Show d t f M II L r i L am P the a e 2 d dY BY Y ARTHUR STRINGER W. W N. N U. U Service y Carol Coburn born Alaska daughter o oi a n abush I bush rat who died with an ed mining claim returns North to teach In lan schooL Aboard ship she Is 19 annoyed by Eric the Red Ericson and nd Is rescued d by h Sidney Lander young mining engineer Lan Lan- I It was not I could see a very appe appealing g abode It looked with its 4 sagging and snow roof and its weathered time-weathered timbers about as inviting as a mausoleum Nor did it add to my joy when I saw Sock-Eye Sock kicking away the snow disclose the out flattened-out body of a dead coyote lying there its teeth grinning malevolently up from the uncovered jawbones My companion with a prompt sweep of his foot brushed the frozen carcass to one side and swung open the door Doors in Alaska I remembered remembered remembered re re- were very seldom locked I had to shut my teeth tight so the trembling of my chin wouldn't betray me For about all that musty- musty smelling and shadowed deep-shadowed room held was an untidy wall bunk a table and two wooden chairs with roughly spliced legs I could see where the smoke pipe had fallen from froma a stained rust-stained stove and where rodents rodents rodents ro ro- ro- ro dents had been attacking a grub box imperfectly armored with a Josephs Joseph's coat of out flattened tobacco tins Above it was a dish shelf with a afew afew afew few rusty pans and a showing of sadly chipped crockery At the foot of the bunk lay the dead body of a squirrel parka-squirrel half buried in a scattering scattering scattering scat scat- of lint from a much-chewed much quilt Along the wall directly above the bunk were tacked to remind me Alaska was still a mans man's country ir irregular irregular irregular ir- ir regular rows of equally irregular t queens movie-queens interspersed w wit with i t h dancing Each and every everyone one of them I observed was in an arresting arresting arresting ar ar- resting state of dishabille t But even more revolting was the filth that covered the floor Sock-Eye's Sock questioning glance f must have detected some shadow of hopelessness on my face u You goin a t stick it he chali chal chal- i f eI Ive ve got to I said Theres no other way t My companion as he turned and swept that room with a saturnine eye proclaimed that an old skinflint I like Sam Bryson should have two inches of lead in his gizzard But since hes he's put you here Im I'm go a-go goin a in int t give you a hand t git planted I had thought of Sock-Eye Sock as a maundering old man But as he threw off his coat and got busy I realized I had altogether misjudged both his skill and his strength His first act was to force open the windows Then grunting with indignation he went at the place like a cyclone He tumbled the greasy table and chairs out into the snow and scraped the litter from the floor Then he left me alone with my worn-down worn stub of a broom He reappeared with a rusted into which he fitted a rough handle of birch wood When he started to shovel the ashes from the stove-box stove I told him to save them as they'd come in handy for scrubbing By the time he had a fire going and melting in our galvanized galvanized galvanized galva galva- tub Id I'd unearthed a shriveled cake of yellow soap and a lopsided scrub brush While I scoured the grease-blackened grease table and chairs with hot water and wood ashes he dragged the bunk mattress out into the snow emptied it pounded the thelast thelast thelast last of the dust from it and refilled it with wild hay which he commandeered commandeered commandeered comman comman- from a stack pole-stack at the back of the clearing At last everything smelled clean and seemed different and the singing singing singing sing sing- ing of the old iron kettle on the drum stove was almost homelike But my spirits declined to rise as they should Sock-Eye Sock after spitting into the rusty stove front reached for his coat and crossed to the door Im goin a over t t the village he offhandedly announced Weve a one-hoss one store there Ill I'll see if Ikin I Ikin Ikin kin rustle a pair o 0 blankets and pack in a mite o o 0 grub for you When he returned I stood blinking at the size of his sleigh load r Git in out o 0 the cold he i corn corn- i com com- d I reckon I purt y well know what a needs I felt my throat tighten You cant can't do this for me I contended as Sock-Eye Sock piled things on the table endI endI endI end I aint doin a it for you OU he retorted Im a doin it for your ol of pappy He rustled many a mess 0 o grub for me That didn't take the lump from my throat I watched him in silence as he disinterred two candles from his store supplies and lighted them Evenin pears to be comin on he said I reckon I may as w well ll stay an have chow with you I started to thank him but he cut me short When you git settled he said have t have a gas lamp And nd Ill I'll tote over a hunk of sourdough sourdough sourdough sour sour- dough for your bread makin bread makin And meanwhile Ill I'll leave you a slab 0 o deer meat that'll help tide over the week end I laid the table using a newspaper for a while the timer old-timer beside beside beside be be- side the stove cooked bacon and eggs and put coffee on to boil and punched two holes in the top of a milk tin with his hunting knife He surprisingly adroit and quick- quick THE TilE STORY SO FAR FARder FARder FARder der working for the Trumbull company which Is fighting Coburn's claim is la engaged engaged en to Trumbull daughter Lander breaks with Trumbull and moves shack to Sock Eye Carol ol gets the school Job at INSTALLMENT VII JIll handed about it all When he sharpened sharpened sharpened sharp sharp- ened a stick and on it speared a n slice of bread which he began toasting at the stove front I found the aroma of that browning bread mixing with the aroma that came from the coffeepot And I realized there were times when food was more important than philosophy Things is goin t come easier explained Sock-Eye Sock as we ate together together to to- together gether with the honest and unabashed unabashed unabashed una una- bashed appetite of the hungry once youve you've took root here U And made friends with my neighbors neighbors neighbors neigh neigh- bors I added You aint got no neighbors within with with- in a mile countered Sock And the valley folks aint goin t fall over themselves t welcome welcome welcome wel wel- come you seem you was sent in inhere inhere inhere here by them Juneau bureaucrats Yep you'll have t f stoke that ol of firebox yourself And rustle your own grub and wood and water I spose youve you've got a iron I didn't see I told him how a shooting iron could solve any of my problems It uIt kin ease your mind consider- consider ble argued Sock Theres no satisfaction like knowin youve you've got gota a six-gun six in reach Kind o 0 perks I gi i 4 1 i i It HIt kin ease your mind you up when youre you're alone And I reckon I got an ol of blunderbuss or two I kin be over t you I was afraid to thank him for what he had done It didn't seem to be the valley way I merely stood in the doorway watching him himas I as he trudged off in the snow and I was lost in in the tinted blue-tinted darkness i CHAPTER VIII Those first days in my always remained a clouded memory of discomfort shot through with incongruous moods of exalta exalta- tion But Sock-Eye Sock had been right One took root in some way and fiber by fiber time wove one back to the soil of ones one's birth I learned more about the valley of the Muddied W Waters Waters for for for that in inthe inthe inthe the language of the local Indians was what the word meant It revealed itself as a deep- deep soiled and lightly timbered valley of almost two hundred square miles with a friendly huddle of mountain shoulders that cut off the Arctic winds and framed the lowlands in eternal white Diagonally across the valley ran the River and up that river in the open season the salmon came in swarms Here and there along the lower benches little patches of land had been cleared mostly as subsistence farms for hill trappers and disheartened seekers gold-seekers like old Sock-Eye Sock and Sam Bryson On those farms they grew two-pound two potatoes and thirty- thirty pound cabbages and oats and rye and hay as high as a horses horse's back For the growth from that black soil once played on by its bath of twenty- twenty hour sunshine was prodigious But the little homestead shacks I found were scattered and far tar apart and life apparently was still precarious precarious precarious pre pre- carious with no fixed market for the settlers' settlers produce and no final reward for a short season of industry industry indus indus- try after a long season of tion Yet the valley was rich It could according to Sidney Lander prove itself the grub bag of the North Its soil was and inex inex- inex And under that soil it had coal in abundance And through all its outer hills it had game enough for an ever-enduring ever backlog on the fires of hunger I came to as a teacher teach teach- er but it was the valley I found that was teaching me things Its Its first lesson seemed to be that frontier frontier fron fron- tier life was the mother of invention invention tion and the father of resourceful resourceful- ness For I learned how to attach a wire handle to a discarded gasoline can and turn it into a water pail and how to cover over an empty packing through Doctor Ruddock's aid ald But theres there's no schoolhouse for her For a residence she gets an abandoned shack But Carol CarolIs Is optimistic about The shack hack truly needed some thorough overhauling and Sock Eye help helped d. d case with chintz and convert it into a dressing table I learned how to stuff duck feathers into a sugar bag with with the lettering boiled off in lye water water and and call it a pillow and how to make sheets out of factory cotton cotton cotton cot cot- ton and dish towels out of flour sacks and even a Dutch oven out of two boxes interlined with chopped oat straw I relearned how to whittle whittle whittle whit whit- tle shavings from a spruce stick and start a fire and chop wood without standing in a tub to protect my feet to say nothing of the discovery that birch logs split easiest when frozen I knew how a powder baking-powder tin could be turned into a cutter biscuit-cutter how bag burlap with a design crocheted crocheted crocheted cro cro- on its ends made a passable door mat how a broom handle fastened fastened fastened fast fast- ened across a room corner curtained off with calico converted the same into a clothes closet and how life after all was mostly what you made of it Id I'd never liked that rusted red-rusted old stove of mine standing as it did a monument of neglect at the center of my new family circle So on a sufficiently mild afternoon when I could afford to let the fire go down I decided to sandpaper off some of the rust and replace it with a bright and shining coat of black lead The old potato sack Id I'd pinned around my waist didn't leave me looking any too regal My hair came down and my hands took on a distinctly distinctly distinctly dis dis- negroid tint On my face too I must have smudged a good deal of the black lead that should have gone elsewhere And just as asI asI asI I was wielding my polishing brush on the last surfaced rough-surfaced old stove leg a visitor walked into my humble humble humble hum hum- ble abode and stood regarding me with a quietly bewildered eye Where will I find Carol Coburn an unexpectedly well modulated voice inquired of oi me I knew who it was even before she told me Im Carol Coburn I told her as quietly as I could Wont you sit down She blinked at me for an incredulous incredulous incredulous lous moment or two Im Barbara Trumbull she an an- I know I murmured as I poured water into my tin basin and engaged in a hasty struggle to remove some of the black lead Cant I make you a cup of tea No thank you she said with a second study of my partially cleansed face She pulled up her sleeve and looked at a jeweled wrist watch Im flying back to Anchorage Anchorage Anchorage Anchor Anchor- age in a few minutes Im sorry I said in the silence that ensued You know Sidney Lander she observed She said it softly But it was like the softness of velvet with witha a razor blade wrapped up in its folds And I prompted feeling that all the frostiness wasn't to be on one side And you know of course that were we're to be married next summer she continued making it half a question question question ques ques- tion and half a challenge Yes he told me about that I acknowledged And again I heard the musical laugh edged with ice You and Sidney I understand had a very adventurous trip together er a few weeks ago We got storm bound on the he trail I explained But he survived it quite unscathed what I wanted to make sure of said the lady in the mink coat ignoring the touch of acid in my voice But her eyes narrowed a little Then with great deliberation delibera delibera- tion she drew off the luxurious gauntlet that covered her left let hand It was a very white hand And on the third slender finger I could see seethe seethe seethe the glitter of a diamond his ring she quietly but conclusively announced Do you want to stop my marriage It impressed me as rather primi primi- tive But I was at least compelled to respect the ladys lady's directness What makes you think I could I asked She apparently 1 both oth suspected and res resented my air of guileless- guileless ness My convictions in that quarter seem to be weakening she said with a languid s sort rt of asperity Then why bother about the source of ot them I countered a little tired of being accepted as merely an Audrey Audrey Audrey Aud Aud- rey of the backwoods Why are you fighting my fa father father father fa- fa ther John Trumbulls Trumbull's daughter rather abruptly demanded And making Sidney break with the one man who could have him amount to something It wont won't of course do any good I met her gaze without flinching Are you saying that-for that your own sake I asked or for your fathers father's fathers father's fathers father's fa fa- fa- fa ther's Barbara Trumbull laughed a lit lit- tle My fathers father's big enough to fight for himself she announced Then what are you worrying about I found the courage to inquire in in- quire TO BE HE CONTINUED |