Evening star., 1921-12-25

covered the walls of the big room
kitchen and dining room combined
of the main cabin with them. as
though all was to be well.
S"Along in the middle of the clear,
crisp afternoon high above the forest
cover rose the column of signal smoke
sent up by our watcher on Pisgah.
Curley was coming! With the Van
tine team we broke the trail up the
divide to the top of Salt Creek hill,
and with block and tackle we warped
Curley's load of provisions up the
hill, and as the sun glowed red near
the western horizon Curley and Dodd
started with their load for camp.
Mounted on Old Mikes pinto pony I
swung down through the head Of a
nearby canyon and got an easy shot
at fine two-prong buck.
Through the long twilight and
under a wonderful winter moon, ]
trailed back into camp with my game,
arriving just as Curley and Dodd got
in. Then for the first time 1 got up
courage enough to read a letter
which Mike had brought from Sun
down and which knew would settle
the question as to whether we were
to continue our winters work. 1t
was all to the good, for it contained
assurance Of funds sufficient; to keep
the work going.
"Twas a jolly party that gathered
early Christmas evening around the
long deal table, with its fresh OIL
cloth cover and its bright new tin
tableware, in the big evergreen
festooned cabin. Our neighbors were
there-the Millers and the Vantines,
with little Billy Vantine and little
Susie Miller. Mrs. Vantine brought
a jug Of choke-cherry wine and a big
jar of buffalo-berry jelly, and Mrs.
Miller brought an abundance of plum
pies.
Gus cooked the haunch Of the veni-
son to turn, baked biscuits that
would have done honor to a Virginia
housewife. and loaded the table with
the good things appropriate to the oc-
casion, from piping hot baked potatoes
to fruit pudding, and the party was
as merry as the food was palatable
and plentiful. After supper we cleared
away the big table, and while the
boys smoked. Curley got out his
mouth organ, Gus his accordion and
Dodd his fiddle and the dance was on.
Little Billy, decorated with the cooks
apron. served as, the fourth lady for
the square dance and the Virginia
reel.
, "As the hours grew small in the
morning we all escorted our neigh
bors to their nearby homes, and, re-
turning. We spread deerskins deep in
front OF the fireplace, and while the
cedar and the pitch pine cracked and
roared,' Curley sang, Big Mike told
stories of the northland and Dodd
and Gus furnished more music. The
party did not break up until the
paling Of the. candles announced the
coming Of the morn.
"Out Of this grew great mine, the
extension Of railroads and the estab-
lishment Of thriving communities, but
in all the period since. I imagine
there never has been a merrier
Christmas party in all that region
than that Christmas in the Black
Hills in those early days"
X * X x
ssT INCLE JOE' Cannon, eighty-five
years of age, and now in his
forty-f1fth year Of service in Con-
fress. has a longer Christmas studded
vista than any other man in public
life. He looks back over nearly four
score years to Christmas when he was
nine years Of age. in the pioneer days
Of the great northwest territory.
"I have never outgrown the old
fashioned notion that Christmas is a
sacred home day. and SO. though ]
have been in Congress forty-flve
years, I have never yet spent Christ
mas in Washington. I always go
back home.
"Oh, the good, simple pioneer Christ
mas was SO much better and had 90
much more heart In 1t. although It