The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1871-09-15

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strative, threatened her spotless skirt
with his dusty paws, when she drove
him from her with some slight acerbty,
and stone which haply fell within
fifty feet of its destined mark. Having
thus proved her ability to defend her
self, with characteristic Inconsistency
she took a small panic, and, gathering
her white skirts in one hand, and hold
ing the brim of her hat over her eyes
with the other, she ran swiftly at least
hundred yards before she stopped
Then she began picking some ferns and
a few wild flowers still spared to the
withered fields, and then sudden dis
trust of her small ankles seized her. and
she inspected them narrowly for those
burrs and bugs and snakes which are
supposed to lie in wait for helpless wo-
manhood. Then she plucked some gol-
den heads of wild oats, and with sud-
den inspiration placed them in her
black hair, and then came quite uncon-
sciously upon the trail leading to Ma,
drono Hollow.
Here she hesitated. Before her ran
the little trail, vanishing at last into the
boslly depths below. The sun was very
hot She must be very far from home.
Why should she not rest awhile under
the shade of a madrono?
She answered these questions by 60
ing there at once. After thoroughly
exploring the grove and satisfying her
self that il contained no other living
human creature, she sat down under
one of the largest trees, with a satisfac
tory little sigh. Miss 10 loved the
madrono. 1t was clearly tree; no
dust ever lay upon its vanished leaves ::
its immaculate shade never was known
to harbor grub or insect.
She looked up at the rosy arms inter
locked and arched above her head She
looked down at the delicate ferns and
cryptogams at her feet. Something
glttered at the root of the tree. She
picked it up it was bracelet. She
examined it carefully for cipher OF in
scription there was none. She could
not resist natural desire TO clasp it on
her arm and survey it from that advan.
tageous viewpoint. This absorbed her
attention for some moments and when
she looked up again she beheld at a
little distance Culpepper Starbottle.
He was standing where he had halted,
with instructive delicacy, on first dis
covering her. Indeed he had even
deliberated whether he ought or not to
90 away without disturbing her. But
some fascination held him to the spot
Wonderful power of humanity Far
beyond jutted an outlying spur of the
Sierra, vast, compact and silent. Scarce
ly hundred yards away a league-long
chasm dropped its sheer walls of gran
tie thousand feet. On every side rose
up the serred ranks of pine trees, in
whose close-set five centuries of storm
and change had wrought no breach
Yet all this seemed to Culpepper to
have been planned by an all-wise Provi-
dence as the natural background to the
figure of pretty girl in q yellow dress.
Although Miss 10 had confidently ex-
pected to meet Culpepper somewhere
in her ramble, now that he came upon
her suddenly, she felt disappointed and
embarrassed. His manner, too, was
more than usually grave and serious,
and more than ever seemed to jar upon
that audacious levity which was this
giddy girls power and security in a
society where all feeling was dangerous
AS he approached her she rose to her
feet, but almost before she knew it he
had taken her hand and drawn her to a
seat beside him. This was not what
Miss 10 had expected, but nothing is so
difficult to predicate as the exact pre-
limnaries of a declaration Of love.
What did Culpepper say? Nothing,
| fear that will add anything to the
wisdom of the reader nothing, | fear,
that Miss 10 had not heard substantially
from other lips before. But there was
a certain conviction, fire, speed, and
fury in the manner that was deliciously
novel to the young lady. 1t was GER
talnly something to be courted in the
nineteenth century with all the passion
and extravaganza of the sixteenth it
was something to hear, amid the slang
of a frontier society, the language Of
knight-erranty poured into her ear by
this lantern awed, dark-browed des-
cendant of the Cavaliers.
| do not know that there was any
thing more in it. The facts, however,
go to show that at certain point Miss
10 dropped her glove, and that in re-
covering it Culpepper possessed himself
III ~ vi Iitl uull'A dll't llltIi bci ups.
When they stood up to 90 Culpepper
had his arm around her waist. and her
black hair, with its sheaf of golden
oats, rested against the breast-pocket
of his coat But even then | do not
think her fancy was entirely captive.
She took certain satisfaction in this
den onstration Of Culpepper's splendid
height, and mentally compared it with
a former flame, one Lieutenant McMirk,
ar active, but understood Hector, who
subsequently fell victim to the incau-
tiously composed and monotonous bev.
erages of frontier garrison. Nor was
she so much preoccupied but that her
quick eyes, even while absorbing Cul.
peppers glances, We're yet able to de-
tect, at distance, the figure of man
approaching. In an instant she slipped
out Of Culpepper's arm, and, whipping
her hands behind her, said, "There's
that horrid man !"
Culpepper looked up and beheld his
respected uncle, painting and blowing
over the hill. His brow contracted as
he turned to Miss 10: "You don't like
my uncle? p
~ hate him ~ Miss 10 was recover