The Ekalaka eagle. [volume] (Ekalaka, Mont.) 1909-1920, 1914-04-10
The Sowing of Anderson Cree
-. By MARGARET P. MONTAGUE
The Life of a Willful Boy
Who Set Upon Himself the
Responsibility Of Avepging
His Fathers Murder : ::

the final rounding up of the earth at
the end.
David, standing by his mother, took
pattern from her stern presence, and
his boyish face was as cmotionless as
her own.
Some three weeks after the hunt on
Peters ridge Kip Ryerson was tried
at the November court, held ut Way
side, for the murder of Anderson Cree
and was acquitted.
There was little or no evidence to
show against Ryerson. merely the fact
of the quarrel between himself and
Anderson before the hunt. No weapon
had been found to connect him with
the murder, and no one testified to hay
Ing seen him that day upon Peters
ridge, for old Martha Lamfire kept her
W bitter counsel Of what had befal-
len her.
Therefore there was no proof to show
Kip Ryerson a murderer, but in the
hearts Of the Jumping Greek people
there was against him a great belief.
Nevertheless, confident in his acquittal.
Ryerson came back into the Draft on
the heels OF the crowd which had gone
over to Wayside for his trial and es-
tablished himself at Ed Mc.Adams'
house. for in the face of public opin-
ion and perhaps of his own secret be-
lief, McAdams still held a place for
him at his sawmill. for murderer or no,
a better hand in the woods than Kip
Ryerson was hard to find.
There might have been a protest that
night against his continued presence in
the neighborhood had not the men Of
the Draft found upon their return an
even more crying need awaiting them.
The fire which for weeks had burned
fitfully In the Clear Creek mountains,
sending a faint blue haze over the
country and making even the near
mountains show a blurred and indis-
tinct outline, had crept down from
Clear creek upon this last day of the
trial when most. of the men of the
Draft were absent at W'ayside, and
with a sudden high wind at its back
had sprung across to an Outstrctched
arm of Peters ridge. There it left 4
red serpent of destruction. and again
with the wind to back it at the mar
rows. where a spur Of Peters ridge
and Round Top of the Drupe range
almost brush shoulders, it jumped again
In little sparks and tongues of fame
and fell upon the eve years garner
ed fuel Of this section of the Drupe
mountain.
Returning in the late afternoon. the
men OF the Draft found panel after
panel of t%oilsomely laid fencing had
been licked up and much more in dan
ger, and even little cabins in obscure
hollows threatened. where the now
dangerous woods flung it's arms too
closely about them. So that instead
Of settling tiredly to their supper and
minute descriptions Of the courts pro-
ceedings after their nine long miles to
and from Wayside, the men went out
in little black groups to match their
strength against Gods elements as
men have done from forgotten times
and as they will do to the end.
h next day the smoke lay over the
Jumping Creek Draft like a blue pail.
so thick that objects scarcely fifty
yards away were lost in it. At noon
OF that somber day Judith Cree came
u through the blue murS Of smoke
to the woodpile where David was at
work to call him to dinner. Her face
had settled to the stricken look of the
morning when they brought Anderson
Cree home. but there showed now as
well about her mouth a certain hard
determination.
Lester connections had met to settle
her affairs for her. In the minds of
all it was a foregone conclusion that
for her to attempt carrying on the
farm. with only children so young for
help, was an imroS>ibility. But to their
we'll arranged plans the CreeS and Iris-
ters found an unlocked for check. .Iu-
dith had ideas of her OWL. and the
abandoning Of the old Cree homestead
where had been passed all her married
days. found n" place among them.
An cf Yer all come here she cried,
ter tell mo thct eos Kin Rycrson kill
cd Anderson. me an my childrcn's got
ter be run out or our home, too, all
I've got ter say is that Their sooner YOU
all git back ter attendin' ter yer own
business Their better III be pleased
an thet's my word!'
And with that she loft them, and,
walking proudly into the back room,
shut herself stcrnly away from all the