Frontier Facts [pp. 150-151]

Frontier Facts
Or if he proved sulky and began to
"buck," "Miss Paddy stayed with him."
This young lady, so much at home in the
saddle, has been known to ride alone from
Potter Valley to Hlealdsburg in one day,
a distance of sixty-eight miles, mostly over
mountain trails, and attend a ball the
same evening. So much for the endurance of pioneers.
Mr. Potter's pretty little daughter of
ten summers, with riata in hand, sometimes played she was the stockman at a
rodeo. The school-children were the
"stock," and did the necessary amount of
dodging, prancing, neighing, and curvetting, but were deftly caught by the neck or
"hind leg" as was desired.
The settlers suffered many privations
and disadvantages from their isolation.
On every side could be seen in the meager
surroundings, verification of the old
adage, "Necessity is the mother of invention." Furniture, made with foot-adze,
froe and auger, was decidedly rustic, and
useful, even if not "on the square." Like
the woman with the crooked wood, some
declared they liked three-legged stools
after they learned to balance on them,
"They teetered so nice." The workmanship of one mechanic who manufactarcd
chairs for sale, was commented on as follows: "Most of his chairs have two legs
on the floor at one time; some of them
stand on three; but Old Nick could in-t
bring down the fourth leg."
It was said of an old lady that she "Et
wheat, an' drunk wheat, an' smoked
wheat."
The nearest post-office was fifty-two
miles away, at Cloverdale. From that
place letters were sent by any one travel ing northward, and after tiresome delays,
sometimes reached their destination. In
this way a letter was sent to " AMike the
Irishman," and left at the house of Ir.
Scott, a justice of the peace, who ac commodatingly sent it over to Mike.
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Mlike was the owner of a lot of hogs
that very feelingly took into consideration
the import of the old song,:' Root, hog, or
die," and were a corresponding nuisance
to the neighbors, who did not look upon
Mike's treasures with the affection he displayed. When the cold winter rains came
on' The hogs jist milted away." To insure himself against further loss they
were given the freedom of the cabin, where
they snugly slept in the chimney corner,
close to the dodgers baking in a skillet.
Mike's cabin, like many another, was
minus a door. One night a grizzly bear
walked in and cuffed the hogs about before making a selection. Mike lost no
time in climbing to a beam overhead,
where he spent the rest of the night in
agonized fear. "I shooted, an' I shooted,
an' no mon cum near me."
The spring house-cleaning began with
spreading straw, which was fired to burn
out the fleas. Fortunately the weather
was warm and Mike felt little inconvenience from sleeping out with the hogs until
another cabin could be built.
The last clapboards on the roof were
being put in place, when a neighbor called
out, "Here Mike's a letter I brought over
from Scott's."
"0 the pestherin' creeters!" sighed
Mike. "Jist burned out an' nuthin' to
pay the costs." And climbing down the
rough corner of the cabin, he made across
the valley at his highest rate of speed for
the residence of Mr. Scott, surprising the
gentleman with, "0, Misther Scawt, I
niver was in coort in me life before; an' if
ye'11 only let me off this time the pesther in' creeters sha' n't be no more fash to
yer."
Mike was slow to understand that in stead of a summons to appear in court, he
held a real letter,-no doubt the very first
he ever received. It proved of such a
pleasing nature that his good promises
were never again thought of.
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