The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1918-02-22
CHAPTER I.
Lea Us Start at the Beginning.

TOUR trail worn oxen, their necks
bowed to the yoke of patient
ssrvitude, should really begin this
story. But to follow tho trail they
mnde would take several chapters
which you certainly would skip-unless
yo1 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 filed with
food and their hard muscied bodies fit
for the fray.
There was a woman, low browed.
mcOmbed, 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 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
Vol 'erine stream just where it greens
the uny valley and then slips between
hug~ lava rock lodges to join the larger
stream. Jase would have stopped
there and called home the sheltered
httl- green spot in the gray barrenness.
But Marthy went on 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 so level or SO
green or SO wholly pleasing to the eye
And chat night two Of the oxen, i'm.
PEELED by a surer instinct than their
human owners, strayed sway down q
narrow, winding gorge and so discov.
cred the Cove and Toasted cpon its rich
grasses. 1t was Marthy who went
after them and who recognized the Lit.
tie, hidden Eden as the place Of her
dreams - supposing 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
manage on the mans part they tanned
the love and made It beauty spot III
thas wild land. A beauty spot, though
thee lives held nothing but treadmill
toll and harsh words and a mental
horizon narrowed almost to the limits
Vt the grim, gray rock wall that sur
rounded them.
Another sturdy souled couple came
aftcrward and saw the Wolverine and
made for themselves home upon It's
banks. And in the rough little log
cabin was born the girl Guild | want
you to meta girl child when she
should have been boy to meet hei
fathers need and great desire; Cir
child whose very name was a compro
mise between the parents. For they
called her Billy for sake Of the boy
her father wanted and Louise for tile
girl her mother had longed for to light
en- that terrible loneliness which the
far frontier brings to the women who
brave its stern emptiness.
When Billy Louise was twelve she
wanted to do something big. though
she was hazy as to the particular ma
ture Of that big something. She tried
to talk II over with Marthy, but Marth,
could not seem to think beyond the
Cove.
When she was thirteen Billy Louise
rode over with a loaf Of bread she hat
baked all by herself, and she put thi:
problem to Marthy:
''Tve been thinking I'd 60 ahead and
write poetry, Marthy-a whole book
of it with pictures. But I do love t.
make bread-and people have to en-,
bread. Which would you be, Marthy-
a poet or a cook?'
IMarthy looked at her minute, len,
her attention briefly to the question
and gave what she considered good al
vice.
"You learn how to cook, Billy Lou
Use. Yuh don't want to go and get no
lions. Your nav amt healthy, and
your paw likes good grub. Po'try IL
all foolishness. There amt any money
In It."
"Walter Scott paid his debts writing
poetry" said Billy Louise arguments
lively. She had just read all about
Walter Scott in a magazine which q
passing cowboy had given her. Per
haps that had something to do with
her nrw ambition.
"Mebby he did and mebby he didn't
I'd like to see our debts paid or with
po'try. It'd have to be worth a hull
lot more'n what I'd give for It."
"Ohi Have you got debts, too, Mar
thyT Billy Louise at thirteen was
still ready with sympathy. 'Daddy's
got lots and piles Of 'en. He bought
noua entfls and nov he talks to MON