Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1909-05-18
CHAPTER LII

NAA<AA Il 1Sih Ill
you must remember" said Stewart,
that | don't come from the Fashionable
Nerthwest-the Northwest with a suppfy
of English wives and American paper
novels and c. =. 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 l had any visitors
they were mostly lumbermen. | daresay
that you may have caught a passing
glimpse OF such beings-enough to know
what brutes they can be-"
II have seen them in the Ottawa
streets, when they come down in tn,
spring. They seemed more like wolves
than human bings."
Yes; they are pretty wolfish. Wen, il
was my fate one fine evening, to have
ridden into the riverside settlement just
as lot of these same brutes had got on
a most tremendous spree to celebrate their
homecoming. Most of them were taking
it jovially; but one had struck out on a
line of his own, and when / 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 a fight for IT. and just as / was be-
J. III n -
or four others came streaming out OF q
bar opposite, so. after a look to see that
my Bulcinea 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 / rode home, and lasted at intervals
all night. The next morning, when |
opened the door, there was a poor bundle
of wet rags huddled up against it, and A
pitifully bruised faos looked up out Of
IL. 1t was Mathilde Boutillier, the lum-
berman's wife.
AT first | couldn't make head or tail
Of Der feeble wailing: but in the end |
got out of her that her husband had
turned her out, saying that If chose TO
stand UP for her she had better come to
me, for he waa certainly done with her
He had further emphasized the remark
By lockingup their shanty and starting
Of down the river on one of the RATS.
She seemed TO take Ii quite for grant
ed that he had power to transfer her in
that summary fashion. and had at once
set out to tramp across country in all
that pitiless storm. fortunately for her,
the dawn comes early in those April
nights. or the huddled mass Of wet rags
would have been found in the open in
stead of at my door. and dead instead of
alive. Well. l took her in-whst else
was there for me 20 do? And l suppose
thar BY all the laws of respectability
that should have been the end Of the
story. save as regards the cooking of my
dinner; but il wasn't, you see"
He paused and glanced tentatively al
his listener. and saw that she sat mo
donless, the lines OF her mouth drawn
little harder, as though from the strain
OF thought but with no disapproval mani
tested
I'm not quite cur enough 70 do on
the world-old excuse, the woman tempt
ed me- and won't deny that the winters
seemed bit less deeolats with spaniel
like devotion awaiting one indoors. In .
year or 50 ny boy was born. and then
Nemesis stepped in and seated himself
opposite ne at the hreside-my boy. who
grew daily more like tAs old portraits at
home, and yet who could never take his
place IS q Stewart Of Orkwell
and then ! swors TO give him Q bet
ter plaos In the New World than ever