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Powered byIt was 1917, 76 yrs ago now, that yr was so hot and dry it_文档资料库
It was 1917, 76 yrs ago now, that yr was so hot and dry it
It was 1917, 76 yrs ago now, that yr was so hot and dry it was August I remember dry dry heat in my nostrels so dry it hurt to brethe in the air in to my lungs. We shoud of nown with them Crows flying so silent, they woudnt even lagh out loud like they usully do. Thats how quiet it was. the threshers were down and the men woudnt even talk they didnt even lagh there was only those cricking whirrs that the grasshopers make they ratled a round in the space between your ears it seemt to me. Thats why the straw monkeys from Davey Schmitts threshing crew coud sneak off like they done, no one took notice not even Davey and he was usully prety sharp with them boys. Thats what I remember most, it was the dryness of it all, even your eyes was all ichy with the chaff and the dust that was all over the place when the men was taking the crop off. That harvest I re member evry one was prety tents, they new they had to get the crop off without no problems because of the yr before theyd prety much al of them lost evrything, there was rust so bad nobody had nothing werth nothing left by the time they took the crop off. Thered been no frost in 1917 luckly, and not to much stinking smut but stil they was woried. If any thing happent now like rain or hail theyd al go bely up. Now I dont look at the sky so much no more except out my window but then we watched it, it was as familr to us as our own hands. Evry one was watching for clouds to come up sudden and black, evry one was woried theyd feel those sudden puffs of hot wind from the south that ment hail was coming. So anyhow, the reason why Im remembering this what happent so long ago, its becase of Mrs. Schwan, she used to live on this floor, she died last week. And its not that Im all shook up over it or nothing, I barely new her, but it was just that littel bit trubling because she was only 60 yrs old, she was younger then my own children. So it made me start thinking, I spose I shoud be writting down the story, some one shoud no it. But probaly not my children, not Barbara for sure, Ill be writting this story down for my grandchildren and grategrandchildrn, they might be intrested to read it, to no how it was then. So, thats what Ill put in my will, that this here story cant be opent up until all my childrens gone So anyways, I was in the cooking house mixing up the biskets but I sure woud have like to seen there faces then when they shucked off all there closthe ichy as they were and dove in to the damn swimming hole. Because when they cum up they near swallowd the water they were going spit, each into the others face. There was old Sam Colridge and he wasnt yelling at them from the grass to get out of the damn niether he was floating, he was belly up in that water right in between of them. his long gray hair it was floating all a round his gastly face only it looked green and a live like algee only he was a corps, he was all swolln and his arms was out stretched on the water he looked like he was going give them too boys a hug. Well there you have it then. Seems like every story needs a body now dont it. It needs a death. a story needs a body it seems like men need to see a corps to no there a live. They can only feel a quickening for that instant, not like a real movemen not like a real life in side of there body, but may be like a fliker like a fluter of powr. Im a live and you aint I got that over you. So this here story, its like on, its like Parry Mayson, its like Peter Gunn or like Magnum or whatever, it has its death, thats what its about. Sams death was a mistory. Which is what Im telling you. Its the mistory of Sams death and its the hystery of Sams ranch, the Broken Fether Ranch. my kids they took hystry in scole so I tryd to lern som to. but hyster history its al a bout deths, realy, so I didnt like it vary much, its just stories about men kiling other peple in one way or an otherits like waching the news its kind of depresing. the thing a bout histry is it al hapened mostly in England iether that or only them places that England ever had some thing to do with, it seems to me. So we al have to look back to there for our cultyour. But this what Im writting its hystery to, but its not that kind that youd study a bout in scole. be cause its sort of more about a life, its probaly not so intresting as a real history tho. O yes, Im Indigo de Plume and I was there and I saw it all. and what I didnt see I herd. So I'm going to tel this story Ive ben thinking on it for a long time now, wondring a bout may be puting it down for peple to no. I had one page once I wrote, it had just some few words on it, it also had my name sined on the botom but it didnt seem like it told the story vary wel. So I had that in my dror of my desk under neath my speshial papers like saying who gets my bone china teacups Ive tried to match the cups with my grand children, they al have there own personalties it seems. But thn like I was saying it didnt seem write, it wasnt quite rite so when we had that speaker come in to the Home that time, this one he was talking about keeping jernals he was a real smart felow from the Unversedy or some thing, hes a local Hysterian. anywys he had some leters with his name, and hed even writen a book so he seemt like he mite be werth lissening too. so there wasnt any men showd up to this speker they try to bring in peple to make al our lifes richer and fuler, I alwys say, you wanta make my life rich, give me cream and eggs in stead of this here skim milk and bran. but o wel we get motorvational spekers. The men they wasnt to intrested in keeping jornals, though there was that one time some yung blond woman with grate big gold earings in a silk blows that kept falling off of her sholder come to tak a bout geting in tuch with yr iner emoshens she wasnt waring a bra niether and the men they al evry one of them come shufling and nuging one a nother in to the comon room. they evn weeled in old Barny who doesnt no whether hes coming or going no mor. Wel let me tel you spirits wer high when we had our cribage ternament later that evning. Jack Nelson he put on a tape it was som old fidle music and som of us danct. Anyways, this one speker, his name it was Mr. Bloom he had long hair and a bard beard which he kept trimmed up real nice he was wering irened jeans with a crease and a jacket with irened on elbow paches. He had big round glases he looked like a wise old owl, he was real intresting, he sayd he was reserging the histery of Saskatchewan, hed alredy rote a theseus on wheat and things like the wheat mige and how the difrent crops efected the lifes of the setlers living hre. he sayd the bufalo and the prayry wool they was a perfect sistem. but anyways he sayd when the setlers come to imprve the land they brout in wheat and that was eaten by grashopers and wheat midges, it got rust, it shriveled in the sun, they brout in lifestock to. he sayd it al got started it was a Polassy of Sir John. A. Mcdonald, a Nationl Palsy, to make sure Canada got the North West Terra tories. and to make somwher for the fokes out East to sel to. So thats why they bilt the railroad, then they worked at filing up the land with home steaders. It was real intresting, Ive lived hre al my life, I didnt no al this stuf. he sayd there was a gimmik to get the setlers to come out, it was Red Fife wheat! it was al talkd up as the best wheat in the world for miling flour, but it was to hard for stone mils and the flour it was acturly quite dark. but that didnt mater to the governmen of Canada nor to the, they had a porgram, it was to atract setlers, they gave awy the free seed of Red Fife and then the terning of the prayery sod progresed like a preyry fire! hes riting a new theseus this time, its one with what he calt human intrest this time, he wants to publish it he says so hes looking for storyes if we have some thing good, we mite get in to his book. So he told us al a bout keping jernels, you had to by al this stuf like a lose leafed binder and those littel colored plastic tabs to label difrent parts. and he told us al the histry of jernal riting, its just asimportant as real riting, it seems, and he rote TODAY I AM FEELING . . . on his plastic white bord with a felt marker we was spose to finish it of like a list of singal words. Dot she showd me, she wrote ― 1. very frendly Then she scribled it out. Kind a warm in here aint it, she sayd to me. she winkt at me real slow. we was gigling in the bak like we was in school or some thing. Tho he wasnt realy my type atall. I was woried we mite have to hand our jernels in to him to read like as if we was in school, but luckly he just had us read stuf out loud bak to him. I never even let Dot see what I was riting, I alwys kept my arm over top of my paper I think maybe she was a littel hurt I think she thot I was being secretev but of corse it wasnt that its just a mater of dignaty. Evry one alwys sayd what a grate memry I have, I can remember long lists of grosries and lots of littel things but thats just so I dont leave no notes lying around where peple mite see them. I saved that binder tho it turnt out to be a waist of mony, Im not so good at jerneling, Im not so orgainized about my thouts and feelings and I didnt like that paper much niether. I like this here leter paper that one of my grandkids sent me, there alwys thinking thats al old ladys hav to do with thier time is rite leters, but this has a nice feel, it puls on my pen nice, not like that smooth loose leaves, you cant hardly feel like your riting on them. and I like the flowers on the botom to, re minds me of my gardin. So anyhow He sayd present hapenings shoud be in the blue secshin, past reminisinces yelow and then there was sectshins for speshil kinds of descryptions, like characaturs, I forget what he calt it and then may be the looks of things like the sun in the morning. What about recipes sayd Tillie ― that Tillie, shes alwys got a good idea Mr Bloom, he sort of lookt surprized, he sayd O well, sure why not. and so we al picked pink for that, and in the free riting time Tillie she rote down her recipe for potato lefse, Dot she rote down one for pfferfernuse theyr littel pepery cookies, I rote one for real nice lite dumplings. Jane Seymor she rote one for crescent rolls and Olga, she rote one for something calt perishkey, thats like perogys in cream. We al photo copyd our recipes after and gave thm out to one an other, I cant imagen why because they dont alow us in to the kichen here and our littel toaster ofen and cuberd in the comon room, those arnt good for nothing and besides, non of us is to much for lifting and mixing things up no more. So anyhow. Thats what we did. Which is all to say, wel Mr Bloom he was real hapy like he was proud of either us or him self, he kept smiling, saying See, see, this is what riting is, its a sharing of exprience, its making your counter contrabution to the werld, its beutiful, beutiful. I coud a swore he had watry eyes. Tillie she lookt over at me and winkt, it wasnt like we aint ben doing this for the last 70 yrs or so. But I think he was just darn releved to see a spark of intrest in what he was saying, some of us dont look to much like were intrested in any thing, thats because we move slow, som of us cant hear, he probaly thot we had no mind left at al, he kept clering his throte, hed say, Is this clere? Any questchins? But no body sayd nothing that first littel wile, no one that is exept for Pearl she kept saying Ey? Ey? Wats he sayin? So anywys, Mr. Bloom, he come bak sevral weeks in a row, he even talked a littel a bout litrature, I kind of warmd to him after al, he seemt so lost, por felow, he didnt seem like he new how to talk to us at al, like may be he thot wed never ben part of the same werld hes part of, so Dot and me we stayd after once so I coud ask him a bout how to rite a story, he cleard his throte, Like what kind of story? he sayd, Wel sort of lik a mistry I sayd, so he told me and I tried to remember it al and write it down as soon as I got bak to my room. and so I dont have much real lerning like in school but I do no what he sayd about how your suppose to build a Plot for a dead body, like THE MISTORY OF SAMS DEATH its got to have astructur. its got to have a 1. rising action 2. climax 3. denurment 4. closur. but I dont think I can do it like that be cause Im not a scoler and I dont understand this theery all that well niether. I gess he mite be rite, tho. I wached a few shows on TV they al had that same way, they bilt up like that and then droped of when things was tied up. I never realy notised that befor but. It seems to me to be just that little bit indescent. The rising action well the meaning is obvious its like teazing its like a littel tikling, like nuzling or pinching, or whatever. Then theres the Climax. just like that. fast. it goes up to a point and then down. and the Denerment it seems to me thats your after denner ment its after youve had your main coarse and cake so to speak, you sit back to digrest and think on all the delights you have taken in thats when you pause and ponder and have your coffee and suck your ment. its when he lies back be for he goes to sleep or back to work or what ever it is he usully does, thats your Closir. I thot about that afterwords, I thot realy that dont make no sense thats not the way our lifes go, I wisht I woud of sayd some thing rite then when I had it in my mind. I did say later to Mr. Bloom the next week, why is a story like that, whys it so bilt, doesnt no one want to rite a bout what its realy about? Dot, her nose was a littel bit out of joint I think she thot I was trying to hog al the atendshun for my self. But that wasnt it at al. He just sort a relaxt then, he crost his legs, he wrapt his hands around his nee, he was sitting on a char, he sayd but thats the buty of litratyour and history to, its placing events in a contest con text. he sayd something like, its making things have meaning its giving our werld a structyour. But I dont no why that struckyour is like that, whys there only one peek why cant there be multipull peaks or may be not even peeks, theyr so sharp and pointy. may be insted there coud be circels widening out and out and out from the center like when you throw a stone in to a quiet pool. why is it so fast to the Closur. and why is the Closur where the ending is, what about afterwords, what about the swelling and the worry and the verycose veins, what about the puking every morning after brekfast, who's going to put a cool towel on the back of your neck? what about the Baby and the shit and spit and the love. but may be Im taking this al a bit to far, may be thats realy not what that littel pictur he drew ment at al. I dont understand that very well be cause I only got my grade 4, Im not vary smart. Because I couldnt go to school as much as I shoud of, there was one back then but it was 20 miles away, we didnt have an extra horse and be sides my Mum, she needed the help at home with all the littel ones and I didnt do so well at riting anyhow. Arithmetic, I was vary good at that but I always failed English. A Red Indian Thot He Mite Eat Tobaco In Church, thats how I remember that speling but mostly im a poor speler, thats how I was in scool. I couldnt get those leters to act rite, it took a lot of yrs before the words stopt looking like a jumble somebody just threw up on the page, evry wich way. So my father, he just up and sayd one day, My girl youv got enough of that schooling, you can manage wel enuf, and we need you here at home. A farming woman dont need to lern that stuf anyhow. So. I stayd home, never lernt to rite beter. Thats all But anyways Im the only one now who nos this story so I guess its up to me to tell it as best I can. But the other thing is, I dont no realy how to work them chaptiers, I dont realy think I can organ ize this vary wel. I dont no how arthors wod no when to start and when to stop so I guess Ill just keep going until I get tired and then pick up where I left off when Im all rested up again. Like now, may be Ill stop for a while.So Im back now, its already a day sincet I started to write Yesterday it wasnt so good, I just put down my pen and went down to the lounge for my tea, I all ways meet Dot for tea at 3 oclock, shes my best frend. we was neibors for many yrs, she moved next dor to us on 31st St. when she was just a bride. Shes the same age as my boy John woud be tho, so its not like we did things together like we never had the same circels of frends, and then Mr Lessworth, he left her after they was only maried for 5 yrs. She just woke up one morning and he was gone, some fokes sayd he was living in sin with another woman, or at the least, he mused he was in love with her enuf for him to leaf Dot behind with two young ones. Anyhow, she didnt like to visit much after that she kept to her self, she managed some how to raise her kids I dont no how, he sent her som mony evry once and a wile I think. she nver borowed so much as an egg from us I kno that. but she got beter after her children was grown a littel older, she startd comin over for tea some mornings after the kids was of to school, she sayd she felt like a new person again now she coud just up and walk out her dor and not wory about the kids. So we got prety close then over the yrs we shard some of our secrets like way bak when I found out I was expecting another one, my boys they was starting there carers careers and Barbara and Betty al ready maried their selvs, this was long after I thot I coud be having mor children, she was the only one I told. and she was the only one I told too when the loss came, she just asorbed some of the painfulnes of it for me when I didnt even no if I was sad or releaved. She gave me some tea and she cried a litle bit with me. But anyways, when I went down to meet her yester day, I was looking for her blue hair, it usully makes her stand out in a crowd, even a crowd of us old fokes. I dont no why she wears a wig such that she looks like she blues her hair, maybe its so she looks like shes got enough hair to do something to. but there you are, she always was the neatest littel thing, she never has a wrinkle in her dress not a hair out of its place and I gess its just a way of keeping her self up, though I cant say I woud care for it at all for my self. So anyway, I coudnt see her at all. she sits so tiny and strait, she looks like a littel frale bird, her blue eyes they dart a round and if I dont see her, she spots me right away and cals me over, she still has a young voice, its only deeper than it used to be not like mine, its so scratchy like I was cawing or some thing. But yesterdy she wasnt there, she had a stroke in the morning and I never even new, here I was in my room scribling away about things long forgot, they wisked her a way to the hospital in a ambilance. They think shel be there for a few weaks before she comes back. I hope so, that she comes back that is. Seems you never can be to sure once your my age, your frends they just are there one day and the next thing you no your left a littel more a lone. wel that sounds like Im being sory for my self, but Im not, I consider my self prety luky, I can stil get my self a round, I stil no who I am and what I was, Iv at least got famely, Iv got Barbara coming in to visit now and then, tho she lives down near Speedy Creek now so she cant be coming to ofen, not with Jack doing so poorly. Theres Betty and Jim, and Anna. Tho I dont see them al that much, Betty and Jim retird out in Vancover, Annas moved to a condo in Miami, they rite me leters al the time, and then theres Cristy, she walks rite by this Home on her way bak to her apart meant after classes, she stops by for tea evry once and a wile to. So I'm not like lots here theyv got to visit with volintears from church groups and such. But stil. it takes you strange just that littl bit when some one you new be fore her hair was gray, who was livly as a robin hoping around in her kichen, and laghing most the time too, just up and vaneshes from your life, may be for ever. Be cause shes old And shes only 74, I was all ready 19 or 20 when she was born, with my own housband husbound and babies. That was a big difrence then, of corse, but we been frends now for prety near 2 life times, and being that far apart in our ages dont make much difrence when your as old as we. but Icant help but think of it, shes old enough to die just because shes old, and Im nearly 20 yrs her senior. I wil have to go visit her, Ill sit by her for a while tho they say she cant move very wel nor hardly speak, but she might here me, she might apresiate the compny, she mite be lisning for kind voices. I spect I woud be Im bak again now, Iv had to rest up myself for a day or to. This riting, it sure gets to be hard. not only hard becaus of the way your hands ake, the pen it was faling out of my fingers, there so notted up these days, the last time I think I rote to much al at wonce, to. but its also hard becaus Im trying to do this righte, to tel this story like I was a real writer, but I never new al the rules befor Because heres another thing to think about, my grategranddotter Cristy she tol me just the other day when she stoped by. I askt her what she lernt that day in her English clase. She sayd if your writting some thing its got to have a vise voise thats either 1st person, 2nd person or 3rd. she showd me her notes. Now that dont make no sense to me, it seems as if theres one person writting it down, then that person is everybody, al three of those peple, so what difrence does it make? O wel, I gess Ill just say what I no and someone els can worry about the rest. So anyhow, I gess thats got nothing much to do whith this here story that Im telling. I gess if Im going to get this here done, I better just get back to it. Mary Plumay, she was Iph's mother, she told me the first time she saw old Sam Col ridge, he was the first man she saw when she come in to Maple Creek on the CPR train from Moose Jaw in 99. She was stil setting in the train and she saw him standing in the window like it was his own framed portret and he looked like a wild anymal, like a skinny scruffy Cyote, like the one she saw from the train on the way out, looking over his sholder with his tonge hanging out like he was laghing. Sam wasnt laghing tho he was squinting in to the sun and his face was in a snarl with his teeth showing yellow and black. and white was in the corners of his mouth like he was dry and thirsty. He was chewing snuff and he looked pardon me but this is what she said like he was spitting shit in stead of water. Coarse Mary didnt talk like that usully she was a Enlish lady. She came out when Saskatchewan was stil the North-West Teartories, she came out to be with Abrham. Abe, he come out be cause of the pictur which was painted on the side of the Emigrasion Office. Mary sayd he jus stood and starred evry time he went by there. It had CANADA in big red letters, and feelds, and big strong plow horses, and stooks of wheat like youv never seen. and a sine in the window said 160 acer farms in Western Canada Free. Finely he went in and talked to a sales man, that man coud talk a line, he talkd facts and figurs, he talkd of riches and welth, he sayd there was free catle too and free farm implymeants but Abe never did get those. Anyhow, Abe he was the youngest son, he didnt want to work in some bodys shop or nothing like that, he wanted that free virgin land like nothing else. Mary, she sayd it was like he was bewiched. LAST BEST WEST, they calt it, which ment that it was the best land you coud ever want and it was going fast. Sort of like a Going out for Busyness Sale. All stock must go, rock botom prices and dont miss out. Anyhow, Mary had no intent of going along, but then she folowed him out after al, because she had a bun in the oven. Abe was a effectshunit man you see and when he decided to come to this land of golden oportunety he new he wood be lonely for her so he was overcum with love when he told her good by. and Mary she wasnt as strong as Abe was, she was a big woman but he was a bigger man and so he left her a going away present so to say. at least, she used to joke about it that way, that was when she wanted to get under Abes skin and it surely did, hed get al read in the face, hestomp al about the house and then go do chores or some thing. So anyways that was her Sacofice for her family she left her home and her mom and dad and sisters and brothers that she loved, she left her music lessons, even tho she wanted to be a consirt penist even tho she had grand ideas. She wanted to be sexesstful in her life, but may be she new deep down that she woudnt ever be a Mots-art nor a Beatoven nor nothing like that, and so she come out in to the wilderness so her family would have a father. Mary was a good mother to her children that way. Wel. I gess Abe, he showed he was a good man to because he told Mary rite befor he left that hed take care of her, whatever came of that last night he was there. Exept still he was some surprised when he got the leter that she was coming and why. But by then, he coudnt do nothing about it any ways, because she was allready on the ship coming over. So anyways, They was maried in Maple Creek that very day that she got ther, she with wite stain satin gloves, and a beatiful pink lacey dress, They stood befor the alter and the Father he red to them from his missile and he gave them his spirituall massage, and that afternoon Abe he bot up his winter suplies, that was 25 lbs of navy beans, 100 lbs of flour, cured pork 5lbs of cofee 25 lbs dried fruit that was manely prunes. Then Mr and Mrs Abe Plumay they set out on Abes open wagon, they got to the home sted that very evening. because it was something like $2 to stay in the Cypress Hotel. that was a bit steep and you didnt even get brekfast. Wel, whats all this got to do with Sams death, I supose thats what your asking. but like I sayd, Im not much a riter, I can only do the best I can, so I got to start somewheres about 18 yrs before he got himself kild. I got to make the conections. So anyway that wasnt too much of a hony moon, but thats the way it was bak then. My one dotter Anna she got maried in 39 ― I had three girls and two boys, well now theres only the girls, but I gess of corse there not girls, there old ladys. Thats the awful thing of it when your children, thats how you think of them no matter if there 3 or 63, when your children look like your gramma you somehow cant place your self. That theres my little girl, I sayd to Tillie last time Barb come to visit. I sayd to her, see that old lady with the gray hair and foolish handbag, thats my litle Barbara. Tillie shes so nice, she sayd Oh my no, it's lovely, just a lovely bag. Dot, shes stil prety much got all her marbles not like some of those here, she just laghed. I was just teling Dot just the other day, it was the day be for she had her stroke, I was teling her how Barbara the last time she was up she was all in a flap it was because of Bettys grandchildrn. Terry, hes been going to college in the city well hes moving in together with Cristy shes his cusin, shes in her third yr now. Barb just cant beleave Tina and James are alowing it. As if they coud say one way or a nother how there ful grown childrn shoud be. well, Cristy and Terry they alwys was good frends, I remember when they was just too littel mites, they wasnt more than 4 or 5 they was thick as theves I remember that Chrismas it was the last one in our old house, it was befor Mike dyed, the last one befor I movd here to the Home. they was al over for super, al the kids and grandkids and there kids We had ham that yr it was ham with pine apple rings and a glaze and Mike he just wanted a turkey so bad, he said sixty yrs, mother, sixty yrs we been having turkey. My mouths watering for turkey. with salt. and what is this here pink thing with fruit on it. he was just joking of corse but I used up some of the nex weeks grosry money and gav him his turkey for new Years. So anyhow Terry and Christy they playd al thru the holiday, evry one stayd in the city for three four days and those kids they never had a fite, not one. I hardly never even saw them, they was alwys up in the atic, they liket playing with the old closthe and stuf that was up there some of Mike'sold sadle gear they liket that a lot they pertendid to be cow boys and Indians and horses I think. Now theyr moving in to gether for school, it seems to make sents monywise but Barb, shes just got her self into a bit of a tizzy she thinks its real wrong. I said, Barbara, theyr cusins, I sayd What are you thinking? And she sayd Well that may be true enuf but still, a yung man and a yung woman, you dont want to put your self into that kind of situashin its temptashion they cant handle them sorts of things when theyr yung like that Best not to put them selves in to that sichuation in the first place. Tina and James they otta put a stop to it. Its wrong, a man and a woman living to gether like that when theyr not maried. Its rong and it looks bad to. It reflects badly on the famely. She sayd, I wonder what Betty thinks of it, she must be just mortafied. Wel, I talked to Betty, she phoned last week, she never sayd boo about it, shes sending the 2 of them some money so they can by a new toaster oven. Barb phoned Anna tho, she tolt me that last week and Anna thinks its just not Christain. Certaintly I wasnt never like that so proodish. I dont think. Tho I made sure I took them to Church evry Sundy when they was kids. When Barb got maried she started to get serius about her faith, then I remember bak in the 70s she started going to al them retreads retreats she got in tuch with her spritualty she sayd. Which that means she dont aprove of nothing no mor. O wel. shes a good girl. Anyways as I was saying my one dotter Anna she got maried in 39 here in Saskatoon that was bad timing tho of corse, but she wasnt to no, she got a telergram not three yrs later from Eurpe somewheres and all of the suden there she was left all alone a widow with a too yrs old boy. So of course she had to go to work, it wasnt to hard to get her self a job. but then she had to leave the baby with me, so anyways she traveld a lot and Bobby he just staid with us and then when she got maried again when he was 12, he didnt get a long with his stepdad so it was like I had a nother son. So I had kids in my house for forty yrs all together, he left home when he was 18, it was in Janwary of 1958 just after our 40th weding anadversary. So it was like I got three seprate lifes, three difrent storys. I was one person befor I got maried, then I lost that person al that time I had a famely. Then I was a nother one after they was gone, I was a new self, thats the one I am now. A new self with a saggy body. You no, it seemt some times I was woandering all the time I was a wif with children for them 40 yrs, but that was my life and I made the best of what it was. Mike he was a good man and a good father, it wasnt him it was me. I wasnt wandering in serch of some thing, it was in serch of my self. Not like it was a quest, not like that ledge end of King Aurthors Knits nighties, they was on a misshun to find some thing, it was a holey grill and it woud give them power if they coud find it. But exept they never realy did get that. Or I always wonderd how come Moses, he wanderd 40 yrs until he come to the pormissed land, why did they need all that? Wasnt they living and loving and evrything anyways? Wasnt God feeding them and waching over them. Whyd they need to take that land. And again thats like all those emigracion peple from the Canadian govermen who was calling Canada the same thing, a pormiss land, a Garden of Eden, so just like in the storys, evry body left off living their lifes to go in serch of that virgin land that they coud turn into there own welth. It seems like its greed, just that pure and simpl. But what al them storys has to do with my life, I dont no. I think maybe nothing But thats not what I was teling what was I teling? Oh yes my one dotter Anna she got maried here in Saskatoon and then she went on a honey moon they went by train to Nigra Falls they saw Queen Victoria Park they even went on the boat the Made of the Mist. Barbara went on a honey moon too, though she and Jack maried when money was tight. Oh, them two was so good for each other, it done my heart real good to see them smiling at each other that day.The first time Barbara laid eyes on Jack Quest, she turnt red as a beet. It was at the fall fair and he was looking at the brownies which she had just got 2nd prize for. The one who got the 1st, she was stuck on his arm like she mite as well of ben callt Lepage insted of Terese. She was looking up at him, whats callt stary eyed adration. Well. She lookt nothing but cross-eyed stupid to me. But I can see why she was like that. Barbara too. He looked like a film star. Not like a actual film star, he wasnt realy so hansome, he just looked like some one who could be in a film. he had the look of a proud man. I mean a man who was decent, who was proud of himself not conceted but proud of the man he was, and not ashamed of nothing. So Terese says, Jackie lets go look at the cute little baby ponies again. Again. like they mite of mised some thing the first time. Anyway, Thats what she sayd. He just looks across the table at Barbara, who was trying not to look like she was staring or nothing, and he winks. I new rite then that was the end of Therese on his arm. Then at Barbaras weding, Mike it was like he was leting out a big puf of air that hed ben holding in for a long long time. He was so hapy for them. It wasnt a big weding, just smal, and we invited evry one to the house after, Mike hed put up a kind of a tent in the back yard, we had frends who playd the banjo and fidle, someone had a harmoncia, and the men they even halled a piano over into our yard. there was candls al ofer, it was a beutiful night. Mike He turned to me and he sayd My god Indigo, your stil the lofeliest woman here and we danct a jig then. O Mike was a good dantcer, I coud hardly keep up, but o it was fun trying. So anyhow, like I was saying lots of peple went on hony moons then. But I was like Mary, I never went on one niether, I went strait from my dads house to my housbands up here. My grate grandotters one went to Hawai another went to Disnyland, can you imagin. Altho there both divorced now. Next Christmass one of my grandsons, his family there all flying to Lost Vagus, his dotter Michelle thats my grate grandotter shes flew all over the werld shes a suxesful busyness person, so now shes geting maried there. She wrote me a leter she said there going to tape it, theyl send me a vidyo. I dont have a machine altho I coud watch it in the lounge I supose. I supose I shoud. Well anyways thats nither here nor there, what was I conecting that to? o yes, Mary, shed just got maried her self, we're back in 1899 now. Mary said later that she sort of new it woud be a hard life out here in the homesteding days but if she coud of turnt a round and drug her piano back to England with her when she first saw Abes sod house, thats just what she woud of don. It was just geting to be evening then, when they come in to the yard, the sun was just starting to set she told me but she sayd she never even noticed the colors. altho it must of bin the usual ornge and red with mauv on the eges and with pink and gold on the under sides of the clouds. On the way over on the boat she was imagining this momen and she thot theyd be looking at the prayry sunset and holding hands together but in stead she was looking at the shak and Abe he had both his hands on the reigns. Abes house it was bilt out of sod she new that from the one leter hed sent but only now she relized it was just plain lumps of dirt with strawy gras hanging out the edges, the roof it was straw too. and not only that, it was smal, it was may be the size of her mom and dads parler at home, it was 10 by 12 foot, and it didnt have no windows yet just a dor. Where am I gona put my piano she sayd. Abe he sayd wel itl have to go in to Olie Knuts barn loft I imagen, we wil begin struckshin on a woden house next sumer. Which they did, only not actualy the next summer, it was a couple of yrs, they just kep ading rooms on to the sides of the shak in the mean time. it was a fine house tho when it got bilt, it put Abe into det prety bad it was all woden, it had three bedrooms upstairs, it had agrate big kichen and a front room with two straw stufed chares and a wode stove and Marys piano, and her Singer tredle sewing machine. it had a littl porch to, that was where Abe threw off his dirty closthe when he come in from the barn. It was the most splended house for many miles all around. &M%1&but before that, that litel mud house was her first home and she lived there threw the nixd yrs. that first winter, there was a blizard where the snow blew right over the top of the house. It was just a big snowbank, al you could see was the blue smoke coming out the little chimny sticking up out the top. The door, it opened out so Mary and Abe, they was stuck inside for two days until there naybour boys saw there shack wasnt there no more and come over to investagate. That nexd spring Abe hung the door the other way round, so it opent in. Anyhow thats where they lived, with the bugs that creept in threw the craks and Mary spected may be a mouses famely for quite a wile to Tho she didnt mind so much in retrespect, there was a famely lived a bout twenty miles Southeast, they spent the wole first winter living in their overturnt wagon, mother father and two near grown sons, how they did it i dont no. they didnt no nothing about our winters out here when they come I guess. Those early yrs was real hard on peple moving in from other places, and coming in with only the barest of nesessites. Everyones werst fear was to get caut in a blizerd and Parish Thats the way it was Mary sayd, she soon lernt al there was to living here, the blizerds the chinooks, the long trips with a team hauling wheat or coal, whch usualy that was a 4 hours exposer to the cold, then there was the sumer with its moskitos, flies, hail, drowt, there was those insect invasions evry spring and sumer. there wasnt no part of the wheat plant that was safe, the grasshopers, they ate evrything above ground, so did the redback cutworms, the army cutworms, there was wire worms that ate the seeds and the seedlings to. there was the wheat stem sawfly that ate up the inside of the stem and there was afids that ate the leafs and the wheat heads But the home steaders come anyhow, they defide the forces, the forces of nature and conkered the West. They al come for a beter life, the land of opportunety, it was in deed a grate new cuntry even with its cold winters blizerds hail stroms wiping out the entire yrs ernings, drowt, grashoper invasions and al those many other hard ships. but thats the way it was back then. peple didnt have much of nothing, it was mostly nothing but hard work and lots of times sufring Its funy how that hapens, like now that I got al this freed time on my hands, my hands they can hardly do nothing, its al I can do to hold this here pen and rite, which you no when I was yung and imagening a life of ees I didnt never imagen it like this. So thats how it is with me now, theres not much I need these days exept of corse may be a new skin to fit over my old bones. I use to be plump but these last few yrs I been losing wait but my skin its just staying the same and I cant see my self no more in the mirer just my eyes waterd down and the folds of skin hanging down from my cheek bones, and my ears even hanging down, and the skin on my upper arm from where there use to be flesh and musle. My neck it looks like it been finely pleated, it just needs a bit of ironing Anyways Mary told me that when she was a young bride she was a cultivated lady and she prided her self on her classicle bent so al that winter while she was carying her first child she sugested to Abe names of nymfs and heros and greek gods. but Abe hadnt much scooling his family was a large one and poor and he had to work in sted, and so he didnt put much stock in names they was just some thing to tell people apart, one from the other when you was talking about them. He always sayd the best name was some thing from the scriptyours to remind the children of there duty to God. he was still a young man tho and when Mary started screeming in the night he was some what disterbed and then after 25 grueling hours currying his team in his littel sod barn in case they might be neededto run for the doctor, he was rite wound up. So when the naybors wife come out to tell him he just lept up and ran in to the house and to the foot of his bed where Mary lay wiping off her moist and cold brow and he busted into tears and he said, Of course she will be Iphiginea. Well, exept he didnt say, Iphiginea, he said Fijinee, thats why she was called just Iph all her life on the farm, because no body new how to say Iphiginea. Mary actualy liked Arora better, but she agreed because she was scarred Abe would change his mind and there child woud be fated to be like evry other child on the face of this earth with the same old name. she said thats how she use to think befor she had seven children and a house and garden and chikens to whory about. And this is true, true as Im sitting here writting this down, she said, And the second name shall be Moses, after Antie Elizabeth and Uncle Moses in the Old Cuntry, she said. because she was still a little bit tired and woozy from her labering. she was meaning of corse to say Elizabeth she told me later but she was starting to drift of to sleep and the rong darn thing come out of her mouth. And Abraham, he was so worked up and Mary thot in retrespect he was more than a little soused, but also because he respectit motherhood above every thing else but God, he said firm, Fijinee Moses. The naybors wife Mrs Olie Knut said afterwords to Mary and Iph how shockd she was, she said You couda nocked me over with a chiken fether, never in all my born days did I hear of any thing like it, but then when she turned to look at Mary, and more than that, quite ritely to give her an earful, Mary had drifted blistfully off to sleep. at least she looked blisful to Abraham, he said she must be dreaming of angel babies and he shoed old Mrs Knut rite out of the room. But really Mary was just plain exassted, she was a weary woman and scarce alive, and more than a littel sore and too hunderd of Sam Colridge's herfords could have stampeded rite threw there house hold without waking her. And so it was that Iphiginea Moses Plumay came in to the whirld, because Abe was a man of his word and besides it woud never do to admit he was over cum by alcahol or his emoshun. He said he new exacly what he was doing when he said Moses, it was a Holey name. But he didnt no iether So anyways, this was 17 yrs later when this story that I was telling you about got started. Well actualy it didnt get started just rite when Sam got kilt, like I sayd, I dont no how you decide where a story has its begining. Seems like you cant never just start at the one spot, you have to go back, way way back, to tel when it realy started but then even that aint the begining. Sort of like how after you peel the parchedment off a onion so you can slice it up to make rings, you no if you look at that one slice before you break the rings a part, you can see all the times of that onion in that one slice, like as if it was a page that you was reading, like each ring was a difrent story of that same onion and you was seeing a littel bit of each story on that one page. But if you try to find the begining, the rings just keep on getting smaler and smaler. and some times theres a new shoot coming off from the center so the rings look like there going on forever. You wont never find the begining youll just see all those parts of stories. And a nother thing about that onion slice is, its sliced thin, you hold it up to the light and you can see rite threw it, its got stories that go in those two other directshuns, backwords and forwords from each ring which is a story on that one page. Well That surely gets to be confusing, I dont no how al those Arthors tel a story from start to finish, just like that. I just dont no. Probaly its just me, I dont understand the cumplex naycheer of the riten word. I gess maybe being just a mother and a house wife for al those many yrs makes it so you cant think in a strait line, you no how you have to stop rite in the middel of darning the socks at the tableto stop the potatos from boiling over and then go back to get the baby whos woke up again for the third time and put it back to sleep, then anser the dor and say no thanks, not intersted, and go back to put the peas on and al the wile the kids there after you, and then sit down to your darning spred out al over the place to pick up where you left off, hopefly to finish that before you got to set the kichen tabule. Oh yes that reminds me, Ive gone off my course again. Speaking of which, When Iph saw Sam laid on his own kichen tabule she figgured he didnt look much worse now he was dead than he did when he was alive, he smelt a bit worse tho. She was helping her mother prepare his body for the funreal because there wasnt no one els to do it Sams wife was long dead, she just gave up the gost and who woudnt, Mary sayd, maried to a man like Samule. He was a rancher he was a hard man and he didnt beleve in coddling his cows nor his wife, which is why he lost haf his herd in the winter of 1907 from the Hollow gut. Mary said thats what he calt it but it was Winterkill they just didnt have enouf food. He said that fall befor the winter that he wasnt running no cow hospital and he wasnt cutting no hay for the goldarn critters, most ranchers thot like that. they, the cattle I mean was sposeto eat the grass off the range but the snow was to deep and they just drifted over the hills and died where they stood in the snow with there heads hanging down looking for grass. and then that next March it was the first Big Stink, evry rancher members that stench, the thousends and thousends of rotting corpses kind of sweet but not a suger sweet more like it was sickley sweet at first, then it was heavy it was corrupt and you woud find your self breething in wee tiny little gasps so the stinked up air coudnt go no ferther then it had to. Well of corse I was never there, this is what I heerd. The cows that died in the coolees staid caut up in the branches of the trees when the snow melted away in the sun and they bloated up like balls, some times they popped, then there was that russling sound like a gentle rain it was the maggits falling down in to the papery yelow leafs, and then later the grey and white bones would let go of the other ones and fall down dry into the dry papery leafs be low. The Cyotes tho they did pretty good that spring. Cyotes there scavingers, they dont care about rotten or smell or if its there own kill they just see some thing to take and they take it. Thats may be why there the Trick stirs be cause they stir up a fear they stir up a disgussed and some times they trick you. some times its for the bad some times for the good. But any how Sams long gray hair had dead brown leafs and grass matted into it, it was spred out on his tabule it was looking prety ratty, after drifting a round in the damn water for so long. Mary took a comb and she combed some of the snarls from Sams hair and she ranged it back a way from his face then she had to take off his wet and dirty old work closthe from his body which was hard to manover, his arms she had truble bending them out of the sleevs, so she finely had to cut them off the closthe not his arms. She left on his longjons tho because he only had the one pair he left them on summer and winter he was modest that way. She left him by the stove to dry. and it was all ready hot in that kichen and the smell was getting pretty high. Iph told Mary she shoud just stick him out in the sun may be lean him up against the clostheline or stick him in the garden like a scarred crow. but Mary she didnt lagh much any more by then and she told Iph to hush up and do her Christain duty which was to sweep Sams kichen flor and try to shoo the flies off from his body. Then Mary found the box on the shelf, and unrapt Sams good suit from the tissue to put it on him but it wouldnt go on he hadnt wore it for yrs she figgered and besides he was somwhat swolen. and so once he dried out a bit Sams forman helped Mary to put him in to his coffin in his under ware, he hadnt left no cash behind and no one much cared to spend all that mony to buy him a new suit. and so the coffin wasshut at his funreal it woud of been crool to make him a object of fun and show him being sent off to Our Lord in Heaven in his under ware. Not that there was many to morn the trajesty of his passing. Sam had a Cree woman living with him in his house after his wife died she was his house keeper but some people said she was More than that. but no body met her she didnt go out of the house much and certanly no body went over to visit. well exept may be for the other ranchers and for men some times to talk busyness with Sam, but none of there wifes for sure. Well she took off after a bout for yrs no body new why but some said they seen her with her black eyes and swel swolen lips and her nose got broke some time just be for she left. Sams wife when she was a live she wanted a garden but he woudnt let her he didnt want the god dammed sodbusters coming in thinking you coud grow something here. Maybe that was one thing he was rite about, there stil sweting and worying and al that, stil trying to pay things off, them farmers, seems like they never did get ahead, never tamed the land like they wanted to tho they did tame it some what, there still fiting to make it grow there grain It wasnt until Sam was in his box that the Mountie rode up he had to varify the Death. Iph she coud here him singing, he had a fine vice voice, as he dysmounted his horse and walked up to the house. Oh beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly and play the ded march as you cary me on. Take me to the prayry and throw the sod or me for Im a por cowboy and I no I done rong. He finisht his song just as he arived at the front porch door and he gave to loud and aurthoritative nocks on the frame of it. Iph she ran to open it her hart it was beeting in her chest she thot she mite pass out when she opent it up and there he stood. Well, seems like storyes thay need a herow, hes some one who is the mane characatur, hes strong and hansome. but thats not al. heres the thing. he iether has to die and put evry thing to rite, like in grate litteratyour, this is like Shakespere I saw Mcbeth on that special that one time. or he has to be the one who finds out who made some one els die, he seeks for piece and justass and puts evry thing to rite, thats like on TV or he has to kil evry body and put evry thing to rite, thats like in Westerns. or theres an other kind of story, the Romance kind for women, the hero he puts evry thing to rite by Marying the beatiful women. so there not realy vary diferent, these diferent kind of herows. So this Lootennant Arthor Conan Hitchdcock he was a hand some man he surly was like the herow of a book, you coud just imagen him going a bout and doing heroic deads and such, like reskewring young maidens from villeins. To Iph, on that day so long ago, he lookt like he coud of been knobility, he was honerrabble and a stalewart prints of a man. he had blond hair and a darker blond handlbar mustash he had brod shoulders and long legs and he was six feet 3 and one quarter in. tall. he had a deep voice and wite even teeth they showed be tween his narow lips when hesmiled his masterfooll fiendly frendly smile, which he didnt do much of, smile. He was a littel bit intimitdating that way. How de do mam, he sayd to Mary and she sayd, Good afternoon Lootennant Hitchdcock. Just cal me Conan Mary, he sayd. He was civil that way. And he walked over to the corps and he sayd, Yup, hes dead rite enuff. then he posed pawsed for a moment or to. he lookd like he had a thot, like he was about to say some thing. but no, he was just looking sturn be cause he was hiding a belch and blowing it out threw his nose. Iph she coud tel because she was standing rite there, she was waching evry move he made, and she coud smel the sour eggs and onyens even over top of Sams quite strong buqet. But then he did have a thot after al, because he sayd all the suden, But how wood old Sam die from drownding he new well enuff he coudnt swim he woudnt let his self get in to water any way he never even took a bath, long as I new him. it surely is a puzle. and so he and Sams forman lifted Sams body out from the coffin again just so he coud examin the corps. It was surely a plesure to watch those brod sholders in there scarlett jacket as he grabed onto Sams blue-white feet and hoisted, just like it was nothing, may be a old kichen chairs legs, and not a big hevy and somewhat sodden body like Sam was. He was a manly man, his fingers long and brown and strong but clean and the nails trimed neat not like Sams, when he grasped on a round the white harry ankle you could see the difrence. Sams toe nails were thick and yellow and evil looking they curved over his toes almost like he was a big old hawk with its sharp talends, but he wasnt never that elegent. Anyways Sure enuff the Lootennant found it a grate big dent on the side of Sams head rite abov the templ. Mary she sure was sirprized, she hadnt even noticed but then she hadnt gotten round to coming all of his hair yet. There wasnt no blood it had been washed away but you coud see the cut and the brews rite throu his hair if you looked close enuff. Sams hair wasnt vary thick you mite say, though it hung down to his shoulders, and on the top he ws prety much balled. Well I aint no expert the Mounty Arthor Hitchdcock said, but this here seems to me like theres been a crime cumitted theres been murder. Looks like some one bashed him over the head looks like some one deliberaly done him in and threw him in to the damn to make it look like it was a axdent. Well. that creeated some exitement in the sirrounding community. Evryone new that the Mounties alwys get there man, they was quite releaved because they new if anyone coud rectalfy the problem, it woud be the lootennant. But stil, every body seemed like they was happy to have some thing to gosip about and soon it cum obvius to all who the murder was. It was that Injan woman she cum back and she wacked him over the head with her tomhawk. Of course that was just plain ridiculus why woud she have one of those and besides if she wanted to do that she woud of done it long ago she woudnt of wated all those yrs and then snuk back to do him in it just didnt make sense. Besides Mary figgered she was most likely smartern that but thats the way some peple wer, they was stil jumpy tho the rebelion was way bak 30 yrs befor, those kinds of things they hav a way of staying around and geting in the ways of peples lifes for a long long time it seems. not like a movie its over when its over. But anyhow the Mounties they coudnt think of no better anser niether so they put out a Warant for her Rest. Luckly they never found her tho. No body even new who she was when she was living there and if they did they wernt saying now. So like I said befor. Sams death was a mistory, those men never did salve it.Wel like Ive sayd this misery mistery its not like its a real book or nothing. there aint no neat littel endings its not like youd take it in scole. Mr Bloom, Harry thats his name, he sayd that evrything shoud tie al together at the end, there has to be a closur but I think may be the only closur wil be for me its a closur on the life Iv lived al these yrs, it was a good life, there wasnt much mor to it then that. My kids and grandkids, when they took in English in school they studyd some thing, Cristy says its calld the littery cannon. I dont no what that is exacly but al it means is they studyd grate riters like first Shakedspeare and Milting. then they also studyd what was Geek clasics, which al that means is its old, thats why when some one says thats a clasic, all it means is Iv herd that one befor. so anyhow they took something calt the Illyod and the OddC. And of corse they lernt the Old Testesment. These is al conected some how, I think its be cause these storyes is al a bout wars and kiling, as if to read it and here it over and over again woud make you beter some how, like it coud make you a reel man it coud make you noball to no that peple kil each other over and over a gain. theres that Mack Beth, he dies, theres the deth of that King Aurthor. and then al that other greek Clasic is, its realy teling about a war, its a bout peple fiting and wanting to kil One and Other. Wel I realy cant master this at al. I asked Mr Bloom about al this stuff, hes real smart, he is that, he sayd that these types of storys is sposed to be kathetic katharctic, and he sayd a wole bunch of stuf I cant re member what it was, but he rote that word down on a pis of paper so I coud look it up some time. Wel. I cant find that paper no mor but I re member what it sayd in the dickshinery, it sayd that it ment some thing the same as a laxativ which I no what that is its some thing I take ofen enouf these days. but whats it got to do with these storys I dont no. What has men going about kiling each other got to do with being constirpated and then you no how it works. I dont no. I just dont no. oh wel never mind. But you no what els, even Moses, he conkered the Promissed Land, it wasnt just there waiting for him, he took it. That sirprized me when some one told me that, I all ways just thoght that God had this emty land of milk and hony wating there for him for all those yrs, gess I didnt lisen well enough when my dad he was reading out of the Bibel to us. Turns out God told them to slatter every one who was living there first, and then just steal all there land. well. I dont no why Moses, he didnt just say, well Old Man, may be Im the herow of the story just like lots of other ones but that dont mean I have to folow rite threw to the end and kil evry one off like other herows done. Why didnt he just say, thanks very much, Ill make my own story from here. He probaly just didnt have the bals. I dont no. I gess I never wil master al of this. you no Dot, she woud have laughed if Id sayd that to her. Course I never woud of come out and sayd it like that in so many words, she woud of knoun what it was I was hinting at. Just be cause wed never say nothing like that at a tea party, that doesnt mean we woudnt lagh about it private, amongst our selves. thers no one els alive no more that I woud lagh like that with. Anyhow Sams ranch it wasnt to far from Abes farm and usully the farmers and the ranchers didnt have much to do with one and other but some times there was ocasions when they got together. like this was one, when there was some thing needed to be done, some one had to help with the body and those ranch hands, they mostly al high taled out of there and went in to town to get drunk, they wernt much fond of Sam when he was live, and now he was dead they wasnt going to have nothing more to do with him. Specialy sinse they hadnt got payd yet, Sams dets wer prety high, hed borowda lot of mony to invest in his herd and his horses, hed suferd some losses over the winter too, and evry one was just hovring around waiting to see what the catle solt for, there was some sore feelings about that pay too, let me tell you. but anyhow, like I was saying, mostly the farmers and ranchers they wasnt to frendly. Thats becaus Sam, he and the other ranchers was there first befor the farmers, they had land leased out from the governmen and they had there herds ranging all over the land. well actualy of corse there was other peple there first but then the fur traders and the settlers they kilt off the bufalos. so any way the Indian peple they had to go some wheres els be cause they hadnt no food but maybe saskatoon berrys or chokecheeries or rabbits which is hard to feed a family on. Mike used to tel the kids how some times they woud hall the bufalo bones to sell at the store they had huge wooden carts they would stack high with the white bones they colected from off the ground then they coud sell them for manufracturing, like sugar refining in the States. Or some times the bones was polished up for handels for knifes and such, I used to have a set at home, I kind of miss those when I go to cut something here, I can feel the fork bend in my hand. Or may be the bones was used for fertlizer for the cultivated lands in stead of cow shit. Isnt that funy how evry things made from some thing elses bones or shit anyhow Abe sayd thats how Pile o Bones, thats now Regina thats our catpidal, cum to be calt that, it was a pile of bufalo bones wating to be put on the CPR train. it was a major industy thats what the Europenas done for the West. so then anyways when the ranchers come in with there herds of catle they were going make lots of mony they brought thousends and thousends of head. I remember my dad talking about the numbers, he sayd it was al most like when the bufalo herds was here there was that many catle brout up here al at once, both herded by cowboys on horses and shipt up on trains. He sayd it with a kind of a marvel in his voyce, he hadnt seen it here but hed herd about it, and being a farmer, he just marvled at the sheer size of that kind of enter prize, at the numbers and the size of it, at what was being gambled, it was to iments. But then some times I myself did marvel at what peple like Abe and Mary was doing, the peple who sweted so hard to kil what was already growing, just to make some thing new grow. The rocks they moved, tons and tons of rocks, the tree stumps they pult out, I remember seeing a grate big rok that was the size of a house it was in a farmers field, they blew it up with dinamite. I herd a bout some farmers, they had to hitch their wifes on to the plows, they didnt even have oxen, so the wifes pult the plows to brake the soil that first yr. So no wonder the farmers and the ranchers they didnt quite see eye to eye, it was becaus they each thot the other was fools for what they was gambling thats what I think And they was jus fiting over the land, thats al The ranches I remember was the Turkey Track, the 76, the Matador and the Hitchcock Ranch they was the big ones, and Sams Broken Fether Ranch was one. I remember going to some thing like a rodyo once, there was men racing and roping and such I remember my dad marvling at the way those men coud ride. Sam tho he wasnt a cow boy rancher he was a gentlman rancher, he didnt cum up from the States like a lot of them done, who was getting pushed out of busyness by homesteaders they thought they woud be safe from that up in Canada. Sam cum strait from Britain, he had family mony he was going invest his catpidal in to stock, thats a catle company, and make his self a forechin. but he had lots of set backs he lost some stock he lost some mony, luckly for him he had some horses to, he sold those to the Mounties regilairly. But then when the sodbusters started coming up from North Dickota and they setled on good ranching land, some times land that only should of been for pascher and they clamed it they fentsed it off and broke it up and be for long the ranchers almost didnt have nowhere to run there catle and more impotant than that they was running out of places to water there catle, the fentses was all in the way. there was a storm brewingthere thats for sure. some ranchers just up and quit they sold out there holdings. some stuck it out and tried to get the govermen to make laws. then there was Sam he was just ornry and he wasnt going let no one push him a bout. Thats why som fokes they thoght maybe Sam got into an argement with some farmer over land that just went to far it seemed by 1917 tho that the farms they was all over. Iph, she could stand up top on one of the hills and she could see the land streching out befor her it looked like a green and brown checkerd patch work quilt that was al rumpld on a bed. it was realy like that the land all made into squares it was like you werent looking at the earth at all it was like some thing made by humans hands. so anyway to get back to the mystory. Iphs best frend in the hole world was one of the ranch hands from Sams ranch, she saw him lots before but they didnt come frends until when she was forteen and at a shataqua they danced together. A shataqua, that was when evry body for miles a round gathered together Ther was tents and colord flags and plays put on by actors al after noon, and ther was music too. So anywys, I}