The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1909-01-22

close to looking like thoroughly sat
isfed elderly man.
Dye children know" he said, as he
passed his plate over for the third
helping, that I've been in training for
this ever since yesterday? Fact. I've
hardly eaten mouthful since you in
vlted me or. better, since | invited
myself. And It's worth the fasting"
After the dinner the old boy fixed
himself in big rattan chair In the
tiny cozy corner near window and
got a well seasoned briar pipe belong
ing to his young host agoing.
"A cigar after shoulder and green's !"
he exclaimed, reprovlngly, when the
young man offered him cigar.
Mighty tidy place you've got here" he
said, after pause, waving his pipe
around "Slick as o crlck ell, I'd call
II. Plumb luxurious, In fact" and a
sort Of misty light of recollection ap-
peared in the gray old eyes of the man.
II suppose Mary and wouldn't have
looked upon this as sort of heaven
away buck yonder In the tangle Of
years when we were struggling along
the best way we knew how"
The young matron had been picking
out soft little chords on the piano. but
she crossed over and sat down by her
husband
Didn't have any such things as cozy
corners when Mary and made our
start at housekeeping" the old boy
went on, crossing his legs and leaning
back and putting away at his pipe. "Not
many scrumtiferous fixins of any kind,
for the matter of that.
Fact is, 1t was shack. And, on top
of that, n one-room shack. Built 1t
myself after working hours. Cut the
scrub spruce and fir to build 1t, too.
81 was a timberman then in new
silver mine sixty miles from a railroad
Got S25 week, which wasn't much,
how costly it was to live.
swell, after | got the shack built l
went down to Boise and asked Mary
She was teaching school there, Mary
was agreeable about lt--wed been
beaus since we'd met year before, al
though after went to work In the
new mine didn't have much chance to
see her.
"But Mary was ready, and we got
in Boise city, and | took her
to the shack Id built Marvellous days,
those-both of us young, you see, and
not botherlng much about anything nor
any sort of Inconvenience, so
long as we were close enough to each
other SOS could holler across the
guch on my way to work and on my
way home And II was a home, plumb
and proper-never had any such home
since.
II made the stove myself. too, out of
nm old rusty two-horse-power boiler
that cribbed from the engine house.
Made most of the furniture, too, includ-
Ing the bed, spare times Wagon
was costly, and beds and
gear like that ready made. cost heap
,f money out there those days--any-
how, they were beyond me-
Had a rag carpet on the floor of the
shack that Mary'd been making herself
after school hours, for year. Dishes
We're mostly wooden---I was pretty
handy with a jackknlfe those days
Had calico curtains in the one window
Mary had an artistic eve. aud the
way she draped those curtains sure was
something dainty,
Il got the water from the crlck,
about 400 yards hack OF the shack.
Used to fill up the three big barrels
,nce week. and let the water settle.
Didn't have any fresh meat. unless
shot Il o Sundays--frelghters used
% fetch In the salt meat once week, |
'yer the trail Canned vegetables, too. |
Ind scandalously high they were
I'D started a truck patch. but the |
'oIl wasn't adapted TO truck raising. |
Al right for flowers. though. Mary
sot hold Of some flower seeds sub