White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1936-11-26
be taken of their going or coming.

ginning to think it ought to be pay
day some time, but that neither
Shellenberger nor Mullens had
said anything about it yet.
And since, they were not accus-
toned to hiring out for a wage,
they did not know whether they
should ask about the time Of their
pay or just" wait until the job was
finished up. Spared seemed to take
it as being all right, so it must be,
but little ready money would
come in handy.
This general unrest eliminated
in the latter part OF August. The
occasion was the accident and first
casualty on the job. They were
chopping the greatest poplars in
Dry Creek. Grover Sims was stand
ing near by watching them bring
down one of the finest of them all.
Mullens happened to be there at
the moment the tree began to lean.
He shouted sharply to Sims to jump
up the hill out of the way. The
boy was startled by the shouting
of Mullens and the loud cracking of
the giant .bole breaking away from
the stump and crashing through
the Smaller trees. In nervous con-
fusion he sprang full into the path
Of the falling mass. 1t caught him
squarely, knocking him down as
though he were reed, pinning him
under the heavy trunk, and crush
ing in his lungs. Had he stayed
where he was before Mullens shout
ed, he would have been safe. The
means had ceased by the time Spar
rel got to him. 1t went quickly
through Dry Greek that it was Null
lens fault, and If he had kept his
mouth off of the boy it wouldn't have
happened. And why, anyway,
should they be down here in a lum-
Der camp at the risk of their lives,
working for foreigner like Null
lens when they might just as well
be at home and their own bosses,
as they had always been?
They quit. They were quiet about
it. Some of them told Mullens they
allowed they'd better be getting
back home now, what with the corn
about ready to cut and things about
the place to be attended to, and
they'd just have their time. Mullens
said he couldn't pay them until
Shellenberger got the money. And
they said that they reckoned If it
wasn't handy they'd just wait
around for it, and it better not be
too long. So while they were bury
ing Grover Sims on Big Brushy,
Shellenberger took one of Sparreps
mules for two days and when he
came back there was money to pay
them.
The work was at standstill.
$50 now what?" Shellenberger
said to Mullens. $685.
"Go down-river and get me some
men who know how to be told what
to do" Mullens said.
The month Of August was going
by on the rumor of these troubles
at the camp. In other Augusts, the
thought of disputes among men
never came into Wolfpen or dis
turbed the head of Cynthia. The
talk had always been of the growth
the lambs had made, of the rams
and ewes to be sold or slaughtered,
Of the thickness of the clover in
Stack Bottom, Of whether the time
for the making of sorghum would
be earlier or later this year than
the one before. of the late corn in
Julia's patch, Of the steers for the
drovers, Of the progress of the bees.
of the size of the potatoes where
Julia had graveled, of the absence
Of sickness and the probable price
of 'seng. These things were not men,
toned this year because of Shellen-
berger and Dry Greek.