Buffalo Roost: A Story of a Young Men's Christian Association Boys' DepartmentCheley, Frank H. (Frank Howbert)
Religion
Buffalo Roost: A Story of a Young Men's Christian Association Boys' Department
Cheley, Frank H. (Frank Howbert)
Christian fiction; Young men's Christian associations -- Fiction
Mr. Allen and a few picked fellows had made a trip the week before,
primarily to take up a supply of food for the mason and his helper, and
had gotten the entire frame of the addition up, ready to roof and
shingle.
The next week another small group went up to roof the addition and close
it in so as to keep out the snow, if, perchance, it might come before
they were able to finish the improvements. They found the fireplace
completed, crude but artistic, of jagged boulders with an immense cement
hearth. The iron crane had been built in, and now hung lazily in the big
fire-box.
Next came the cutting of the aspen poles for the floor of the addition.
They had hoped to get at least one layer of boughs on the great bed so
that the next time a larger crowd could be accommodated, but the long
autumn shadows warned them that twilight was approaching long before they
started it, so consequently they had to go back without seeing that task
accomplished. The curtains had been put on the windows, white oilcloth
had been tacked on the board tables, and a mirror, if you please, was
hung over the tin wash basin just inside the door. Hooks made of crooked
branches were fastened upon the logs on which to hang coats and
haversacks. The place had really undergone a genuine transformation.
"Well," said Ham, as he took a long drink from the bucket of fresh water
that stood on the kitchen table, "that's the best water that ever flowed
down a mountain side. There's life and health in every shining drop of
it. To tell you the real truth, fellows, I'm beginning to feel mightily
at home here in this little shack. Shack! that doesn't sound right,
though, does it? What are we going to call this place, anyway, Mr. Allen?
Y.M.C.A. Cabin is no good. It sounds too civilized. Now, does that old
fireplace look civilized? And that iron crane, and those twisted rustic
seats in the corner, and that bed out there big enough to accommodate
twenty fellows? It reminds me of a home the old Vikings must have had
long ago, way up in the great pine woods of Northern Europe. Someway, it
has a look of health and strength about it that I like. Don't you see the
smile on that old fire-box? Can't you hear the happy peasant children
gathered there on that hearth singing their woodland songs and drinking
their mugs of warm soup? Then, over yonder, all stretched out, his head
to the fire, lies a great, gaunt dog, tired from the chase. Then the tap,
tap on the wooden floor of the old woman's cane as she hobbles about
the cabin. Can't you smell the bear haunch that's roasting there on that
long spit before the fire? Don't you hear the merry music of the ax, just
outside the door, as brawny arms swing it, cutting the great backlog for
the long night? Civilized? Yes, in a way, but not in our way, is it? But
what are we going to call this cabin?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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