Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1913-10-01

I
/ happened first or afterwards Is all
mixed up. but there's the smoke smell
and sister Maggie lying in the bunk.
all white and froze.
There's fish smell, and Polly who
used to wallop me with a slipper
lying white and froze. And yet
knew she couldn't get froze in sum
] mer
Then there's smoke smell. and big
Tommy, bigger nor father. throwing
up blood | said he'd catch It from
| mother for messing the floor but
father just Rugged me, telling me to
shut up. / axed him if Tommy was
going to get froze. too. Then father
told me that Tommy was goiag away
TO where the milk came out Of a COW.
You Just shove the can opener into
I the COW so-and the milk poIrs out,
whole candy pals Of milk And there's
| vegi tables, which Is green things TO
eat First time you swell dp and
| pretty nigh bust, but you soon get
used to green's Tommy is going to
Civil cation It's months and months
off, and when you get there, the
people is so awful mean they'd let a
stranger starve 10 death without so
/ much as Come H." The men wear
pants right down 10 their heels, and
as to the women
Mother comes in and looks at father.
so he forgets to say about the women
| at Civil cation, but other times he'd
tell. oh. lots Of stories. He SAID it
was worse for the likes of us than
New Jerusalem.
] reckon Tommy died, and Joan, too.
and mother would get gaunt and dry.
rocking herself. 1.-THE Lord gave, "
she'd say, land the Lord hath taken
away; blessed be the name OF the
Lord"
There was only Pete and me left.
and father wagging his pipe acrost the
stove at mother. They'll die. maam."
/ heard him say, and she Just shifted.
III / hadn't taken 'em out doors they'd
be dead now, ma'am."
She called him an injun. She called
him dunno what she didl I call him
I'D been asleep, and when I woke up
she was cooking breakfast while she
called him lot more things she must
have forgot to say. But he carried
me In his arms out through the little
low door. and 1t was stabbng cold
with blaze of northern lights.
He tucked me up warm on the ko-
matik. he hitched up the huskies, and
mushed. way up the tickle, and
through the soft bush snow. and at
sunup we made his winter tilt on Torn.
gak Greek. We put in the winter
there. Turing. and every time he
came home from the round of traps.
he'd sell me all the pelts. was sure.
ly proud when he took me hunting fur
| and partridges | was with him to
the fishing. In the fall we'd hunt, all
winter we'd trap till 1t was time for
the sealing. and only two or three
times In a year we'd be back to
mother
Then ia see Pete, too, who'd got
pink, with splitting cough He want
ed to play with me, but wouldn't. |
just couldn't. hated to be anywheres
near him
Didn't tell yes?" father would
point at FNte coughing. Didn't |
warn yez?"
But mother set her mouth In thin
line
Pete said she, SIS saved"
Next time we come mother was all
alone.
The Lord gave" she says and
the Lord hath taken away blessed
be the name of the Lord but it's get
ting kind of monotonous."
She hadn't much to say then. she
didn't seem to care. but was Just
numb. He wrapped her up warm on
the komatik. with just a sack of
clothes, her Bible, and the album OF
photos from Nova Scotia. yes. ami the
china dogs she carried in her arms
Father broke the trail ahead, took
the gee pole. and when day came. we
made the winter tilt. There mother
KEEP house Just as she would at hcme.
so clean we was almost scared to step
indoors.
II was along in March or maybe
April that father was away in coarse
weather. making the round of his
4 traps, He didn't come back. There'd
been a blizzard, a wolf.howling HURT
cane. blowing out lane of bare
ground round the back OF the cabin.
while the big drift piled higher and
packed harder, until the comb of 1t
grew out above our roof like a sea
breaker. froze so you could walk on
the overhang. And just between dark
J and duekish fathers husky team came
back without him.