Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1923-08-02
OF Tom
First Prize,
Argus Short Story Contest
Horace Arment. rs.

+ the window. There was a decide
g showed deep in his overall poke
Z and there was moody expressio
! about his eyes and the slant of b
]. mouth In fact his whole physical att
Z tude bespoke utter detection. Alth
Z he stared, he saw nothing. Yet, Their
= was much to see, for outside, tn
]. world was awake in a typical Idah,
Z late winters day. A heavy snow, fas
I in the grip of February thaw, la.
! over the landscape like white
{ blanket, dotted here and there by
Z clumps OF willow and Jack pine and
I. ending far out in a jagged barrier of
I peaks. Only a foot of fence stuck
{ out CT the snow where the posts like
/ a bicch line ran down to the feeding
! corr%s. There was a steady drip, drip,
OF T. caves mingled with the rattle
of z Tindow as the warm Chinook"
; wind swept up the valley. A Blue.
Jay sqIawked Justly from Jack pine
in front Of the door. Whisky Jacks"
/ We're piping and fluttering noisily
around the granary picking up scat
tered bits of grain and straw Away
down in the feed yard a COW bawled |
sounding clear, bell like, tone
through the thin air. 1t should have
reminded Chef of chores but it only
provoked a sullen resentment in his
breast which he expressed in gloomy,
half sarcastic, half angry, tones as If
addressing some one in the room.
Yes, all DO work, work, an I ,
don't get thing for it. Nobody {
does l don't see why dad doesn't sell f
out and get into something besides t
this internal cattle business where G
feila' could have little money once y
In while. l don't mind the work. n
1t isn't that. It's this everlasting Il
srupln' and nuthin' to show for il" y
He turned from the window, slump S;
"a directly into chair and buried in
lis head in his hands. In all his II
ourteen years Chef had never felt al
ne bitterness that now surged over
lis soul. He had always been used to W
enury but never had he felt the 81
opelessness of his struggle until this sh
ioment. He thought of his grand tr
timer and grandmother and how hard te
iey had tried to put him through til
;hooi. They had made every sac ed
nee to give him the little schooling sn
lat he had had BY careful saving SCI
Id hard working he had managed to He
Il little less than one hundred tin
'Iars toward the three hundred thar aIy
would cost him for books and tut al
IN at the Black Foot High School il
IL now, cattle had fallen in prices ere
d besides, there was a large debt wa
nay They had worked SO hard 4.
d been so good to him. A lump ost
ne up in his throat. ;rr,
III make it somehow. I've got ra.,
he said, gritting his teeth and In
king his fist in the empty air how
II the window ratified with ra- ,ou,
yea Vlgor An I'll do It tool" i,
Ches-ter?' 1t was his grand On r
a. rom the Kitchen. He Van
-. u 're oaek OF his hand limp
anu stepped to the low migt
learr
10 srahumother faced him across of Il
checkered oil-cloth CT the kitchen &c
e. pan in hand. She was a frau ba ~,
woman with large, dark ewes in int
" ourh as an I'M snort
lchabie fire the spirit of a pioneer trou, .
an.
earne
'HeS'er' want you to go over to cattle
Ettens and get the mail. Hurry see b
BOY as Your father won't be hack I'D hi
late and he'll be cold and TONIC
ana expect you to have the John.
IS started. II John isn't home ARA
the man be sure and wait for drag
q while you're there ask Mrs my lie
-or her recipe for molasses cook When
III II make you some when you out he
ONE" ibau,,a,
ct turned back into tho fro,t door
and began taking down his straigh
clothes from behind the stove he jus
here was something anyway. tore tn
llliquized as he pulled on his bed
. He would take gun along for +
laybe get a shot at a snowsboe prowlir
or he might see a coyote or lively.
wolf as he had seen tracks Now
the feed yard recently. notorio
looked at the stack of guns monstr,
behind the door. Shotgun OF live
NJ do, he calculated mentally. wise to
would the %. The 1890 was once lie
avy so he selected the $500 foot in
ked it up and threw down the their Fl
ing lever The magazine was now or
He walked over to whore STANCE
battered library table. pulled ton Lin
drawer and rummaged around told arc
'aded cartridges, pieces OF ram fire and
ttons, and other odds and ends rible be
: