The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1920-04-30
The Black Sheep.

continually doubling upon itself in
such a way that one had to travel five
miles for two. On this the snow was
deep but the trail had been broken
by company of prospectors who had
preceded him. He felt slightly tired
and not little hungry for he had
eaten no lunch and he had not stopped
to calculate how much farther it
would be to the next town. He sat
down by the side Of the trail on a
fallen log and used about twenty minut-
es to note what he had seen ina little
book which he kept in his pocket for
that purpose. II was while engaged
in this work that he noticed a
cracking of dry twigs and a swaying
of brush and then to his surprise right
in the trail not more than hundred
and fifty feet from him stood II
magnificent bul elk 1t was the
first elk he had ever seen. He sat
motionless noting its every movement
until it left the trail and disappeared
into the woods. Forgetting that he was
hungry and far from the nearest hu-
man habitation he now left the trail
and followed the monarch of the wild,
wishing that he was the possessor of
a camera and under his breath telling
the auburned haired girl who was
nearly two thousand miles away all
that he might learn about the habits
of this noble beast.
He noticed that the elk made its
way against the wind and at the same
time down the slope. 1t was evident
ly anxious to get out of the deep snow
and into the open timber. 1t did not
60 very fast as it had to wade well
up to its knees and Jack plunged thru
the soft snow almost up to his hips.
Occasionally the big bull would stop,
sniff the air as if it scented danger
1t would even double on it's tracks and
walk back up the slope distance of
q hundred feet or more and then
resume its downward course. Jack was
III hopes that this beast would join a
herd somewhere in the woods below
but when he reach the snowline and
'be open woods there was no way Of
tracking the elk and what was more
night overlook him. 1t now occurred
to him that he had lost the trail even
if lie should climb the mountain again
he was not sure that he could find
it as he would not be able to follow
his own track in the dark. He realized
that he was lost. There was nothing
to do but camp for the night.
He found place between two fal.
len trees which he could cover over
with bark and make himself hut. He
broke off a lot of fur boughs AMI
arranged them in the form of bed
under this bark shed. He now gathered
4 pile Of wood and bark in front of
his rudely constructed shelter whose
side walls were fallen logs and started
fire Of bark and pitchwood and
settled down for the night. He was
quite oblivious Of the fact that he
had had no material supper and that
he was not likely to have breakfast
the next morning. BY the light Of the
fire he wrote in his note book an i'm
aginary letter to the girl in fer off.
Dakota. 1t was for him an unusual
effort and he composed it slowly and
mcthodically in way that he would
not have written to her if he had
considered this to be a real letter.
"My Dear Miss Anderson, he
began, "we have only met twice.
you don't even know my name and I
only know your fatler's name. So
you see it is not really proper for me
to write to you or for you to write
to me. Be that as it may-if you were
in my position tonight you would
want to write to some one and natur-
ally you would write to the one of
whom you thought most frequently.
You would doubtlessly write just what
you would feel and if we always did
that we would always write wonder
full letters. We often feel wonderful
things but we don't write them aud
we don't say them because we believe
we are the only ones who feel such
emotions. And because we think VIC
are alone in out feelings it is so
hard to become acquainted with each
other. So in this letter which you will
never see I'm going to throw off the
brakes and let Ter slide.
First must tell you where I am
md how I came to be here (no I'm
not in PRISON. am lost Not lost in
the religious sense hope altho I'm
near 4 fire of my own kindling. am
lost in the woods. 1t sounds romantic
does it mott How did it happenf I
shall tell you. have been at work in
the mines for a while and decided to
Igo back to the little cabin by tho lake
and spend the rest of the winter with
, my friends. With this in mind I I'M.
dertook sixty mile journey on foot.
It is a wonderful walk thru a wonder.
ful land. Ever since morning my mind
has drunk from perpetual fountain
! of wonders which / shall not stop to
describe for / have neither time, light,
or material with which to write u
book Besides no words Of mine could
DO justice to the undefiled work of
nature. / could only wish that you
were with me and could have seen
e what l have seen then / know yol,
: would feel rs / feel us I lie upon
this bed Of fir bougbs between two
fallen trees covered over with roof
3 of cedar bark and by pitch wood
I fire.
: How did / get lost3 1t is very sim'
3 plo I was sitting on log writing
4 down something about peculiar ledge
a of rock when a big elk crossed the
3 trail just ahead \ Of me. OF course |
$ was curious where he was going an'l
d what he would do, so 1 followed him
fH noticed that he was going agains,
/ the niwd. suppose that enales him
;. to dectect his enemines and also
( noticed that he stopped several times
n ilnd looked back He may have beeu
!. aware that something followed him
4 II also may be duo 10 his wild in.