Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-03-03
NO. So.

| ny lie SOmeI1meS. Ill was necessary tO no
strongly fortified.
What strange life for a boy! What
did you do? How spend your time ?''
II herded my cattle, drove them to
market, cooked, studied, wrote, and in
dulged in misanthropy, with little rifle
practice. By the time l had been one
summer in the mountains, / had got my
hand in, and knew how to make money
buying up cattle to sell again in the
mines.''
$50 there was method in your mad
ness-misanthropy mean?"
"Well, man can not resign life before
he is twenty-one. was doing well, and
beginning to think again Of visiting the
Waiiamet to hunt up my girl. One Sunday
aiternoon-l knew it was Sunday, because
Kept Journal was sitting outside of
my tort writing, when shadow fell across
the paper, and, looking up 10! skeleton
ilgure stood before me-" (Sepulchral
tones, and a pause.) Used as l was to
lonely encounters with strange men, my
hair stood on end as gazed on the spectre
before me. He was the merest boy in
years; pretty and delicate by nature, and
then reduced by starvation to shadow
His story was soon told He had left Bos-
ton on a vessel coming out to the north
west coast, had been wrecked at the
mouth of the Umpqna. and had been
wandering about in the mountains ever
since. subsisting as best he could on roots
and berries. But you are becoming tired ?'
mo, assure you; on the contrary,
growing deeply interested
The boy was not young woman in
disguise, or any thing like that, you know
with an amused look at me. II thought
you'd think So but as he comes into the
story as a collateral, l just mention his
Introduction to myself. fed him and
nursed him until he was able to 60 to work
and then | got Sam Chong Lung to let
him take up claim alongside Chinese
camp, promising to favor the Chinaman
in a beef contract if he was good to the
boy. His claim proved good one, and
he was making money, when two China
men stole a lot of horses from Sam Chong
Lung, and he offered S40O to Edwards II
he would go after them and bring them
back. Edwards asked my advice, and l
encouraged him to go, telling him how to
take and bring back his prisoners Gre
Elective pause.) "You can't imagine me
living alone, now can you? Such an
egotistical fellow as l am, and fond OF
ladies' society. You can't believe it, can
YOU ?n
''Hermits and solitaires are always
egotsts, believe. AS to the ladies, your
loneliness was the result of circumstances,
as you have explained
''Well, | should have missed Edwards
good deal, if it had not been for some sim
gular incidents which happened during his
absence. Ella always accented the last
syllable of any word ending in emit, like
incident, or commencement, giving it
besides peculiar nasal sound, which was
sure to secure the attention. The word
incident, as he pronounced it, produced
quite a different effect from the same word
spoken in the usual style
GA man came to my fort one day who
was naked and starving. He was a bad
looking fellow but man naturally does
look bad when his clothes are in rags, and
his bones protrudng through his skin. |
clothedhim, fed him, cared for him kindly,
until he was able to travel, and then he
went away. The next Sunday was sitting
outside the stockade, as customary, read
ing some hanslations of the Greek poets,
when, on raising my eyes from the book
to glance over the approach to my fort-I
was always on the alert-I beheld vision
Remember, l had not seen a woman for q
year and half She was slowly advanc-
ing, riding with superb grace a horse of
great beauty and value, richly caparisoned
She came slowly up the trail, as if to give
me time for thought, and needed it, That
picture is still indelibly impressed upon
my mind the very flicker of the sunlight
and shadow across the road, and the glitter
of her horses trappings, as he champed
his bit and arched his meek with impatience
at her restraining hand. Are you very
tirede" asked Ella suddenly.
Never less so in my life; pray go on
''lou see had been alone so long, and
| am very susceptible. That vision com-
ing upon me suddenly as it did, in my sol
itude, gave me the strangest sensations |
ever had. | was spell-bound. Not so
she. Refining in her horse beside me, she
squared around in her saddle, as if asking
assistance to dismount. Struggling with
my embarrassment, l helped her down,
and she accepted my invitation into the
fort signiiying, at the same time, that she
wished me to attend to stripping and feed
ing her horse. This gave us mutually an
opportunity to prepare for the coming in
terview
"When returned to my guest, she had
laid aside her riding habit and close sun
bonnet, and stood revealed young, beau
tiful elegantly-dressed woman To my un-
accustomed eyes, she looked goddess.
Her figure was noble her eyes large, black
and melting; her hair long and curling;
her manner easy and attractive. She was
hungry, she said; would give her some
thing to eat +? And while l was on hospita-
BILE cares intent she read to me some of
my Greek poems, especially an ode of one
of the votaries of Diana, with comments
by herself. She was splendid reader.
Well now," said Ela slowly, with furtiye
glance at me, and in his peculiar nasal
tones, ''you can guess whether Young
man, used to the mountains, as was, and
who had been disappointed and Tilted
as had been, enjoyed this sort of thing
OF not. 1t wasn't in my line, you see, this
entertaining goddesses; though, doubtless,
in this way, before now, men have enter
tanned angels unawares.
"What with reading, eating together.
singing-she sang Kate Kearney' for me,
and her voice was glorious--our acquaint-
ance ripened very fast. Finally, con-