The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-06-07

line in the night time.
The fishermen came back at 10
o'clock from over the alfalfa field in
glee. We went to bed A lot of big
rats held forth in the cabin-I was
going to tell about these rats, but a
friend of mine who heard the story
first a friend in whose judgment and
preference 1 have answering conf
dence advised me to cut out the details
in order that the rest of my story
might be believed.
AT 400 a. m, we all repaired to the
creek-except House. A channel cat
Crossed the alfalfa field again. Get
ting breakfast was a struggle but we
made it. Roy served a scrambled egg
dish fit FOR princes and potentates.
Then to the creek again with hook
and line. Crossed the alfalfa field
again.
Up to this time we had Jared fairly
we'll. Had a noble ride. An interesting
stay on the ranch. A good cabin,
good supper and fair nights sleep.
but our troubles were drawing near.
Lo! the Sun Appears on High.
The sun came up a little higher and
took a fresh hold on it's blazing fuel
box. 1t was hot and getting hotter.
That alfalfa field was wider than ever
it had been before. Four of us caught
a few fish and House caught a lot of
fish
hotter. Bait grew scarce and hard to
find. The rocks in the creek bed were
many and hard. The flies were a null
titude. The sun increased in power.
Roy and I went back to the cabin.
That alfalfa field was five miles wide.
The sun kept growing hotter. It's heat
multiplied. The other three fishermen
struggled in. The cabin became a melt
ing pot.
we sought to discover the man who
hn6 cIJ +rir md
cast about to consider how We might
slay him. Roy laid himself down to
die. House took off his shoes and
socks. Bill Wikidal sat down in the
spring. Ike and 1 collapsed speechleSS
and helpless on an alien soil.
No dinner and no man to get dinner.
House. who had cut the wood the night
before, showed me the axe and swore
by the head of his ancestors that it
weighed twelve pounds.
Hunger and No Cook.
We blackguarded each other feebly
in an effort to scourage some man into
cooking something to eat but it was
in vain.
The ravages of one day of fishing and
crossing that alfalfa field in the hot
sun We're something to behold. Roy's
eyes were swollen nearly shut and the
skin was peeling off his forehead in
layers. House had started out in a
natty gray suit and white collar. He
had stopped at Cottonwood Falls to be
shaved and have his coat pressed. Now
he was wearing a gray shirt and musty
looking black trousers that were wet
to the knees from wading He was
rubbing his bare feet with McShane's
horse liniment
With the last remnant of possible mo-
ton we gathered up our traps and
crossed that cursed alfalfa field Git was
as wide and as hot as the desert of
Sahara by this time) and forded the
creek and climbed in the car and start
ed for home. Old Man Sare tried to
stop US, but all the kings horses and
all the kings men could not have done
that.
At Emporia we learned that the
thermometer had reached the 100 mark
that May day. No wonder We wilted on
Cedar creek. We broke fast in EN-
poria at 500 p. M, first food since 500
a. m. That is fourteen hours by the
clock
Then we proceeded on the way. The
big car speeded along in the starlight.
1t was cooler and our spirits rose like
the bubbles in the Gene Ware washer
wOman's clothes House sang a little
song he and Charlie Sare used to sing
in the meeting house at Florence
twenty years ago.
We passed through Lebo on a 30