Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1918-05-10
CHAPTER I.

bowed to the yoke of patient
servitude, should really begin this
story But to follow the trail they
made 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 filed with
food and their hard muscled bodies fit
FOR the fray.
There was n 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. l 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 it greens
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 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 that night two of the oxen. i'm
PEELED by a surer instinct than their
human owners. strayed away down a
narrow, winding gorge and so discov-
cred the Cove and feasted upon 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 Cove and made 1t 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 and saw the Wolverine anc
made for themselves a home upon It's
banks. And in the rough little los
cabin was born the girl child l want
you 10 meet--a girl child when sh,
should have been a boy to meet hel
fathers need and great desire; CIR
child whose very name was a compro
mise between the parents. For thel
called her Billy for sake OF the boz
her father wanted and Louise for tn,
girl her mother had longed for to light
en- that terrible loneliness which tn,
far frontier brings to the women VIII,
brave its stern emptiness.
When Billy Louise was twelve sh,
wanted to do something big. thougI
she was hazy as to the particular ma
ture OF that big something. She trie,
to talk It over with Marthy, but Marth
could not seem to think beyond tn
Cove.
when she was thirteen Billy Louis
rode over with loaf OF bread she ha,
baked all by herself. and she put thi
problem to Marthy:
"rve been thinking I'd go ahead an
write poetry. Marthy-a whole boo
OF Il with pictures. But l do love [
make bread-and people have to ca
bread. Which would you be, Marthy-
a poet or coOkT
Marthy looked at her a minute, ler
her. attention briefly to the questio
and gave what she considered good aC
vice.
"You learn how to cook, Billy Lo,
fse. Yuh don't want to go and get n,
tions. Your nav amt healthy, an
your paw likes good grub. Po'try
all foolishness. There amt any none
In It."
walter Scott paid his debts writin
poetry" said Billy Louise argument
lively. she had just read all abol
Walter Scott in a magazine which
passing cowboy had given her. Pc
haps shat had something to do viii
her new ambition.
'Mebby he did and mebby he didn
I'D like to see our debts paid or vii
po'try. It'd have to be worth a hr
lot more'n what I'd give for it"
"Oh! Have you got debts, too, Ma
thyY Billy Louise at thirteen WI
stir ready with sympathy. Daddy
got lots and piles of 'em. He boug
some cattle and now he talks to moi
mie all the time about debts. Momm
wants me to go to Boise to school ne
winter to Aunt sarah's. And dadt
says there's debts to pay. l didI
know you had any. Marthy."
"well, I have got. We bought sor
cattle. too. and they amt done s wei
they might II had a man that W
any good on earth could put up mo
hay. But cant git nothing outa ia
but whines. Your paw oughta SCI
you to school, Billy Louise, even IL
has got debts"
HE says he wishes he could, but
don't know where the moneys comi
from"
"How much s It goin' to take?" ask
Marthy heavily
"Oh. piles" Billy Louise spoke air
20 hide her pride in the Importance
the subject Fifty dollars, I que
I've got TO have some new cloth
mommie says. I'd like a blue dress.
And your paw can't raise fifty d
Iaes?' Marthy's tone was plainly /
ligerent.
"Got to pay interest" said Billy Il
ise lIuportantly.
Marthy said not another word abb
dchts or the duties of parents. WI
she did was more to the point. he
o,sr for she hltched the mules tc
rattly old blackboard next day q