech and bidding
us go softly. And after this the march
became 4 soundless shadow-flitting, and
we a struggling file of voiceless mech
anisms wound up and set to measure off
the miles till famine or exhaustion
should thrust a finger in among the
wheels and bid them stop forever.
This was the loom on which we wove
the Notwithstanding web of siren
uous expressing. But through thai web
the scarlet thread of famine shuttled
in and out, n hunger came and
marched With us till all the days and
nights We're filled with cravings. and
we rocked little of fair skies or drip
ping clouds. or aught besides save this
ever-present specter of starvation.
You will not think it strange that ]
should have but dim and misty memoir
les Of this fainting time. OF all priva-
tons famine soonest blunts the senses
making a man oblivious of all save
that which drives him onward. The
happenings that l remember clearest
are those which turned upon some
temporary bridging of the hunger gulf
One was Yeates' killing of a mich do
which. with her fawn. a across oul
no ~, >yho, wa had foctal two ,,I~l.
days. BY this. a capital crime in any
hunters code. you may guess how
cruelty We We're nipped in the hunger
wise. Also, I remember this: as if tc
mock US all the glades and openings or
the hillsides We're thicketed with berry
bushes. long past bearing. And. being
too late for these. we were as much toe
early for the nuts of the hickory anc
chestnut n black walnut hat peltec
US in passing.
The does meat. coming at a time o
sharpest need. set us two days farther