Grizzly Peak one time,
but it swallowed its tail and become invisible to the human eye, though
they could still hear its low note of pleading. Also, they had Herman
looking for a mated couple of the spinach bug for which the Smithsonian
Institution had offered a reward of five hundred dollars, cash.

Herman fell for it all--all this old stuff that I had kicked the slats
out of my trundle-bed laughing at. And in between exciting adventures
with his fowling piece he'd write himself some pieces of poetry in a
notebook, all about the cows and the clouds and other natural objects. He
would also recite poetry written by other Germans, if let. And at night
he'd play on a native instrument shaped like a potato, by blowing into
one cavity and stopping up other cavities to make the notes. It would be
slow music and make you think of the quiet old churchyard where your
troubles would be o'er; and why not get there as soon as possible? Sad
music!

So Herman was looked on as a harmless imbecile by one and all till Eloise
Plummer come over to help in the kitchen while the haying crew was here
last summer. And Eloise looked on him as something else. She looked on
Herman as one of them that make it unsafe for girls to leave home. She
had good reason to.

Eloise is in the prime of young womanhood; but this is just exactly as
fur as any fair-minded judge would go to say of her as a spectacle. Her
warmest adherents couldn't hardly get any warmer than that if put under
oath. She has a heart of gold undoubtedly, but a large and powerful face
that would belong rightly to the head director of a steel corporation
that's worked his way up from the bottom.

It is not a face that has ever got Eloise pestered with odious attentions
from the men. Instead of making 'em smirk and act rough, but playful, it
made 'em think that life, after all, is more serious than most of us
suspect in our idle moments. It certainly is a face to make men think.
And inspiring this black mood in men had kind of reacted on Eloise till
they couldn't quite see what they was ever intended for. It was natural.

I don't say the girl could of cooked all winter in a lumber camp and not
been insulted a time or two; but it wasn't fur from that with her.

So you can imagine how bitter she was when this Herman nut tried to make
up to her. Herman was a whirlwind wooer; I'll say that for him. He told
her right off that she was beautiful as the morning star and tried to
kiss her