Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1913-10-25
PART ONE
CHAPTER Z.
On the Labrador.


cause amt ready
If l wrote this yarn myself, I'd make
1t good and red from tip to tip. claws
out. teeth bare, fur crawling with emo
lions. 1t wouldn't be dull, no. or evil
dence.
But then it's to please you. and
that's what I'm for.
So l proceeds to stroke the fur
smooth, lay the paws down soft. fold
up the smile. and purr. A sort OF
truthfulness steals over me. Coin to
be dull, too.
No. 1 dunno how to begin. II this
Yarn was rope, I'd coil 1t down be-
fore began to pay out. You lays the
end. SO. and flemish down, ring by ring
until the bight's coiled. smooth ready
to fake OF as 1T runs. / delayed a
7ynching once to do just that. and re-
lieve the patients mind. 1t all went
of so we'll!
When we kids were good. mother
she used to own we came of pedigree
stock; but when we're bad, seems we
took after father You see mothers
folk was the elect, sort of born saved.
They allowed there'd be room in
Heaven for one hundred and forty-four
thousand just persons. mostly from
Nova Scotia, but when they took to
sorting the neighbors. they'd get ex-
elusive.
Anyway, mothers folk as a tribe, is
-nillionaires in grace and pretty well
fixed in Nova Scotia. Then she's found
out. secretly married among the goats.
Her names scratched out of the fam
fly Bible. with a strong hint to the
Lord to scratch her entry from the
Book of Life. She's married sailor
man. before the mast. a Liveyere from
the Labrador. man without a dollar.
suspected of being Episcopalian.
In them days the Labrador amt
laid out exactly to suit mother. She's
used to luxury-coal in the lean-to,
taties in the cellar. cows in the barn.
barter store round the corner, mails,
church. school. and jail right handy,
so she can enjoy the ungodly getting
of their just deserts. But In our time
the Labrador was just Gods country,
lall rocks. ice, and sea. to put the fear
Into proud hearts-no need of teach
iers. 1t kills off the weaklings-no
need of doctors. A school to raise
men-no need of preachers. The law
was work or starve"-no place for
lawyers It's police. and court, and
hangman all complete. fire and hail
snow and vapors. wind and storm full
filling His word
Fathers home was an overturned
schooner, turfed in, and he was surely
proud of having a bigger place than
any other Liveyere on the coast. There
was the hold overhead for slowing
winter fish. and room downstairs for
the family, the team of seven husky
dogs, and even a cord or two of fire.
q r. do tn r.Ia
f'nlanders up in the hold, when the
winter storms were tearing the tops
of the hills, and the Eskimo devil
howled blue shrieks outside. The hus-
hies makes wolf songs all about the
fewness of fish. and we'd hear mother
give father piece of her mind. That's
about the first 1 remember, but all
what mother thought about poor IA
ther took years and years to say.
l used to be kind of sorry for father
You see he worked the bones through
hts hide. Turing all winter and fish
ing summers. and what he earned he'd
get in truck from the company. All
us Liveyeres owed to the Hudson Bay
but father worked hardest and he
owed most. hundreds and hundreds OF
skins. The company trusted him
There wasn't man on the coast
er to feed, and six kids. besides sever
huskies, and fathers aunt, Thessa
ionika, a widow with four children
and tumor, living down to Las
Hope beyond the Rocks.
There was secrets about father, ant
if mother ever found outi You see
he looked like a white man. curl,
yaller hair same as me. and he wal
fearful strong But in his inside
don't ever ten!-he was partly small
boy same-s me. and the other half o
him-don't ever let oni-was noun
taineer injun. / seen his three broth
ers. the finest fellers you ever-yes
Scotch hah-breeds-and mother neve
knew.
my nose in his buckskfn shirt, an
even to this day the wood smoke Il
camp brings back the wuff. wherea
summers his boots smelt fishy. VIVA
happened first or afterwards Is al
mixed up. but there's the smoke smel
and sister Maggie lying In the bunl
all white and froze-
used to wallop me with a slippe
lying white and froze- And yet
knew she couldn't get froze In sun
mer.
Then there's smoke smell, and bi
Tommy. bigger nor father. THROWN
up blood / said he'd catch 1t .froI
mother for messing the floor. br
4.