Glacier County chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1931-1940, 1939-03-31
THE LEGACY

and he had pulled up for their lunch 80
years ago, It might be almost to the
very day.
to a branch of a nve-oak and given
them their nose-bags, while Jeremy
and he dipped into theirs.
This was the lake that fed Blue
River and Just little further on, I'M
less the grown-up Jeremy's memory
was at fault. there should be a wagon
track through the pines leading to the
clearing and the little house where
the Petersons lived.
When Jeremy had finished his lunch
he walked along to see If he could find
that wagon track, and at first there did
not seem to be any sign of it. He
thought he must have lost his bear
ings. Perhaps he had passed it, but
that could hardly be possible, because
he remembered the corduroy stretch,
and could have sworn that it was un-
der the same live-oak he had stopped
today, where his father had tied up
the horses
And then, just as he was about to
give up, he found the old wagon track,
or where it had been. It was thick
with pine needles and overgrown with
scrub palmetto now, and you would
never guess there had ever been a road
llClC. Inn ytdIo dBO Ills ldJlleT IldQ
been able to drive straight up to the
Peterson's clearing, but it was as much
as Jeremy could do now to follow the
trail on foot and not lose himself.
When he finally reached what had
been the clearing, a sense of melan-
choly took him by the throat and he
wanted to weep.
1t was all too plain what had hap
pened. and if only he had asked a
few questions of the man at the filling
station he might have saved himself
this profitless journey. But of course
the filling station man might never
have heard of the Petersons.
Their little orange grove must have
caught the frost and failed them, or
perhaps they were only shiftlesS crack
ers, as the livery stable owner had
said, and didn't know how to make
anything pay. What trees were left
had gone wild and the fruit was coarse
and misshapen.
The fence was so broken to pieces
you wouldn't have known there had
been one, and the little house-in Jer-
emy's memory it had been more i'm
posing than mere Squatter's cabin
was so covered with jessamine that
you could hardly see the gaping holes
where the door and windows had been.
1t was tilted a little. too, so that one
end of the porch stood in the air while
the other was buried a foot deep in
sand.
How different it had looked that day
when his father and he had driven
up, with chickens and pigs running
about and an appearance almost of
prosperity. There had been a hitching
post by the gate, and a woman who
was picking tomatoes in the front yard,
stood up, shading her eyes against the
sun, to see who the visitors were.
And then, almost at once, she recog-
nized Jeremy's father.
In his minds eye Jeremy could see
her now, dropping her basket, and let
ting the tomatoes roll about at her
feet, while she stared at Freeman Dex-
ter with her hands held to her breast
Emily, don't tell me you don't know
me-" Jeremy,s father had said.
Won't you come in, Mister"
Thank you. Emily. We're staying
over at Fort Myers for spell. and the
boy and 1 thought we'd like to come
along and pay you little call"
Jeremy was conscious, then, that
Emily Peterson gave him such burn
ing attention as no woman had ever
paid him before. 1t flattered and at
the same time embarrassed him.
She got down on her launches and
stared into his face with eyes that
looked unnaturally pale against her
yellow cracker skin. Her hair was sort
of pale, too, like faded straw. and she
wore it drawn away from her fore
head and screwed into a tight knot at
the back. Jeremy remembered that her
dress was calico, a Mother Hubbard,
belted in with a Bingham apron, and
they were faded, too. 1t was as though
the Florida sun had eaten up all the
color it could find
He couldn't say, even now, how old
Emily Peterson would have been, but
his impression was that she might still
be under 80, and there was something
quite pretty and eager about her face
as she scrutinized him so closely.
"WhutS yer name?" she asked.
jerome Freeman Dexter" he had
replied
smiling at Freeman Dexter. You kept
your word" she said. My, wouldn't
pappy be proud eff dast tell him! Him
and the boys has gone guidin' along
Naples way. Thar's a passel O. folk at
Naples this season: PaRpy, he's guidin'
Louisville, and he all swole up like
a bull-frog about it :. . Jeremy Free
man Dexter-that's name, that is.
met up with yore pappy back in Tampa.
sonny. Lordy, but he was a up and
comm gemp'mum. Yes, subj"
Jeremy had been informed at lunch
that Emily Peterson had been a wait
resS at the old hash-house in Tampa
where his father and the other young
engineers had boarded when the rail-
road was under construction.
1T was mighty sweet of you-all to
come to see me, Mister ;. and bring
him." she said. Il sure is mighty glad
to see him, Mister
They sat on the porch and talked
awhile, but Jeremy hadn't been much
interested and had wanted to run
about. inspecting the straggly grove
and the little trout stream that danced
along at the bottom. He saw a covv OF