Bound for Seattle

Then, that fall, George took the notion to go to Seattle. Previously, Tom and Hunt had gone out there with Lucy Kidd and were staying at Uncle Joe’s. George took a dislike to Dr. Ball and told him he was going to take me to Seattle. Dr. Ball encouraged him to do so. So, off to Seattle we went for the winter. Irma had a wonderful time on the trip. She earned quite a few shekels, singing for the passengers on the train. She was a cute little girl, with her long golden curls and her lovely eyes.

I do not remember how I managed on the way out, because my right arm was in a splint and I couldn’t do much with my left hand, though I did learn to write real well with my left hand before I was able to use my right again.

We arrived in Seattle about 10:30 at night and took a cab to a hotel. When we got there, George ordered Irma and me to stay outside while he registered. The cabby had taken our grips in. All of a sudden, George came storming out, carrying the grips and fairly frothing at the mouth, and started off down the street. Finally, I found out he thought they wanted too much for a room at the hotel, and I guess there were some words over it. Well, Irma and I followed along and then he got mad at me because the cab driver expressed sympathy for me having to start off following George, and me with my arm in a sling and with a little child trudging along at my side.

We finally "took up lodgings" in a crummy hotel. Guess George got tired of walking and turned in there. It surely was crummy. The bed was alive with bed bugs. We three got in bed - the one bed — and after the lights were out, the bugs introduced themselves to our blood bank. We turned on the light and murdered all we could catch, and then I dressed and sat up all night. George left the light on all night and he and Irma slept, but I didn’t.

In the morning, George piloted us out to some Chinese joint for breakfast. What a breakfast! I simply couldn’t eat a bite. Then we set out to find Uncle Joe’s residence. We got there shortly before Tom and Hunt got home for lunch. When I saw poor little Huntley, I was shocked to death! He was so thin and pale. Aunt Mary had their lunch set on the table, and believe it or not, all she had had for Huntley was a little plate of cold gooey potatoes that he had left from lunch the day before, and which he couldn’t eat. She said, with her smirk, "Joe said he had to eat them." When I look back and think how mean Joe and Mary were to those boys and how mean Joe afterwards was to me. I also remember how I used to have his kids stay at our place in Lumsden when they were going to school, and of the many things I did for them all. And then how Joe lied about me. I wonder why I was such a fool as to ever have any use for them. In fact, I had very little time for them, but he was my husband’s brother, though one would have thought he was my deadly enemy the way he treated me. While we were in Seattle that winter, Uncle Johnny, George’s brother, stayed with Eddie, took care of him and kept house for us.

We were at Uncle Joe’s until shortly before Grace was born. Then Uncle Rube and Aunt Stells insisted we go over to their place, which we did. They were good scouts. Aunt Stella was not at all well and I guess the children must have driven her nearly crazy. She used to have terrible headaches.

One time Irma had been asking too many questions and Aunt Stella said to her, "If you don’t stop asking me questions, I’ll go straight up." She said Irma just stood there, looked at her and said, "Well, Aunt Stella, you can’t go up very far ‘cause you can’t go through the ceiling." Then another day, she had tried to get Uncle Rube on the phone. She tried off and on all day and couldn’t succeed. Uncle Rube investigated and found the telephone wire had been cut. A thorough questioning followed and Huntley confessed he did it.

Aunt Stella must have been glad to see the last of us, though George showered gifts on her. Of course, she was awfully good to us. And so was Uncle Rube. Uncle Rube took a day off and took us to see a big merchant ship that was just in from somewhere on the other side and had had a terrible trip, especially rounding the Horn. The Captain said they encountered the worst storm he had ever encountered in all the years of his seamanship and that it took twelve men at the helm to keep her nose into the storm. She was covered with ice and had just pulled into port.

THE END

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