JOHN MINTO 335
mook Head, where the first bench rises above the stream from which we drank as we followed the old trail of Lewis and Clark, a little before emerging upon the stony beach.
We lingered among those venerable wind-racked trees that stand so valiantly as outguards of the forest of Tillamook, and it was easy to imagine Captain Clark and his frontiers- men padding along the ancient Indian trail that winds among them, on their way to Elk Creek. These, many of them, were old trees in Clark's day, and we fancied the astonishment of the explorers in that grove of grotesque titans. The story of Lewis and Clark was intimately familiar to him, and he de- lighted to trace their expeditions from Fort Clatsop through the plains country.
It was impossible to encourage him in his scheme to pioneer anew as a hermit on the base of Tillamook Head; had he carried out his intention hundreds of us would have been in daily concern for his welfare ; but we of Klahanee were always hoping he would overlook his riparian privileges and come to dwell near us on the shore. He rowed a boat down to our place from Seaside in the summer of 1910, against incoming tide, and after a pleasant call launched his boat again, dis- daining help, pushing her off and scrambling aboard like a jolly Tyne waterman when she was sliding into deep water, then rowing back against the current to Seaside.
Lest I take too much of your space, let me relate some inci- dents of our last companionship, the dearest and most vivid of our acquaintance.
On the day of the assembly of the 28th session of Oregon's Legislature he was waiting for me in the lobby of the House when we adjourned at noon. We walked down town together for lunch, and then he accompanied me to my desk for the grand ceremonies of the afternoon. The sergeant-at-arms announced "His Excellency, the Governor of the State of Oregon," and the newly-elected and the retiring governors ascended to the speaker's dais, followed by Governor Geer and Governor Moody, the Judges of the Supreme Court, the President of the Senate and the state officials.
