Those WJio Live in the Country 27 



Harte's, 'How Santa Claus Came to Simpson's 

 Bar,' but I've never heard of any o' the great 

 story-tellers puttin' an old ox-team into a Santa 

 Claus yarn. Guess it's 'cause them horned crit- 

 ters don't travel fast enough. As ye know, they 

 are some slower 'n reindeer an' bronchos. Likely 

 that's the reason. 



''This little incident that I'm proceedin' with 

 happened 'way back in the early days when blazed 

 trails was numerous an' snake an' brush fences 

 lined what roads we had. I was jest a youth then 

 an' I wasn't an only child either. Only-child 

 families wasn't the fashionable kind with the 

 pioneers, an' our family averaged up pretty 

 well fer size, with me the oldest o' the 

 bunch. 



"Our log-cabin on the bush farm was jest about 

 filled to capacity an' was several miles from the 

 nearest village. 



"Fer days an' days before Christmas that year 

 it snowed an' blowed. The wind jest seemed to 

 have completely lost control o' itself an' tore 

 through woods an' clearin' pilin' the snow up in 

 tremendous heaps. 



"There wasn't well-filled cellars below the ca- 

 bins o' the pioneers them times an' our provi- 

 sions, 'ceptin' deer meat, had been runnin' low 

 when that storm came on. Jest the mornin' afore 

 Christmas mother had turned the oatmeal bag in- 

 side out to get enough fer the breakfast porridge. 

 Dad looked kind o' anxious when he saw the last 



