Pges 124-126

My father began talking and making plans for the Portland trip.  He had received another letter, wanting them to come, stating he had several houses for them to build.  But father wrote that it probably would be the middle of January or February before they could come.  Mother said, "The sooner you go, the sooner you will be back."
     "That's true," Father said. "But we do not know what the winter will be like, I think it best we wait until the winter breaks away, for we know very little of this country."
    January went by slowly, storms came often, and the days were getting longer and colder.  Father and brother got the firewood sawed and piled against the time when they would be gone.  With all of it though, January slipped away, and towards the last week, a Chinook wind came up and we had a January thaw.  Father and brother packed their suitcases and tool boxes and were off.  They took the stage to Burley and the train to Portland.  It seemed lonely for a while, my sister-in-law especially.  She had the children, but she was expecting, and one didn't feel too well at times.  And one becomes blue and lonely, where they wouldn't be otherwise.  They came often to our house and we went to their place to help pass the time away.
     Our neighbors would bring the mail when they passed our way.  Mother and my sister-in-law would sometimes get two letters at a times.  They were doing well and had more work than they could handle.  Jim wrote regularly, as did I, and I would get them the same way.
     One afternoon I just happened to be gazing down the lane, and who should I see coming but Jim.  Was I glad.  I couldn't get out of the door fast enough.  He said he had written saying he would come, but I hadn't received the letter yet.  He said "It seemed so long,"  thought he'd never get back and figured it must be lonely for us with father and brother away.  But Mother told him we had been getting along real well, with all of our good neighbors. 
     The weather continued to get better and, in fact, the grass seemed to look a little green in places where the snow was off.  Jim stayed for a week, and never had we enjoyed one's company more.  He stacked wood under the back porch for us, and helped my sister-in-law with things she needed help with.  We wished he could stay and help until Father and brother come back, but he said the next time he came he would come with the team and wagon and load of poles and wire, for he wanted to get at the fencing of our place as soon as spring came.  We were now in February, and the ozone in the air made one happy to be alive.  Jim and I took advantage of that week and stayed near each other, and never did a week go so fast.  Jim brought the pictures we had taken at Thanksgiving, I had almost forgot about them, they were extra nice, except he, Jim, had a small dark spot on his nose, ant the boys said that was where I had hit him!  He also asked if I had written to his mother.  I said, "just a few days ago"  " I Thought you would write sooner," he returned, "well" I said, "I had to make up my mind to it, but I'll write oftener from now on." "Good," he replied, "for I know they would want to hear from you."
     Jim and I walked down by Shirley Creek where he had asked me to be his wife, but the little mountain stream looked cold and forbidding.  It was so frozen on its edges that it hardly looked like it had room to run.  But still it rushed on even under the ice.  Snow higher up would be melting and the little creek would take on the looks of a much bigger stream.  We walked around for some time, making plans, and talking all the while.
     Jim finally said, "come now, you will take cold out here, and I wouldn't want my little girl to get sick, especially when I'll be away from you." 
     We looked up at the mountain like hill with its snow covered sides and thought of summer and the beautiful flowers that would grow there.  And as we walked toward the house, Mother came out and said, "I was just going to call you in.  You'll both be sick.  It's much too cold and damp for one to be out very long."
   
"Just coming, Mother," Jim answered.  Then we both dashed toward the house, and what a delicious meal! Mother especially hoped so, she said.  After supper, when we were sitting in the living room, the glow from the fire of the quaken aspen wood made a cheery scene  I always did love to smell wood burning, and this wood burning seemed more so.
     My sister thought she would play the piano awhile, so Jim and I sang with her while Mother sat writing to father, In fact, almost every day she wrote one to him.  She wrote of the weather and how we were getting along, and that the weather hadn't been too bad, but when darkness came over the valley, the weather took on a change.  Clouds had settled, and snowflakes were sifting down when Jim came back in after seeing that Beauty and father's team of horses were all right for the night with plenty of feed.
    The next morning we were confronted with more snow.  After breakfast, Jim cleared the paths around the yard and one to the little mountain stream and brought back a bucket of water for use in the house.  That little creek was supposed to purify itself every thirty or so feet by running though gravel and over rocks.  But we sometimes wondered,  for of all the places we had lived and the water we had drank, that was the purest and nicest tasting.  Friends of ours that came out from Rupert to visit used to take two or Three glass jugs of it with them home.
     And so the snowy morning passed, and the next morning Jim would be going back.  That afternoon, though the sun did come from behind the clouds to shine until sundown, and the storm seemed to be over for that day anyway, for which mother was glad.
     Jim took Mother's and my sister-in-laws letters with him when he left the next morning, to mail them at Rupert.  As usual, Beauty seemed eager to go.  She did not seem to like this snowy valley,  Jim hated to leave, said he wished he could stay on, but had stock to care for in Rupert.  Also said, as he got in the buggy , that it would work out one day, and hoped it wouldn't be long.  Giving me one last kiss, he reined Beauty into the road and waved  As he did so, I again took up my lookout station with my spy glasses from the front window and once again he was at the top of the hill heading out of the canyon and gone from view,  I waved as usual, and so did he, but neither could see the other wave just last gestures of each other.
     Three days went by, and I got another letter.  The letter was full of plans for us and our home.  and our ranch.  It was a long, wonderful letter, I read it over and over.  Would all this happen to us>  I could hardly wait to answer it.
    And in the meantime, I had gotten such a lovely, motherly letter from Jim's mother in answer to the one I had sent o her.  She wrote, in part, "form all the things Jim has written, we know we will love you and welcome you into our family like our own daughter.,"  The letter went on telling of their home in Iowa, relatives, etc,  "but perhaps Jim has told you all about us as he has told about you and your good parents"  and wound up by saying she hoped I would write again when I had the time.  Well, time was of little importance right then, but I would answer it later.  Mm's was to be answered first.  I sat writing that night after supper until Mother said we had better go to bed. but I did finish Jim's letter, addressing and stamping it , and laid I aside before retiring.
     The next cay when several of our neighbors stopped by to see how we were getting alon, they said they were going to the Post Office and would mail the letters for us.  My sister's friend came every so often, and they would go to parties.  I was invited, but would decline, and sometimes, so used to going and with Jim so far away, I felt left out.  I was young and life was so full of fun,  I could enjoy myself doing most anything, even to sewing house dresses mother had cut out for me to sew, also a pretty pink kimono I made for myself.