Page:Cathlamet On the Columbia.djvu/161

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THE PIONEERS


of hardship for this white family.The duties of the man compelled him to be away from home and to be at Oregon City, Salem and other points a great portion of the time, and his wife was left alone with her children.

His income was ridiculously small, and was almost consumed in traveling and similar expenses, so that the improvement of the place grew very slowly, and household comforts were not to be had, and the surroundings made the young wife's position a very hard one.

One of the peculiarities of Indian life is the little apparent effed that an Indian village has upon wild animals in its proximity. The large gray wolf, the most knowing and elusive of animals, will loiter around the outskirts of an Indian village, and upon occasions will come into it almost as fearlessly as the native dogs. It