The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1916-02-17
CHAPTER l
The Heptadenn
H0~A ~


best-that he should suffer the purely
technical talk OF dams and reservoirs
bedrock anchcragea, and the latest
word in concrete structural processes
TO langulsh and should drift into per.
sonal "reminiscences over their first
evening campfire In the Niquoia.
AS you were sayingH 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
sympathetic listener. The hundred-odd
men OF the pioneer party, relaxing
after the day-long march over tho
mountains, were smoking. EARNING. or
playing cards around the dozen or
more campflres. The evening, with
half-grown moon silvering the inverted
bowl OF armament which seemed to
shut down, lidlike. upon the mountain
rim OF the highwalled valley, was
witchingly enchanting
Il was saying that the present-day
world slant Is saneiy skeptical-as It
should be-" Broullard went on at the
end OF the thoughtful pause. Just the
same, every man has his little atayis-
tic streak, II you can hit upon IT, For
a nj ua han In ha I'M
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 1t 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 well-knit figure
OF man, rather under the normal
stature, but bullying athletically in the
loose-fitting khaki OF the engineer;
dark of skin. and owning face which
might have served as a model for
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 piu-feather time somebody handed
me fact about the waste and replace
ment that goes on in the human or
ganism, bringing around n complete
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
! sickly child. puny and only about
half alive. 1t came--the change,
when ] was seven years old
That was the year OF our removal to
Vincennes from the country village
where / was born. Since that time
haven't known what it means to be-
lick, or even ailing'
Bully old changed" applauded Girls
ow. lis that all?"
No. What the second period spent
IN my body II took out Of my mind. |
rev stouter and stronger every year
md became more and more the stu
,idest blockhead that ever thumbed a
'chooibook. | was fourteen to day
When | squeezed through the final ]
grade; think OF it--fourteen
ears old and still with the woman
eachers! l found out afterward that I
got my obviously given passport to
he high school chiefly because my I
ather was one OF the best-known and $
est-loved men in the old home town j
Perhaps 1t wasn't the magic seven that t
'uilt me all over new that summer; 8
'erhaps il was only the change in ;
chools and teachers. But from that l
ear on all the hard things were too i
asy. 1t was as II somebody or some I
hing had suddenly opened closed
cor in my brain and let the daylight II
lto all the dark corners at once" b
Grislow sat up and finished for him.
Yes; and since that time you have n
tayed your way through the univer-
ity, and butted into the reclamation 4
ervice. and played skittles with every b
Their mans chances OF promotion I'M o
u you have come out at the top of
he heap in the construction division. r.
ii OF which you're much too modest II
o brag about. But, say; we've n
kipped one Of the seven-year flag sta Il
ions. What happened when you we're b
wenty-one-or were you too busy Just Il
hen chasing the elusive engineering
egree to take notice?" r,
Brouillard was saring out over the
pom Of the dozen campfires-out and r,
cross the valley at the massive bulk I,
I Mount Chigringo rising like a huge
arrier dark to the skyline save for a a
ingle pinprick of yellow light fixing i,
he position OF solitary miners 2
abin half way between the valley s
eyel and the summit When he spoke n
gain the photographer had been given n
ime to shave another pipe charge of
cbacco from his pocket plug and to Il
ii and light the brier Il
When was twenty-one my father v