As I Remember, Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

      We stayed there for three years. Every fall, we would lock the place up and go down to Idaho for a visit. We would leave Old Jack home to guard everything. The back door of the shop, leading up to the stairway was his home. Through the main door, I had cut a small one. Hinged from the top, it would swing either way. He could come and go as he pleased. When we would get ready to leave, we would make sure there was plenty of dog food in there. Also a faucet of water was left dripping into a bucket. When we were already to go, I would set down beside him and tell him.. “Wait here, Jack. Wait right here until we come back.” Then he would thump the porch with his tail and lick me on the side of the face. Then I knew that he understood. Usually we were gone about ten days. But when we returned, he would come bounding off that porch barking with joy. I believe he would of stayed there until he starved to death if we had not come home.

      Then one day late in the afternoon, a car drove up in front of the shop. And tied to the back bumper, sticking straight up, was a great big sage brush. I wondered what the devil was going on. But soon I found out. The grinning face of brother Dell was behind the wheel. Beside him was Lillian. Dell had completely recovered from the ‘bug’ or whatever it was that he had caught in nodded. “Don’t it make you homesick for good old Idaho?” Note. Sagebrush don’t grow on the west coast. I sniffed and nodded. “I guess it does, just a little.” Dell took the big sagebrush off the car and leaned it up by the garage door. “Keep smelling it.” he said. “Because we want you to come back to Idaho. We need you down there.” Then Dell told me. Financed by Dad, he had started up a small box factory at the Dewey packing shed at Little Rock. It was making nothing but money. But when the fruit harvest come, he would have to move out of there. Dad would sell me his half interest for just the amount of money he had invested. We would build a new building. Dell was a good talker and soon had me convinced. After all, there is no place like home. I knew a fellow that wanted to buy me out and he had the cash. In a short time we were back in Idaho. Good bye Pratum.