Squak Valley: by Bessie Wilson Craine (page 16-18 from original book)
Yellow jackets After our lunch at the falls, I, very reluctantly, let Father tie me on behind Mother. We finally reached our destination. The only thing which made my trip worthwhile was the fact that they had a little girl about my age.The following day we were playing outside and ran into a yellow jackets' nest hanging from a bush. We got our hair full of them and, no doubt, things were pretty lively around there for awhile--besides leaving us with sore heads. That is about all I can remember of our stay there. I expect they were glad when we left, and Mother was happy to get me home.
Bessie fights with friends
Sometime later the same family came to the Valley to return our visit. The little girl got mad at me and bit me through the hand. There was a whitewash bucket sitting nearby. The only thing I could think of bad enough to do to her was to pour whitewash on her head. Her Mother grabbed her and ran to the pump to wash it off. Mother yelled at her not to put water on it, to put grease on. I guess that saved her hair. She grew up with a head of beautiful curly hair of which I was always envious. Mine was so straight it was pitiful.
Aunt Hessie the school teacher
It was about this time that the Valley began to feel the need of a real school. The lower part of Bush's hop house was converted into a schoolroom. A very lovely and very pretty young lady of eighteen was sent up from the University of Washington to teach, Hessie Cox. She boarded with Mother and became a lifelong friend. To this day she is still my Aunt Hessie.Her trials and tribulation were many. Some of the boys were half-grown and as wild and untamed as the Valley they were raised in. They came to school well equipped with jackknives and other implements necessary to do their handicraft-each trying to out do the other in carving their desks with the most elaborate scrolls; or cutting their initials the deepest. John Bush, the youngest of the Bush children was by far the better carver. Aunt Hessie would often come home crying and ask Mother how she could ever cope with the situation. The boys were too big to punish. I think she must have won them by tenderness. They came to love her very much.
The first white child over the pass
John had a little feeling of superiority. He was the first white child to go over Snoqualmie Pass when he was only nine months old. His folks decided to try eastern Washington for awhile. It was a great cattle country, and Mr. Bush was interested in horses. In later years when John used to tell of this trip, I asked him how in the world they got him over there. He said he guessed they hung him over the horn of a saddle. After two years, Mr. Bush had accumulated quite a little stock and horses to bring back to the Valley. On this trip it took them twenty-one days to make the trip from the eastside to North Bend.The road along the shore of Lake Keechelus was almost impassable at that time. They had to build a barge at the head of the lake and transport much of their household goods the length of the lake, which was only seven miles. This took time and patience, and the pioneers had plenty of both.
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