Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1914-03-04

and he has conceived high opinion
of you two boys, who, he insists saved
his life as we'll as his property"
Il am ever so much obliged to
him. responded the boy out of the
fullness of his heart; it was awful
good of him to give me this beauti-
full present; and I'm sure. Hiram
must feel that way too, it seems al
together too much for such a little
thing as we did, why Mr.. Armstrong,
we never thought of ever receiving
anything for it, why should WEI"
20, we'll, take your 'shootin iron
and run along home l don't want any
dangerous weapons lying around my
store it might go off,
"All right, just to prove what you
fear, I'll make it go off right now
and / guess had better go with it,
because a man by the name of Hen
ty once said that guns never go off
by themselves no more nor girls do.
And with a peal of happy laughter
Jesse ran from the store to his home
as fast as his legs could carry him.
When Mrs. Badleigh saw the gun
and Jesse had read Pedersen's letter
she was quite as proud of it as the
boy himself and that is saying a
great deal. All her life previous to
her departure from the south she had
been familiar with rifle and shotgun
for in the Blue Ridge mountains il
was no uncommon thing for women
to learn to handle those weapons, es-
pecially where neighborhood feuds
existed. Most of her neighbors had
known their use and she, herself had
been an excellent shot. Albeit fol
the past few years she had been quite
out of practice.
"Jesse!" she said, after giving the
gun a careful examination, you shore
ly are in luck boy, this is we'pon
to be proud of, I reckon you'll soon
learn how to use it, only you'll have
to be mighty keerful at first you're
pretty young to be carryin' rife
yet fer a SPELL"
Careful, / intend to be mother
and l am going to persuade you to
teach me how to get the most out OF
it."
Just hear the boy talk, said
his mother with a proud, grateful
look at him-"as If could learn him
how to handle a gum"
Anyhow, mother, I'll take my
chances on it and the first opportuni-
ty we have, we will take stroll in
the woods and there you can give me
a lesson or two. o! you can't fool me
I just know you understand both rife
and shot gum"
And so it was settled between them
that when Mrs. Badleigh could spare
the time, she with Hiram and him
self should spend day in the woods
where the boys could be given some
instruction in target practice.
OF course Hiram was just as well
pleased with his gun, which was a
valuable and useful piece of property
and it would be utterly useless to try
to hide the fact that in all northern
Iowa, there were no two boys quite
SO happy as Jesse Badleigh and Hi
ram Schockey.
The long cold months of the winter
in the pioneer life of northern Iowa
are ever memorable to such of the
early settlers of those regions as are
yet living. The ground frozen two
to three feet deep in the early whit
err and then overlaid with covering
of snow, quite AS deep on the level,
from which drifts would be piled up
four to fourteen feet deep, through
or over which, the hardy settlers
would make their way to town;
plunging through drift after drift, or
driving long distances out of their
way, they fought the frost and cold
of many a relentless blizzard that
came sweeping down from the north
ern ranges of the Rocky Mountains,
tearing across the open prairies with
frenzied shrek and wild abandon,
hurting it's frozen particles in icy
blasts, fastening it's merciless grip
with frigid deadliness like some in
visible gla.zial fend breathing out
suffering and death, or biting vici-
ously into the hands and ears and
feet of all such as were unable to
protect themselves adequately against
the pitiless Dor cam blasts for lack OF
such comfortable garments as are
now common in every part of the
great northwest 1t was evening OF
one of the coolest days in January.
Little business had been negotiated
in town that day; most of the people
had been content to remain in doors
Only two farmers driven by necessi
ty, had ventured in from the outside
and they had returned to their homes