The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1922-01-26
We - - ~ KY O -.. .
can come down now and get you som
.oo1yF,e% - -- '&-v.- ~ -'' :
~, Copyrights BY Charles soribner's Bona

JehLle served me In silence when
/ took my place at table and the good
old mar stood in the doorway, keeping
watch, as I made no doubt, against
a possible second-thought return OF
Friend Isaac, the bristle-bearded.
throughout the working day which
followed he eve made the slightest
reference to the episode of the morn
ing and. truly, I think the whole init
dent would have been buried in obliv-
ion by those two supplemented souls
If hadn't first spoken of 1t myself.
This l did in the evening Of the
same day, when Daddy had gone to
make his entirely useless night round
OF the mine property. AS on most
evenings, Jeanne sat at her corner of
the hearth, knitting, and I was filling
a bedtime pipe. 49,.
"Jeanie,' l broke out, IT wish you'd
tell ME why you and your father are
so sood to me. How do you know that
IN no the crazy criminal that other
people believe me to be? / did steal
the a and get 1t smashed, you know"
you are no a criminal and I am
sure o didn't mean to get the car
smashed. Besides, you had taken
shelter under roof"
You are true Bedouins," laughed
is tina the code in the West ?-your
codeTto defend anybody who has eat
Ell salt with you?"
i should think it would he any,
body's code"
YOU and -FOUR father were expecting
this man Beasley to come here look
ing for me?"
Daddy thought he might just hap
pen along. We are only four miles
from Atropia, you know"
AND was that the reason you put
the old transit at the window $50
you might watch for him?"
"Of course"
by JoVe! Another woman, any 9th
er woman In the world, thought,
would have let some little shred of
sentiment show; she couldn't have
helped 1t. But this one didn't. A
boy couldn't have looked me in the
eyes any more frankly and squarely
than h did when she said "Of
course Since l had eaten their bread,
l was, for so long as | chose to stay,
a member of the clan.
1t was neal the end of the fortnight
and Daddy Hiram and l had secured
and rubbed and scraped and reas-
sembled the engine and pumps, and
were finishing the cleaning of the boil
ers. These We're pretty badly rusted
and scaled, and to do the job properly,
we had taken the manhole heads out
OF the holes left to give access to the
interior of the shells. and had had a
eood-natured s%quabbIe as 10 which of
us should crawl inside to do the scrap-
ing Daddy insisting upon doing it, be-
cause as he pointed out, he was the
smaller man, and / arguing that /
should because I was the younger and
stronger.
To settle 1t finally We tipped a coin
one of those inch-wide copper pen-
MES that Daddy carried for a pocket
-piece-and l won the toss. The lob
wasn't exactly a picnic, but l got along
all right until we came to the last of
the battery. l found that the repair
ers had at some past time inserted a
couple of extra stay-rods, SO that there
"a little enough room left In the old
steel she'll for a professional boiler
monkey to wriggle about In, to say
nothing of a husky young chap who
tipped the beam at around a hundred
and seventy pounds, stripped. :.
Just the same, l made shift to knock
the worst of the scale of and rattle
it down so that it could be washed
out from below. and was backing out
to make my escape, when I found that
of the extra stay-rods was loose.
At my asking, Daddy screwed MP the
nut on the outside of the boiler head
to tighten the rod, and then passed the
wrench in to me so that / could screw
up the u on the inside: To this
good day / don't know just what did
happen, but / guess the big S-wreneh
must have slipped off the nut while
l was pulling on 1t. Anyhow. some
thing hit me a stunning crack over
the eye. and / promptly faded out,
blink, like a penny candle In a gust
of wind. r ~
When I came to myself again It was
night, and I was lying undressed and
in a real bed in a Dor that was total
ly unfamiliar. In the, Ioo~king-glass
which hung on the opposite wall I got
a glimpse Of myself with a regular
Turks turban of white stuff wound
around my head and skew-angled to
cover one eye. When / stirred, Jeanne
popped in from somewhere II ask what
she could do for me. $<
what was it?" I asked; ian earth
Daddy says you bit yourself with
a wrench. Does II hurt much now7"
Mot mo<e than having a sound tooth
pulled; NC. But I was inside the boil
er, wasat II How did YOU manage
to get me out9" =
She turned her face away and ever
| with one eye I could see that she was
| trying to hide a sraile.
at was funny" she confessed,
though we were both scared stiff Ill
the time. Daddy called me and / ran
over. You all doubled UP inside
| OF the boiler. and there wasn't room
for Daddy to crawl In and straighten
you out. And unless you could be
Strengthened out, we couldn't pull ron
cut"
II ZEE. What did you dof-send Tor
4 boiIer-monkeyf"
what n q boIler-naonkeyTa
III isn't 4 what it's q man usual.