The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1909-07-29
CHAPTER III.


'You must remember said Stewart,
that / don't come from the fashionable
Northwest-the Northwest with a supply
of English wives and American paper
novels and c. p. r. globe-trotters. /
regret to say that my regions, away up
on the Saskatchewan, are much more the
genuine article, undiluted by any such
alterations. If ever 1 had any visitors
they were mostly lumbermen. / daresay
that yon may have caught a passing
glimpse OF such beings-enough to know
what brutes they can be-"
IL have seen them in the Ottawa
streets, when they come down in the
spring. They seemed more like wolves
than human bings."
Yes; they are pretty wolish. Well, II
was my fate, one fine evening, to have
ridden into the riverside settlement Just
as lot of these same brutes had got OF
a most tremendous spree to celebrate @heir
Homecoming. Most of them were taking
it jovially; but one had struck out on a
line Of his own, and when l passed his
shanty was knocking about his poor lit
tie half-breed wife-a big-eyed little
woman who, once or twice, when / had
had a stress of laborers on hand, had
come out and cooked for me.
"She came shrieking out into the road
with the brute after her, and it wasn't
In human nature to resist the impulse
TO jump down and give him something
in return. Although he was pretty
drunk, he was able to make some sort
of fight for ii, and just as / was be-
ginning to get him punished a bit three
or four others came streaming out Of q
bar opposite, so, after look to see that
my Dulcinea had made herself scarce,
jumped on my horse and got out Of the
place pretty quickly. A fearful thun
derstorm came up over the mountains
as I rode home, and lasted at intervals
all night. The next morning, when
opened the door, there was a poor bundl,
Of wet rags huddled up against it, and 9
pitifully bruised face looked up out Of
1t. 1t was Mathilde Boutillier, the lum
beruan's wife.
at first 1 couldn't make head or tai
Of Der feeble wailing; but in the end
got out Of her that her husband haC
turned her out, saying that IL / chose I,
stand up for her she had better come Il
me, for he was certainly done with her
He had further emphasized the remark
| by iockingup their shanty and starting
| OF down the river on one Of the RATS.
"Shs seemed to take 1t quite for grant
ed that he had power to transfer her il
that summary fashion, and had at once
| set out to tramp across country in al
that pitiless storm. Fortunately for her
the dawn comes early In those Apri
| nights, or the huddled mass Of wet rag
would have been found in the open in
stead of at my door, and dead instead o
alive Well, l took her in-what els
was there for me to do? And l suppos
that by all the laws of respectable.
that should have been the end of tn
story, save as regards the cooking of m,
dinner; but it wasn't, you see."
| He paused and glanced tentatively a
his listener, and saw that she sat mo
tionless, the lines Of her mouth drawn
| little harder, though from the strait
of thought, but with no disapproyal mani
tested
I'm not quite cur enough to do Of
the world-old excuse, the woman tempt
ed me- and won't deny tnat the winter
seemed a bit less desolate with a spaniel
like devotion awaiting one indoors. In
year or so my boy was born, and thel
Nemesis stepped In and seated himsel
opposite me at the freslde-my boy, VIII
grew daily more like tie old portraits a
home, and yet who could never take hi
place as q Stewart Of Orwell.
"And then I swors to give him a bet
ter place In the New World than eve