The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-03-22
Millionaire Miner Wanted Simplicity

passed his plate over for the third help
ing. that I've been in training for this
ever since yesterday? Fact. I've hardly
eaten mouthful since you invited me
or. better. since / invited myself. And
it's worth the fasting
After the dinner the old boy fixed
himself I'm a big rattan chair in the
tiny coy corner near a window. and
got Il well-ses soned bTiar pipe belong
ing to his young host a-gOing.
"A cigar after shoulder and green's
he exclaimed, Teprovingly- when the
young man offered him a cigar
Mighty tidy place you've got here,
he said, after a pause. waving his pipe
around. slick as a CTiCk eel I'd call
il. Plumb luxurious. in fact" and a
sort of misty light of recollection ap-
peared in the gray old eyes Of the man.
Il suppose Mary and I wouldn't have
looked upon this as a sort of heaven
away back 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 coy
corners when Mary and I made our
first start at housekeeping" the old boy
went on. crossing his legs and leaning
back and putting away at his pipe.
Not many ScrumtifeTous fiXin's of any
kind. for the matter of that
Fact is. il was shack And on
ton of that. a one-room shack Built
ii myself after working hours. Cut the
scrub spruce and FIR to build it. too.
L was a timberman then in new
silver mine sixty miles from the rail-
road Got S25 a week. which WASH t
l.. 10
live.
well. after / got the shack built I
went down to Boise and asked Mary
she was teaching school down there
Mary was agreeable about lived been
beaus since we'd first met year before,
although after | went to work in the
new mine / didn't have much chance
to see her
But Mary was ready, and we got
married in Boise City, and 7 took her to
the shack I'd built Marvellous days.
those-both of us young. you see. and
not bothering much about anything nor
minding any sort of inconvenience, so
long as we were close enough to each
SOS I could hoIler across the gulch on
my way to work and on my way home.
And it was home, plumb and proper
never had any such home since.
IT made the stove myself, too. out of
an old rusty two-hoTse-power boiler
that I cribbed from the engine house.
Made most of the furniture, too. includ-
ing the bed, spare times. Wagon
freighting was costly. and beds and
gear like that ready made cost a heap
of money out there those days-anyhow,
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
were mostly wooden-i was pretty
handy with a jackknife those days.
Had calico curtains i'm the one window
Mary had an artistic eye, and the
way she draped those curtains sure was
something dainty.
Il got the water from the criek. about
400 yards back of the shack. Used to
fill up the three barrels once q week and
let the water settle.
Didn't have any fresh meat, unless
| shot il o. Sundays-freighters used to
fetch in the salt meat one a week over
the trail Canned vegetables. too, and
scandalOusly high they were.
I'D started a truck patch. but the
soil wasn't adapted to truck raising
All right for flowers though. Mary got
hold of some flower seeds-subscribed
hold of some flower seeds-subscribed to
a S1-a-year-weekly, I believe, and got
the seeds as a subscription prize-and
she had the prettiest little garden of
flowers in front of the shack you ever
saw; sweet william and pansies, and