CHARACTERISTICS OF OREGON 



damp and sloppy throughout the winter 

 months, but the summers are bright, ripening 

 the wheat and allowing it to be garnered in 

 good condition. Taken as a whole, the weather 

 is bland and kindly, and like the forest trees 

 the crops and cattle grow plump and sound 

 in it. So also do the people; children ripen well 

 and grow up with limbs of good size and fiber 

 and, unless overworked in the woods, live to a 

 good old age, hale and hearty. 



But, like every other happy valley in the 

 world, the sunshine of this one is not without 

 its shadows. Malarial fevers are not unknown 

 in some places, and untimely frosts and rains 

 may at long intervals in some measure dis 

 appoint the hopes of the husbandman. Many 

 a tale, good-natured or otherwise, is told con 

 cerning the overflowing abundance of the 

 Oregon rains. Once an English traveler, as the 

 story goes, went to a store to make some pur 

 chases and on leaving found that rain was fall 

 ing; therefore, not liking to get wet, he stepped 

 back to wait till the shower was over. Seeing 

 no signs of clearing, he soon became impatient 

 and inquired of the storekeeper how long he 

 thought the shower would be likely to last. 

 Going to the door and looking wisely into the 

 gray sky and noting the direction of the wind, 

 the latter replied that he thought the shower 



279 



