I
remember once bringing back from the Cross-Roads a crumpled newspaper,
which my father read again and again, and then folded up and put in his
pocket. He said nothing to me of these things. But the next time I went
to the Cross-Roads, the woman asked me:--
"Is your Pa for the Congress?"
"What's that?" said I.
"I reckon he ain't," said the woman, tartly. I recall her dimly, a
slattern creature in a loose gown and bare feet, wife of the storekeeper
and wagoner, with a swarm of urchins about her. They were all very
natural to me thus. And I remember a battle with one of these urchins in
the briers, an affair which did not add to the love of their family for
ours. There was no money in that country, and the store took our pelts
in exchange for what we needed from civilization. Once a month would I
load these pelts on the white mare, and make the journey by the path down
the creek. At times I met other settlers there, some of them not long
from Ireland, with the brogue still in their mouths. And again, I saw
the wagoner with his great canvas-covered wagon standing at the door,
ready to start for the town sixty miles away. 'Twas he brought the news
of this latest war.
One day I was surprised to see the wagoner riding up the path to our
cabin, crying out for my father, for he was a violent man.
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