Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1921-03-26
CHAPTER lIi--contlnued.
p

The rains fell increasingly for seven
days: not a downpour but a constant
drizzle that made the distant ridges
smoke The parched earth seemed to
smack It's lips, and little rivulets be-
gan to fall and tumble over the beds
of the dry streams. Al danger of for
est fire was at once removed, and
Sn0wblrd was no longer needed as a
lookout on old Bald mountain. She
went to her own home, her companion
back to the valley; and now that his
sister had taken his place as house,
keeper, Bill had gone down TO the
lower foothills with a great part or
the live stock. Dan spent these rainy
days In toll on the hillsides building
himself physically so that he might
pay his debts.
II was no great pleasure, these
rainy days. He would have greatly
liked to have fingered In the square
mountain house, listening to the quiet
murmur Of the rain on the roof and
watching Snowbird at her household
tasks. She could, as her father had
said, make a biscuit. She could also
roll up sleeves over trim, brown arms
and with entire good humor do a
weeks laundry for three hard-work-
ing men. He would have liked to sit
with her, through the long afternoons,
as she knitted beside the fireplace
to watch the play Of her graceful fin
gers and perhaps. now and then, TO
touch her hands when he held the
skeins. But none Of these things tran
spired. He drove himself from day
light till dark, developing his body for
the tests that were sure to come.
The first few days nearly killed him.
He oyer-exercised in the chill rain,
and one anxious night he developed
all the symptoms of pneumonia. Such
a sickness would have been the one
thing needed to make the Doctors
prophecy come true. But with Snow
birds aid, and numerous hot drinks,
he fought 1t off.
She had made him go to bed, and
no human memory could be so dull as
to forget the little, whispered message
that she gave him with his last spoon
full of medicine. She said she'd pray
for him, and she meant 1t too--ll,erai,
entreating prayer that could not go I'M
heard She was a mountain girl, and
her beliefs were those OF her ances-
tors--simple and true and wholly
without affectatlon. But he hadn't
relaxed thereafter. He knew the time
had come to make the test. Night
after night he would go to bed half
sick from fatigue. but the mornings
would find him fresh. And after two
weeks. he knew he had passed the
crisis and was on the direct road to
complete recovery.
Sometimes he cut wood in the for
est: first the Telling Of some tall pine,
then the trimming and hewlng into
two-foot lengths The bllsters came
on his hands. broke and bled, but
finally hardened into callosities. He
learned the most effective stroke TO
hurl a shower of chips from beneath
the blade. His back and limbs hard
ened from the handling Of heavy wood
---ond the cough was practically gone
His frame filled out. His face became
swarthy from constant exposure, He
gained In weight.
One cloudy afternoon in early No
vember found Silas Lennox cutting
wood on the ridge behind his house 1t
was still an open question with him
whether he and his daughter would
attempt to winter on the Divide Dan
Of course wanted to remain, vet there
were certain reasons, some very def
mite and others extremely vague why
the prospect Of the winter In the snow
fields did not appeal to the noun
taineer. In the first place, all signs
pointed to hard season. Although
the fall had come late, the SHOWS were
exceptionally early. The duck fight
was completed two weeks before its
usual time, and the rodents had dug
their burrows unusually deep. Be
sides, too many months of snow weigh
heavily upon the spirit. The wolf
packs sing endlessly on the ridges,
and many unpleasant things may hap
pen. On previous years, some of the
cabins on the ridges below had human
occupants; this winter the whole re-
gion. for nearS seventy miles across
fhe mountains % the foothills would
be wholly deserted by human beings,
Even the ranger station, twelve miles
across steep ridge would soon he
empty. OF course a fe3 ranchers had
homes q few miles beyond the river,
butNlhe Wild cataracts did not freeze
In tlM> coolest Of seSse$s. and there
were nd36fSA&s -f5esides. most Of the
more prosperous farmers wintere9 IN
Ne vaIIeys. Only few more days
would the road be passable for his
ear and DO time must be lost in max
Ing his DECISION.
Once the SHOWS came In reality,
there wal nothing to do but stay. Sew
enty miles across the uncharted ridges
on snowshoer 10 an undertaking for
which even mountalneer has no
fondness. 1t might be the wisest thing,
after pll. to load Snowbird and Dan