Carrizozo outlook. [volume] (Carrizozo, N.M.) 1910-1945, 1918-05-31
cHAPTER !.

II .NOUk trail worn oxen, theiI heSho
n bowed TO the yoke OF patient
servitude, should really begin this
story. But 10 follow the trail they
mnde would take several chapters
which you certainly would skip-unless
you like to hear the tale OF how the
wilderness was tanned and can thrill
at the stern history OF those who did
the tanning while they fought to keep
their stomachs fairly well filled with
food and their hard muscled bodies ht
for the fray.
There wa 4 woman. low browed.
uncombed, harsh of voice and speech
and nature. who drove the four oxen
forward over lava rock and rough
prairie and the scanty sage. might
tell you a great deal about Marthy,
who plodded stolidly across the desert
and the low lying hills along the Black
foot, and OF her weak souled, shiftless
husband whom she called Jase when
she did not call him worse.
They were the pioneers whose lurch.
ing wagon first forded the singing
Wolverine stream just where II green's
the tiny valley and then slips between
huge lava rock lodges to Join the larger
stream. Jase would have stopped
there and called home the sheltered
little green spot In the gray barrenness.
But Marthy went OF up the farther hill
and across the upland, another full
days journey with the sweating oxen.
They camped that night on another
little, singing stream In another little
valley which was not 80 level or 80
green or 80 wholly pleasing to the eye.
And that night two OF the oxen, i'm
PEELED by a Iurer instinct than their
human owners, strayed away down a
narrow, winding gorge and so dlscov-
cred the Cove and Toasted upon Its rich
grasses. II was Marthy who went
after them ard who recognized the lit
tie, hidden Eden as the place OF her
dreams surprising she ever had
dreams. So Marthy and Jase and the
four oxen took possession, and with
much labor and many hard years for
the woman and with the same number
OF years and as little labor as he could
n on the mans part they tanned
the Cove and made II a beauty spot In
that wild land. A beauty spot, though
their lives held nothing but treadmill
toll and harsh words and a mental
horizon narrowed almost TO the limits
OF the grim, gray rock wall that sur
rounded them.
Another sturdy souled couple came
afterward an ! saw the Wolverine and
made for the nselyes a home upon IL
banks. And In the rough little log
cabin was be IN the girl child l want
you to meet "A girl child when shs
should have been a boy 10 meet he's
fathers need and great desire; a gir
child whose cry name was n compro
mise betweo' the parents. For they
called her II lily for sake OF the boy
her father Anted and Louise FOR th,
girl her mott ,r had longed for to light
en- that teri BILE loneliness which IN,
far frontier rings 10 the women VIII,
brave It's ste n emptiness.
when Bill Louise was twelve sh,
wanted 70 % something big. though
she was haz as to the particular ma
ture OF that dig something, She trle,
10 talk II owe with Marthy, but Marth,
could not =, EN- TO think beyond IN,
Cove.
when she vas thirteen Billy LOUIS
rode over wi h n loaf OF bread she has
baked all by herself, and she put thi
problem 10 n aithy:
"I've been linking I'd 20 ahead AM
write poetry Marthy-a whole bool
OF Il with N lures. But do love b
make bread and people have to ca
bread. While would you be, Marthy-
a poet or a c, okf"
Marthy loo ed At her a minute, len
her attention briefly 20 the question
and gave VIII / she considered good I'D
vice.
"You learn how 10 cook. Billy Lou
Use. Yuh don I want TO 20 and get nc
lions. Your NAV amt healthy, an
your paw IN ~ good grub. Po'try |
all foollshnes There aln't any none
In H."
"walter Sc tt paid his debts writin