Alaska -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature
"Big Wilbur," who reported the scene to me afterwards, said that Bill's
face "went white as chalk, and then flushed red as fire." He jumped at
the doctor as though he were going to assault him.
"By God," he cried, "he's not goin' to die. We'll not let him, Doc. See
here: When I had the fever at Dawson, what saved me was cow's milk.
Now, there's a cow here. You come with me, and we'll go see her."
"That cow," explained Wilbur, "was a wonderful animal. Her owner sold
twenty gallons of milk a day from her, and she didn't look as if she
gave one. Bill knew the owner was doping the milk with condensed milk
and corn-starch and water and other stuff. So he strapped on his two
big guns. He's great for bluff, is Bill. Doc. and I went along to see
the fun. We found the owner in the stable 'tending to his cow. Bill
didn't beat around the bush any.
"'You look here' he said. 'Your cow's givin' too darned much milk. Now
this man I want it for is my father, an' he's got enough microbes in
him already. Doc. here, analyzed your milk; didn't you, Doc?' (Doc.
Davy was game, and nodded.) 'He says you put tundra water and all
kinds of dope in it. I'm goin' to keep tab on you, an' if you dope
my milk--well, you know _me_! It don't make no difference what you
charge--a dollar a bottle or five dollars a bottle--my father's got to
have pure milk. Understand?'"
For three months Billy went to the stable every day and superintended
the milking. At a cost to him, sometimes, of three dollars for a pint
bottle, and never less than a dollar a bottle, the "bad man" brought
me every day, with his own hands, a bottle of fresh milk. When Bill
and the doctor came in with that first bottle Mrs. Perrigo carefully
raised my head and gave me a brimming glass of the rich milk. I drank
it all and dropped off to sleep. I needed no more whiskey. The turning
point of my illness was that glass of cow's milk. Bill's big bluff
saved my life!
To show the rough, yet fine sentiment of the man, let me tell one last
word about the lone cow. She went dry before spring, and, as the camp
was crazy for fresh meat, the owner butchered her. One of the Odd
Fellows told me. Said he, "Bill just went wild when he heard of it, and
we had all we could do to keep him from going gunning for the man who
killed the cow that saved your life. Why, that man would lay down his
life for you, and laugh while he was doin' it."
I would I could tell of Bunch-grass Bill's conversion and entire
reformation, but this is a true story, and I never heard that he ever
got so far as that. This much, however, I am proud to tell. One day in
the spring of 1900, when the army of gold-seekers was beginning to land
on the "Golden Beach," I was standing with Bill near his saloon. On a
sudden impulse I spoke to him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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