he was snow-blind, had burned his eyes
and was in awful shape. As Justice of the Peace
Papa had to settle a good many quarrels.
Whenever anyone had a legal question
they brought it to him. For one lawsuit
involving some horses and cattle
they imported a lawyer from Red Cliff ,
and Papa was judge. There was no jury.
I wanted to hear what was going on.
The stovepipe in the spare bedroom
had been changed, and a hole left,
so I laid on the fl oor upstairs
and listened to the trial going on.
I remember one day coming home
and a bunch of men who broke the game laws
had been brought before Papa. One man
talked a long time and almost cried.
They fi ned him and then suspended his sentence.
In those days people came in here
and shot any game they wanted.
They took it out or left it,
just as they pleased. Lots of deer and elk
were killed just for the head and horns.
So they began to have game laws.
Papa was on the election board,
and they had the elections at our house
before the school house was ...
recedes, the voice of the woman who had
earlier begun to speak emerges
I was going to tell you about the time
Chief McCook made a search for Ouray's bones --