The Delta independent., 1916-02-04

best-that he should suffer the purely
technical talk of dams and reservoirs,
bedrock anchorages, and the latest
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-
ously 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 campfires. The evening, with a
half-grown moon silvering the inverted
bowl of a armament which seemed to
shut down, lidlike, upon the mountain
rim of the high-walled valley, was
witchingly enchanting.
Wdo soy Ah6 lAdI LhC lCoChl-udg
world slant is sanely skeptical-as it
should be-" Brouillard went on at the
end of the thoughtful pause. Just the
same, every man has his little atavis-
tic streak. if you can hit upon it. For
example, away back in the porringer
period, in which we are all like the
pin-feathered dickybirds, open-mouth-
ed for anything anybody may drop into
us someone fed me with the number
seven"
"Succulent morsel!" chuckled Girls
low. Did it agree with your"
Brouillard sat back from the fire
and clasped his hands over his bent
knees. He was of type rare enough
to be noteworthy-a wellknit figure
Of . man, rather under the normal
stature. but bulging athletically in the
loose-fitting khaki Of the engineer;
dark Of skin. and owning face which
might have served as q model for q
Vierge study Of a -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
. curious Significance for me- Back in
the pin-feather time somebody handed
me fact about the waste and replace
nent that goes on in the human or
ganism. bringing around a complete
cellular change about once in every
seven years. Are you asleep?"
Mot yet; go on" said the hydrog-
rapher.
In, tn
. sickly child. puny and only about
half alive. 1t came-the change. 1
mean-when l was seven years old
That was the year of our removal to
Vincennes from the country village
where l was born. Since that time
haven't known what it means to be
nick, or even ailing."
Bully old change!" applauded Girls
low. "Is that all?"
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
pidest blockhead that ever thumbed a
schoolbook. l 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 bestknown and
bestowed men in the old home town.
Perhaps 1t wasn't the magic seven that
built me all over new that summer;
perhaps it was only the change in
schools and teachers. But from that
year on all the hard things were too
easy. 1t was as il somebody or some
thing had suddenly opened a closed
door in my brain and let the daylight
into all the dark corners at once"
Grislow 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 un-
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; we've
skipped one of the seven-year flag sta
tons. What happened when you were
twenty-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 a
single pinprick Of yellow light fixing
the position of a solitary miners
cabin half way between the valley
level and the summit. When he spoke
again the photographer had been given
time to shave another pipe charge of
tnhscco from hfa uocLot pIuu oud ~