Across the river from their house was a lot of fruit trees and a cellar which had evidently
been used as a root cellar because there were shelves in it and a table where fruit and vegetables
were prepared for storage. On one table was a brass lamp. Someone said it was called an
Aladdin's lamp. This was indeed the best place they had ever lived.
In the attic where Lillie spent a lot of time, were old trunks, boxes and barrels. In the
trunks were old fashioned dresses and hats. Lillie dearly loved putting them on. There was an old
Edison phonograph there also. It was different from any she had ever seen. The records were
like long pipes or cylinders. The were slipped over the end of the machine and a needle set down
on the cylinder and turned on. Music came out of it, not really the way people sang nowadays but
it was pretty anyway. Matt, who sometimes thought he was an engineer, took the phonograph
and made some kind of lifting device of it, or a hoist. There went Lillie's music, which she
enjoyed.
There were lots of big yellow centipedes in the house, especially behind the wallpaper and
at night, one could hear them crawling around. Sometimes in the daytime, they could be seen on
top of a box and once in a while, even on the pillows. It was scary but no one was ever stung by
one. One day, Lillie, Johnny and Georgie were playing in the barn and found a nest of tiny pink
baby mice. There was an ant nest outside and she and Johnny put one of the mice in the ant nest.
They tried to make Georgie go in after it in his little bare feet but Artie came out and rescued him
and the baby mouse. Then Lillie and johnny had to put the baby back in with it's mamma.
In the barn were old buggies, wagons, saddles and many things they had never before
seen. They enjoyed pulling the smaller buggy into the yard and playing in it. There was nearly
always a fight as to which one would be the driver. One day, Johnny and Georgie were in the
middle of a violent discussion when their father walked up and told them to stop or he would take
off his belt and use it. Georgie said, "If you do, your pants will fall down." They both found out
it was not daddy's pants that came down.
To go to town after the few groceries they bought was sometimes an all day chore.
Whoever went, had to walk down the middle of the river bed and cross what was called Galena
Gulch, then strike off cross country to the town. It was several miles and usually Artie was the
one who had to go and she would take Lillie or Johnny with her. She had to get them back across
the Gulch and up on the bank on the far side before noon or risk the afternoon rains in the
mountains which would bring the gulch full of water, roaring down into the river. If they failed to
make it, they would then have to wait until the water went down, which could be late afternoon.
There was a cable across the gulch where a person could swing across, hand over hand but as
frightened as Lillie was of water, it was never done. It was always the children that made the trip
because their father didn't dare be seen in town. There was still the matter of the warrant that
had been issued for him.
One day, Uncle Mart and Aunt Ellen came and brought their kids for a visit and spent
several days. It was a hilarious visit and everyone enjoyed it. They had a new baby girl, only a
few weeks old and Lillie wanted to hold it but Aunt Ellen was always afraid for her to, so she
always refused. But one day, the aunt was at the corral where Lillie's mamma was milking and
Lillie asked Uncle Mart if she could hold the baby. She could get almost anything from him so he
set her back in the of the bed and put the baby in her lap, but cautioned her not to tell Aunt Ellen.
Upon finally relinquishing her hold on the child, she ran to the corral where the two sisters
were. When asked what she was so excited about, she bubbled all over and said, "I got to hold
the baby but Uncle Mart said not to tell you."
During this visit, Artie had picked a beautiful big bunch of cherries from the orchard
across the river and put them on a shelf in the dugout to save for Grandma who was supposed to
come soon for a visit. One day, she saw the oldest cousin eating some cherries and upon
checking, she found hers gone. She confronted Anne with the theft and she said "No, I got these
from the tree outside the kitchen door." But Artie knew she lied because hers was gone and the
tree referred to was a black walnut tree.
One day, Lillie was playing across the river when she decided she had to go to the
outhouse. Since there was none there and she couldn't wait, she unpinned her drawers and took
care of the matter. But upon arising and trying to pin them up, she dropped the pin. On looking
for it, she failed to see her mother on the bank across the river, waving to her. She didn't find the
pin but did see a Gila monster coming toward her. She hadn't seen many of them but she knew
what it was and that you don't try to make friend with them. Then she heard her mother calling
frantically for her to hurry back across the river. She called back and she couldn't find her pin but
Mamma said to forget it and hurry anyway. She knew it must be important because they had very
few pins and had to take care of the ones they had. So she grabbed the waistband in her hand and
with her dress hiked up, she began to run. As she got out into the river bed, she heard a terrible
roar as though all the thunder in the world was coming at her. She looked up river and all her life,
she remembered what she saw. For a moment, she was paralyzed with fright for coming toward
her, was the biggest wall of muddy water she had ever seen and on the top of it she could see
huge trees which had been uprooted. She looked toward her mother who was coming down the
bank after her. She began to run and her mother grabbed her hand and together, they ran up the
bank. They looked back where Lillie had been standing and saw nothing but swirling, angry water
and, as far down the river as they could see, they saw the trees rolling along. On her right was the
gulch and it looked the same way, with water going into the river and going down stream. It was
the most frightful sight she had ever seen and even when older, she could not look at flood water
without feeling her tummy fall. Never did she get over her fear of water. Daddy and the boys
were across the river and they could see them standing, watching it. But until it all receded, they
could not get across.
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