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From: | Joy Chandler |
Subject: | [gfsd] watershed |
Date: | Thu, 21 Sep 2006 11:12:44 +0300 |
Lucinda was sure Logan would never give up his
canyon.
If he sets there a second longer its Katy, bar the
door! What she could not improvise,she dispensed with.
He dreaded thiswould defeat his cherished hopes,
yet he was a man whom nothing couldstop. Ill hang up a couple of deer to freeze and
some wild turkeys, he wenton. Last fall, when I washunting over across the ridge, I
ran on to a beaver dam that was ahumdinger.
She had worked willingly at whatever task he
gaveher, and sometimes she laughed.
Apaches arelight steppers and they cover
ground.
Well, varmints, he said to the tracks in the snow,
you better keep offmy range.
The wildness and loneliness of thesolitude did not
prohibit beauty.
What a pityhe didnt find out before he
left!
As the days grewmore sultry these storms increased
in frequency and intensity. And hard on that succeeded the poignant pinch ofher
poverty.
This period of storm lasted less than a
month.
Before she stopped she found itback-breaking toil.
She saw Logan driving down to the level, and felt that atlast all was well with her
once more. After I skinned her out I visitedmy traps. When his corns and beans
attracted the deer, his rage knew nobounds. Got all on yourlist, and added some on
my own hook.
Buck came in for some hard packing before Logan
brought all the meathome. Logan came stamping in, virile and forceful, followed by
thewhining dog. Logans especial pride was in the cornfield.
Hour after hour Lucinda laboured in the
field.
Her husband gave her one comprehending look and
rushed out.
The great tall pines, never silent, always
mournful,began to whisper a different language to her. Coyote will trail that
varmint if I cant.
He skinned the carcass first, andnailed the fine
hide to the wall of the cabin.
When the storm-king raged out of the north,
sometimes it droveher frantic. Lucinda heard a carbine popping all day
long.
Huetts estimate of the fertility of that canyon
soil had not beenwithout warrant. Here his proficiency with an axe asserteditself.
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