Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1916-05-04


word in concrete structural processes
to languish and should drift into per-
sonal "reminiscences over their first
evening campfire in the NiQuoia.
As you were saying?" Grislow
prompted, stretching himself luxuri-
Iously upon the fragrant banking Of
freshly clipped spruce tips, with his
feet to the blaze and his hands locked
under his head. He felt that Brouil-
lard was merely responding to the
subtle influences Of time, place and
encompassments and took no shame
for being an analytical rather than a
sympathetic listener. The hundred-odd
men OF the pioneer party, relaxing
after the day-long march over the
mountains, were smoking, EARNING, or
playing cards around the dozen or
more camphres. The evening, with
half-grown moon silvering the inverted
bowl of a armament which seemed to
shut down, idlike, upon the mountain
rim of the high-walled valley, was
witchingly enchanting.
II was saying that the present-day
world slant Is sanely skeptical-as 1t
should be-" Brouillard went on at the
end Of the thoughtful pause. Just the
same, every man has his little atavis-
tic streak, IL you can hit upon 1t. For
example, away back In the porringer
period, in which we are all like the
pin-feathered dickybirds, open-mouth-
cd 70 iuSh In in n
us someone fed me with the number
seven"
"Succulent morseli" chuckled Girls
low. did 1t agree with your"
Brouillard sat back from the fire
and clasped his hands over his bent
to be noteworthy-a well-knit figure
of a man, rather under the normal
stature, but bullying athletically in the
loose-ftting khaki Of the engineer;
dark OF skin, and owning face which
might have served as a model for a
Verge study of fighting franc-tireur.
Il don't remember how early in the
game the thing began" he resumed,
ignoring Grislow's joking interruption,
but away back in the dimmest dawn
ings the number seven began to have
a curious significance for me. Back in
the pin-feather time somebody handed
me fact about the waste and replace
ment that goes on in the human or
ganism, bringing around a complete
cellular change about once In every
seven years. Are you asleep"
Not yet; go on" said the hydrog-
rapher.
up to my seventh birthday I was
a sickly child, puny and only about
half alive. 1t came-the change, |
mean-wheno l was seven years old.
That was the year OF our removal to
iVincennes from the country village
where l was born. Since that time l
haven't known what it means to be
sick, or even ailing."
Bully old changed" applauded Girls,
low. Us that alp"
mo. What the second period spent
on my body it took out OF my mind. !
grew stouter and stronger every year
and became more and more the stu.
ipidest blockhead that ever thumbed a
'schoolbook. / was fourteen to a day
when | squeezed through the final
grammar grade; think Of it-fourteen
years old and still with the woman
teachers! / found out afterward that
I got my obviously given passport to
the high school chiefly because my
father was one of the best known and
bestowed men in the old home town
Perhaps 1t wasn't the magic seven that
built me all over new that summer
perhaps 1t was only the change In
schools and teachers. But from that
year on all the hard things were toe
easy. 1t was as If somebody or some
thing had suddenly opened a closed
door In my brain and let the daylight
into all the dark corners at once"
Grtslow sat up and finished for him
Yes; and since that time you have
STAYED your way through the univer
sity. and butted into the reclamation
service, and played skittles with every
other mans chances of promotion UNI
til you have come out at the top OF
the heap in the construction division
all of which you're much too modest
to brag about. But, say: views
skipped one of the seven-year flag sta
lions. What happened when you were
stwenty-one-or were you too busy just
then chasing the elusive engineering
degree to take notice?"
Brouillard was staring out over the
loom of the dozen campfires-out and
across the valley at the massive bulk
OF Mount Chigringo rising like a huge
barrier dark to the skyline save for g
single pinprick of yellow light fixing
the position of solitary miners
cabin half way between the valley
level and the summit. When he spoke
again the photographer had been giver
time to shave another pipe charge OF
tobacco from his pocket plug and te
al and light the brts~.
When vas tsenty-one my father
died, and"-he stopped short and then
went on in a tone which was more
than half apologetic-"I don't MIND
telling. Grislow; you're not the kind
to pass 1t on where it would hurt. Al
twenty-one was left with back loae
that / am carrying to this good day
that l will probably go on carrying
through life"
Grislow walked around the fire
kicked two or three of the charred log
ends into the blaze. and groWled WheI