Page:From the West to the West.djvu/49

 it

happened, I hid the broken pieces in the ash hopper, and when they were found, I saved myself a whipping by telling my first lie/ "The Lord chasten^eth whom He loveth, my child/" I once saw a mill-hand strike his wife," retorted Jean, "and he said, as she rubbed her bruises, ' I love you, Mollie. Take another kick! ' But I must go now. Be of good cheer. And remember, when I get to Oregon and get to making money, you shall have every cent that I can spare."

V

SALLY O'DOWD

GREAT excitement prevailed in the rural neighborhood when it became generally known that John Ranger, Junior, had sold the farm and was preparing to dispose of his sawmill and all his personal belongings, with the intention of departing to the new and far-away West in an ox-wagon train with his family, — an undertaking that seemed to his friends as foolhardy as would have been an attempt to reach the North Pole with his wife and children in a balloon.

Of more than ordinary ability, enterprise, and daring, John Ranger had long been a man of note in his bailiwick. Twice he had represented his county in the State Legislative Assembly; but when the Old Line Whigs of his district offered to nominate him for Congress, — " No, gentlemen!" he exclaimed. "I started out early in life to assist my good wife in rearing and educating a big family of young Americans. I frankly admit that we've got a bigger job on hand than either of us imagined it would be when we made the bargain; but that doesn't lessen our mutual responsibility. There is always a regiment, more or less, of unencumbered m