Harkness was known to be a
new-comer who lived with his wife and only daughter on the other side of
Skinners Pass. He was a "logger" and charcoal-burner, who had eaten his
way into the serried ranks of pines below the pass, and established in
these efforts an almost insurmountable cordon of fallen trees, stripped
bark, and charcoal pits around the clearing where his rude log
hut stood,--which kept his seclusion unbroken. He was said to be a
half-savage mountaineer from Georgia, in whose rude fastnesses he had
distilled unlawful whiskey, and that his tastes and habits unfitted him
for civilization. His wife chewed and smoked; he was believed to make a
fiery brew of his own from acorns and pine nuts; he seldom came to Rocky
Canyon except for provisions; his logs were slipped down a "shoot" or
slide to the river, where they voyaged once a month to a distant mill,
but HE did not accompany them. The daughter, seldom seen at Rocky
Canyon, was a half-grown girl, brown as autumn fern, wild-eyed,
disheveled, in a homespun skirt, sunbonnet, and boy's brogans.
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