Running a Sawmill and a Store Up Country. 289 



instance easy enough to turn the tables on him, for of course such 

 unnecessarily large slabs meant a waste of wood. The reprimand 

 I was able to give the fellow was followed by a very deserved bodily 

 chastisement by hands that had long been itching for the chance. 

 Going with the millwright to the mill, I demonstrated to him the 

 injustice of his complaint by ordering him to lift the last slab cut. 

 He was unable to do this, and, nettled by the unexpected turn 

 things were taking, he was foolish enough to give the B.B. the lie 

 direct concerning some statement of fact the latter made. Two 

 black eyes and a flattened out nose to keep them company taught 

 the Canadian a lesson which made him civil in future. 



The store, which was doing a rushing business with the 

 employees and with the Indians, was also the source of some 

 funny little experiences. I had put it under the charge of another 

 B.B., who declared himself specially fit for that duty, for he proudly 

 informed me that he had been a clerk in a Lombard Street bank. 

 His book-keeping was faultless, also his adaptability to the exigencies 

 of running a brisk trade in an up-country general store where the 

 "general" covered every conceivable article from hand-me-down 

 boots and ready-made clothes to saddles and ammunition, from flour 

 and bacon to syrup, from rope to nails and axes, from felt hats to 

 drugs, patent medicines, and stationery. The only detail of the busi- 

 ness he objected to was the Indian trade, for their practice of pricing 

 every article in the store, tantalizingly slow ways, and ignorance of 

 money values by the end of the summer they knew more about it 

 raised his ire. I had ordered from a Montreal wholesale house 

 some gaudily coloured " flannelette " shirts, specially recommended 

 for the Indian trade. I did not know what flannelette was, and I 

 don't know now, but they were remarkably cheap. They were also 

 beautiful to look at as they came out of the packing cases, for the 

 reds and blues and greens stood up and shrieked at you, and made 

 your eyes bulge and parched your mouth. Nothing like them had 

 ever been seen in the Kootenay country, and I thought they would 

 sell well towards winter, when nice warm colours would be accept- 

 able. The summer toilette of the Kootenays, as already mentioned, 



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