138 THE COUNTRY BOY 



his family were naturally as much worried 

 as we, though no news had come from him. 

 That afternoon Jake came from the moun- 

 tains; he had reached there just at daybreak, 

 he said. No one was stirring around the log 

 cabin; said he called but no one came. He 

 finally went in and found them all sick and 

 in bed. Hult asked him to see about the chil- 

 dren over a few beds away from his. He 

 said, "I ain't got them to answer since yester- 

 day some time. And they ain't none of them 

 taken their medicine lately." 



Jake was looking them over when he slowly 

 took his hat oiF. He found that out of the 

 large family, four of the children were dead, 

 so he came to town after coffins and medicine, 

 and was soon on the way back with the doctor. 

 Then next day he came as a funeral all by 

 himself; he had hitched his mare in with Hult's 

 mule, and as he passed through town with four 

 small coffins in the vehicle on his way to the 

 gi-avej'^ard, most everybody joined him and 

 went with him. Those were the times when 

 Jake McClaine didn't have a partner, no 

 matter how many firms he was in. 



