Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1869-10-28
Sfleft Story.
LOVE IN A SAW-MILL.

Moved as head sawyer IN the steam
sawmill of l.. D. Smith q Co., near the
mining town of s.. Mr.. Smith and
his family We're living in neat cottage
close to the mill, and often 1 ano
the engineer, James Alton by name
were invited Sy our employer to attend
the evening worship held in his house
One evening, just as we were taxing
leave of his family, we heard the SOUND
of carriare-wheels, Immediately follow
ed by knock at the outer door,
"a Minnie is comingl Minnie Is com
inplu exclaimed Mrs. Smith, rushing
past us into the entry. Her husband FOL
lowed with light.
A minute after the door opened, and
Minnie, the oldest daughter, was lock
ed in her mothers arms.
Minnie was a beautiful girl, about
seventeen years of age. Three. years
she had passed in young ladies' semi
nary. near Utica, New York, and now
she had returned to her mountain nome,
amid the pines and cedars OF Callfor-
MIA.
THE engineer and L fingered awhile
after her arrival, for both desired to be
introduced to Minnie Smith.
minnie, " 1 make you acquainted with
Louis, our head sawyer, and James, our
y
their acquaintance, for both are excel
lent singers and good musicians. Isup-
pose your musical education has not
been neglected ?"
81 have learned little instrumental
music, but have no voice, replied she
to her father, as as she bowed to US.
James had held out his hand, but she
did not touch it, and l saw that he
blushed deeply, while his eyes glittered
revengefully at what he supposed her
disdain.
Soon after we left the cottage. On our
way to the mill 1 said:
"James, old boy, you look mad. Why,
don't you know that in good society they
never shake hands, but only bow? ?"
"Well, L didn't know it. But never
theless she could have shaken hands
with me when she saw that held out
mine, I" replied he, in a surly tone.
L then began to praise Minnie's beau
ty, and asked his opinion about her but
he gave me nc. answer. When we par
ted for the night noticed that his voice
sounded strange as he said
"a Don't fall in love with that girl, she
is too aristocratic to be the wife of a head
sawyer"
Four weeks had passed since became
acquainted with Minnie. Almost every
evening James and L could be seen in
the parlor of the cottage. Soon it he
came known that Minnie and L were
engaged to be married within six months.
do not remember how 1 confessed my
love, all l know is that she pressed my
hand when 1 asked her to be my wife,
while her lips said "yes."
Her father had no objections to our
union. He had known me for many
II IL -
port wife. He even asked me to be-
come his partner, to which proposition
/ gladly assented.
One evening Minnie and were sit
ting at the foot of a huge sugar pine,
talking about our approaching marriage,
when we heard the report of a rifle, the
bullet of which whistled past my head.
l sprang to my feet and shouted:
"Hallowi you stupid fellow, what are
you shooting at?"
II supposed it was DEER" answer
ed well-known voice, and James, with
a rifle in his hand, emerged from some
manzantia bushes about fifty feet from
where L stood.
You couldn't take me for deer !" l
said.
YES" answered James, pointing to
my gray hat, in the band of which
Minnie had stuck some dry branches
from bush close by.
"Ah, see," said 1, taking off my
hat. well, next time you had better
look little closer.
will, repeated he, moving away :;
and soon his form was lost amid the in
creasing darkness. Again. it seemed to
me that his voice sounded strange But
I had no time to think abont it, for
Minnie had tainted. and it seemed a
long time to to me befor she opened her
eyes. 1t was night before we reached
the cottage.
The next day James Alton gave us
notice that he would leave within ten
days.
Time rolled quickly away amid the
preparations for our coming Marriage
[ had been twice to Sin order to
hire another engineer, but could find no
one to take James place, and he was
compelled to remain until the arrival of
a machinist, an old friend of mine, who
was coming from San Francisco
On Sunday evening, two days before
the day set for my me- rriage with Minnie,
I had occasion to go down to the snill.
After lookin to the saws, to'see if they
were properly wedged and filed, de-
scended to the boiler-room. We had
two large steam boilers set side by side.
As usual, in both their ends were the
man-holes. These are semicircular
openings through which, when neces-
sary, the fireman creeps to clean the in
side of the boiler. One of these holes
was open, and some boys, children of
the fireman, were playing with a short
iron bar near by.
do not know what made me stop
and watch them pushing the barthrough
the aperture, While they listened to the
sound of the waters as its wavelets NOV
ed past the bar, and dashed against the
inside of the boiler.
Stop that play, boys, u said and
tell James to close up the boiler " They
had not seen me before, and when they
heard my-voice they let the iron bar
fall and scampered away The bar drop
ped with loud splash into the water.
Never mind," thought 1 the fire.
man can. get it out again when they
clean the boiler next Sunday. I was
about to leave the boiler-room when
James entered.
Good evening. sir. f" began he, in a
cheerful tone; " guess the new engi-
neer will arrive tomorrow night, and /
am glad of it. Please step into my
room and read this letter, which I've
received this afternoon. From it you
can see why I'm glad to get away from
here. u
He gave me the letter. 1t was too
dark to read it outside, and 1 entered
his room. sat down and read the let
ter, which was from James mother, urg-
ing him to come home instantly.
"You thought L wa mad at you be-
cause you made love to Minnie. But
you were mistaken, old boy, for look at
this letter." said he, handing me an
other.
1t was letter apparently from young
girl, although the handwriting looked
rather masculine. 1t was dated from