Show A TRIP TO LEES FERRY ERRY 45 YEARS I 1 mrs T C gronning Gron s mathei the tiie berr 45 cleais igo A pion eer feat As dangerous As thrill ing let mis gronning Groi ming tell of the trip recently I 1 took a trip to lee s fer ry I 1 thought my trip ver interesting inter sting but even so it was tame by compari son with a trip taken aaros that his torte spot 45 years ago by the moth mrs T 0 gronning that trip was full of adventure packed with inel dent and dangerous enough for or tic fie tion mrs gronning groaning s father prances W fuller was called to go from scipio to sunset graham county arizona way down in the southeast corner next to new mexico and but one county above the international boundary line between mexico and the united states he was called to go there with others to establish the order of enoch at sunset A trip from 1 to sunset Is no child s play at any time even now to say nothing of being undertaken uder taken at that early date and by ox team to boot the trip down to sunset waa tak en before mrs gronning groaning was born bom the father drove the foremost team which was of horses mrs gronn groan ings ing s mother followed with the other team which was of oxen pause ta to of that trip at ten to seventeen miles a day and compare it with our jaunt ln 14 which we grumbled all day at any stretch we coulden t hit er up to forty on forty miles on hour today seventeen miles a day then when they came to lees lee s bacar bone the road was steep and so bad that the mother had all she could do to manage oxen wagon and children the eldest daughter begged to hold the baby to make it easier for mother and no sooner got than she very promptly let the child fall from the wagon to the ground A special providence was at hand and the child was not run over not stepped on by an ox not even hurt and hardly squawked squaw led talk about luck but the incident only added to the agitation of the poor woman for on the worst part of the road ner bously hollering whoa hda buck she suddenly screamed in downright fright for the wagon bed began slipping onto the lumps of the cattle and a tip up or run ciway down hill vas was imminent her husband heard the tei rifted scream the patient ox en came to a dead halt and the wife and kididis were rescued from their precarious and perilous position at aest best no more than an eyebrow hold the poor woman had no spring seat nor springs on the for her luxurious over stuffed estered seat she had to ride on the top op of a four holed sheet iron camp ing out stove think of that you who squirm under the weariness of an eight inch upholstered seat cush ion on in a modern auto equipped with balloon tires she pioneered how the old timers did it and took it all as just in the day s work is s more than we can ran tell we wince and mince lyck and complain and howl up to the skies oh me oh my but isn t our lot just simply dreadful oh yeah we whine and bellyache they endured and surmounted we ought to be aken taken out in the back wood shed and courage whacked into us through bur seat og 0 sensibility we ought to be ashamed riding to the poor house in an automobile and complaining about the roads to it we aitt a coln a bit fast the trip back up the horses get away well fuller prospered in sunset he got to own all horses instead ot of art arf a art and after a while the GREAT EVENT came into their sim pie lives a visit home and show grand maw the babies it was THE event across a state and a halt half II 11 was looked forward to as something grand which it was indians were none too good ful ler bad had a buckskin riding pony bet ter than ordinary when they had got nicely started the indians kept crowding around and insisted that he trade that horse for one of their own alwa always Ys on inferior animal half afraid wishing to conciliate then rather than provoke a quarrel ful ler let this tine fine buckskin burik skin go tor for nag not halt half so good swapped t tt him by a redskin brave fuller kepi kept his hair on the up trip as tar far as lee s fer ry all was uneventful there was th proud sense of proprietorship ot of all horses now instead of the mixture of oien oxen and horses necessary on the down trip after crossing the big river and coming nicely into the edge of the babad forest he turned the wagon horses loose and tied the riding an imal final to the spoke of the wheel thinking think ng the tied horse would keep the other nags from straying little did he know the perversity of horse flesh when he woke up in the morning the two work horses had vamoosed no team in sight hurriedly he got on the saddle nag unprepared and ani to rode de oft off expecting to be back in a few minutes at most he got back at halt half past two the next morning I 1 rn his hurried going he left the wife illy fixed for more than a mo stay for the water in the barrel was below the bung they expected to load it at the spring dur ing the day so there she was with six children no man no team no water leastwise none get out able from that barrel as yet and ot of course just as soon as the kids were cautioned about the lack of water immediately every one of them had a terrific and instant thirst which nothing would assuage but copious draughts of water a little in a barrel below the bung a barrel lash ed to the wagon which she cound not tilt or remove she was in a pretty pickle the children fretted thirst ler ter and thirstier the weary min utes dragged into im interminable terminable hours apprehension as to an acci acel dent to her man became almost a certainty the children cried and begged incessantly tor for water the good woman broke dawn an and d wept bitterly then pulling herself together she drew apart where she could not be seen by her brood and sank to her knees in prayer continued on back page |