Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/44

 the women did not often come for the mail, it was their hour for washing dishes. Hugh sat down on a bench in the corner to listen to the talk going on about him in all degrees of broken English. It concerned mostly the lost Edmonds boys, but occasionally drifted back to the universal subject,  the war, for this was the time when the American  army was gathering in France, when Russia was  crumbling, when the first pinch of winter was  beginning to be felt abroad and the cry was going  up over all the world to America for bread. By and by the general talk died away and all began  to listen to some one who was airing a grievance  very loudly on the other side of the room. He was a big man with a rough corduroy coat and  a rougher voice which he raised very loud in the  height of his indignation.

“I tell you there wasn’t a better bale of furs in the whole Green River country. I got some myself, trapping, and bought some from the Indians, and there wasn’t one pelt but was a beauty,  but the brown bear skin was the best of all. Five