i8 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



A Christmas Story 



by 



IDAH McGLONE GIBSON 



When 'Barney 'Butted In 



UHuitiated by Supplement:) 



Wash Drawing 



by 



THOMAS J. NICHOLL 



"I wonder if Barney's goin' to town to- 

 night?" said Dave to the camp oracle as he 

 rilled bis pipe before the crackling logs: 



"Goin' to town on Christmus Eve?" ex- 

 claimed the camp oracle. "Of course, he is. 

 Ye couldn't keep old Barney away from his 

 boy "ii i IniMiiuis Eve if ye paid him the price 

 ■of the whole winter's cut." 



"His boy?." repeated the man who had 

 joined the crew only a month before. "I 

 thought Barney was au old batch who'd 

 learned to rook by bavin' to do it for him- 

 self." 



"He is an old batch," answered the camp 



oracle; "Imt lie's responsible for about tin' 

 cutest youngster in Wisconsin jess the same, 

 if bringin' its father through the smallpox 

 and playin' widwife at the bornin ' of the 

 baby makes a man responsible for it. Boys, 

 Barney's a hero, jess like one of them fellers 

 that Shakespeare or Tennyson writ about in 

 the time ot Christ, when he said, 'Kind 

 hearts are worth more than gold-plated cor- 

 nets, and the best blooded Norman colt isn't 

 in it with the man that knows he can do 

 things and goes ahead and does 'em.' Of 

 je, them ain't jess the words, Imt that's 

 what the poet meant," said the oracle, as he 

 looked about on the admiring faces of the 

 men. 



"Gosh, .loo, ye must have read a lot in 

 your time," said the youngest man in the 

 gang.. 



"Not so much, lad," answered the oracle, 

 modestly; "but, ye see. what I read I remem- 

 ber. P'raps if I hadn't been so all-bred fond 

 of leadin' I might bine 'mounted to more. 

 The boss and me was boys together, an. I ye 

 .an see where I come in now;, but I always 

 thought that the man who said 'Burn up your 

 obi wood; remember that whisky that has age 

 is the- smoothest goin' .down; never trusi a 

 $111 bill to anyone but your oldest friend, and 



you can fuel mighty good readin' in a 1 k 



f' si an feller before ye has torn tin 

 cover off,' was pretty near right in his views 

 of livin '. ' ' 



Tin- youngest man looked at the oracle ad- 

 miringly and then remarked: "I'll bet the 

 boss don't never read nothin' but the lumber 

 trade papers. What makes him so thick with 

 Barney?" he asked curiously. "Old Har- 

 ney's only the i-ook, ami they sav the bo 

 worth more 'n a million. ' ' 



"Well, ye see, lad," said tin- oracle, "Bar- 

 ney fixed up a little mistake that the boss 

 made birce and hi' never forgot it, and if he 

 should forgit for a minut I think that party 

 daughter-in-law of hisn would bring him up 

 short. Why, I've seerf her with her arms 

 'round Ban neck, and her nice dress all 



flour from tryin' to kiss him while he was 



. makin ' the biscuits for supper." 



"She ain't no relation of hisn, is she?" 

 asked t he youngest man. 



"No; but he saved her life once and 

 helped bring her boy into the world when 

 everybody bad forsaken her and the kid's 

 father. ' ' 



"Tell us about it," said the youngest 

 man. "Old Barney don't look like no hero 

 to me. I can tell ye." 



"Heroes don't always look like we think 

 they do, ' ' affirmed the oracle. Just then the 

 cook appeared at the door to call the boy- to 

 supper, and surely he was far from a heroic 

 figure as he stood there with his cap partly 

 covering bis grizzled head, his striped woolen 

 shirt open at the throat, and bis sleeves above 

 the elbow showing bis sinewy arms and neck. 

 The deep set eyes were kindly, and the 

 wrinkles about the face showed there tad 

 been more smiles on the gray-mustached 

 mouth than frowns on the good-natured 

 brow . 



"Hurry up, ye sons-of-guns, " the cook 

 thundered. "Didn't ye hear the horn? I'm 

 in a hurry tonight. My boy is waitin' for 

 Santy Clans.- and Santy can't eel there till 

 1 show up. (let a move on ye. ami I'll be 

 back in time to lix ye up sometbin' fine tor 

 Christmus dinner tomorrow." 



"Barney's boy" was an object of interest 

 i i every man in the camp, not so much be- 

 cause be was the grandson of tl old man" 



as because of the fact that bis birth was at 

 tended by a thrilling incident which appealed 

 to the great simple heart of every lumber- 

 jack who winked in the Wisconsin camp ai 

 that time. 



Alen who live much in the open, whose work 

 is the hardest ami whose fare is the simplest. 

 an- real children, ready to accord admiration 

 and regard where it is due. They extend their 

 confidence quickly and give their sympathy 

 sincerely where it is needed. They are ever 

 ready to "ivo praise for a great act of 

 heroism; lint it must be primitive and show 

 upon it- face just what it is. They are not 

 troubled by the subtleties of conventionality 

 in their measure of a man. The oracle re- 

 marked one day when excusing a slight lapse 

 from grace on the part of one of their num- 

 ber: "As the Irish poet Burns said, a man's 

 a man and I hat '- all there is to it." Con- 

 sequently old Barney, the cook, was reverenced 

 and slightly envied by all the old crew of the 

 Wisconsin camp. Re had done what any one 

 of them would have done bad he been given 

 a chance. However, there were a few men 

 in the camp that winter who were new, and 

 they began to grumble a little after supper 

 because tie- cook gave them such meager fare 

 on Christmas Eve. 



"Don't you make no mistake, pardner, " 

 said the oracle ; ' ' you '11 get a turkey dinner 

 tomorrow, all right. The old man always sets 

 up turkey and toddy for Christmas, and we've 

 got the cook that can fix 'em up right; but 

 Christmus Eve belongs to Barney and his boy, 

 and I think if this whole camp was to go 

 straight to hell if Barney went to visit him, 

 still he would go to the kid. ' ' 



"Tell us about it, Joe," said the youngest 

 man. The oracle needed no further excuse, 

 for iie dearly loved to bear himself talk. 



"It was about four years ago last sum- 

 mer that the old man bad a quarrel with his 

 son. The old man, ye see, wanted the boy 

 to go to college, put on dog, and he a reg'lar 

 dude; said he didn't want him to work as 

 he'd done; that he'd enough money to make 

 him a college professor. But the youngster 

 was jess wild about the woods, and nothin' 

 would do but he must go into one of the 

 camps for the winter. Ye see, the kid had 

 fallen in love with the purty daughter of the 

 boss of this camp, and the old man seemed 

 to think she wasn't good enough for his son, 

 although the boy's mother herself came near 

 marryin ' the boss instead of the old man. 

 Well, things got to be pretty bad between 

 'em ; the old man said the boy should go to 

 college in the fall, and the kid said he would 

 marry the girl and go into camp in the 

 winter. 



" 'Not in my camp, sir,' thundered the old 

 man one day. 



" 'Then into some other one.' answered the 

 be, as he slammed out the door. 



"He went straight to the old man's worst 

 enemy and got a job in the camp just below 

 here, and then he married the girl. All sum- 

 mer the two lived over there in a little shack 

 — the girl called it a bunggaloo — that the boy 

 had built himself, and as both were erazj 

 about the woods as well as each other, they 

 were very, very happy. When winter came 

 the girl stayed right along in the place. The 

 boy banked the snow all round the bouse, put 

 in double window lights and double doors, and 

 every mornin' we could hear him whistle as 

 he started out for work. Old Barney 

 used to steal over often to the bunggaloo, and 

 as he always made hot biscuits for supper on 

 the niehts be went, the boys wen- always glad 

 to see him go. Along about Christmus Bar- 

 e. 3 begun to look a bit serious, and we didn't 

 even catcha glimpse of the girl's bright face 

 as we sheepishly passed by the bunggaloo once 

 in a while. Finally, the word got round that 

 there was goin ' to be a baby over at the 

 bunggaloo and that Barney was goin' to make 

 a try the next time the old man came up to 

 get him to go over to see his boy and the 

 girl wife. 



