The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1874-11-12

SDAY
as a butter-cup dell on a seashor;
mountain, while ali his life long he.
slippin' on the bedrock but yoI
oFing that man into this dry country
where all the pOsies die and the leaves
burnt up, and he is soon stripped 81
that, If be amt got the clean grit IL
him, you can pau him down till b,
peters on the bedrock in a week"
swell, William, my boy, you've gol
! the advantage OF me, think. YOI
have had experience in panning-bott
mines aud men-while I never ye
handled lan."
aThat's it, is it ?n said Bill chuck
ling. 81 was talking hyperbo wI-bul
you'll see. Ef you don't have 3 high
| er or lower opinion of me, and me oi
you, when this trips over, then
. don't know the road to breakfast
Frilis III do at q social party, anC
made-up faces will pass in church
but, out in these mountains, you come
right down to mammy's boy, good or
bad. What you are, you are and
you amt no more, nor can't be-"
William Wilson's conversation IL
not very interesting without WIZ
iiam's manner, especially without his
peculiar information which latter
though making no dissgreeably per-
eeptible suggestion of halting, still has
that interrogatlve-respon
tory style, not exactly Emersonian,
yet bearing such q likeness thereto as
to require a similar habit of eiocution
in reducing it to reading. For in
stance, like many Pacific-slopers, he
has at least six ways of saying "yes''
three ways of assentirg with the
word, two of doubt and one which Is
neither assent nor doubt. In this last
"yes" there is assent, dissent. doubt,
admiration and wonder.
1 l said to Bill after we had ridden
some time in silence, broken only by
the ringing jingle Of the great Spanish
spurs on our heels as they tangled
among the tops of the brush, or by
the voice of Bill urging Sancho, the
pack-mule:
"Bill, think it's our luck to find q
staving mine on this trip.n
Bill looked at me from under his hat
rim as he swung rapidly round in 3
circle the knOtted end of his picket
rope, and said, "Y-y-e-e-us."
"What do you mean by that kind
of yes ?n
"WeIl, I meant meanU-looking
straight over his hores's ears, past the
coils of the flying rope, "Git a-e-up,
Sanch II mean, as near ss can
make out, sort O. yes, sort o. no and
M Lobe so-pm wIllin'.n
"I don't like that kind of q yes,
Bill. 1t hasn't much faith in it -
Then Bill said "N-o-o-uh," with q
peculiar cooling, rising infection.
"YOur no is as queer as your yes"
Then Bill said "Y-y-e-e- Us ~ and
laughed at the sound of his own
words.
"Do you think you used your words
that way before you came to Califor-
nia?"
al dun know. Don't reckon did,
though. think that kind of use in
the words comes from feller talkin'
when he is busy. II I'm in q drift.
pickin' and gaddin', and lookin' out
for rocks overhead, and you are
wheelin' out, and you tell me some
thin that 1 don't know about, one
way or t'other-csn't agree TO in full,
nor yet go back on it-Snd amt got
much time to talk, anyway, throw
all the ans wers into one word"
"That's new style OF elocution,
BILL"
"Don't know, never elocuted any
myself; but it fills the bill as well as
sermon could"
There is not great deal to startle
the gazs of rider through the sage
brush where the gray OF one valley
has its reflex in each other valley,
and the ranges of mountains have,
at first view, about the sameness of
burrows in a new plowed field. But
in the utter absence of bright-green
pastures and the myriad seamy palms
of leafy woods, with the CLINT and
glitter of gliding waters pooling un-
tlerneath, there is wonderful play
and delicate blending of subdued
colors along with a grand and varied
Iiining-0ut of mountain tops against
the blue.white canvas of the sky !;
while every change in the atmOs
phere alters this shading and
blending in degrees so slight as to be
scarcely perceptible to strangers
eye, and yet 10 be felt, even when not
taken into exact account. Over these
gray valleys and sober-nuel noun
tains travel the images of the floating
clouds, painted by the sun-a moving
panorama, with nature shifting the
weird lights and the naked geology
OF the country modestiy changes
color under the inquiring glances
of the sun.
said civilian, my by, do you
see anything pretty or sublime in the
surrounding scenery 3"
"SceDery % exclaimed Bill, sudden
ly reining up his horse and looking
round, (which ?-Where ?'
"Why," said /, waving my unoc-
cupied hand in lofty manner, "this
grand, quiet chapter in the wide-open
history of the universe +; where the
great central Intelligence has written
in lines indelible-not subject to
proof-imprint, or printers revise,
error or errata-the prehistoric Ser
mon on the Mount p"
''Eh ?n calculated Bill. "Ef you
come that agin, you'll make my eyes
bung out like butterfy's. You skeer
one ~
swell, William, will desist /; but
there is, nevertheless, lofty repose, q
grand reserve o tone, in the silent
surroundings, which seem to hold the
chirrup and cIatter OF more busy,
| bustling lands in the strong quiet OF
true aristOcratic scorn."
"I don't know what you're drivin,
at any more'n q bumb on log
Mebbe you're playin' off on the scene
ry people ?-those high-toned uns
what go into fits over q bunch of
green rOck-moss with q dew-irop 10
the middle OF it which / heard one
woman with long, bOny white hands
and gold spectarles, once, on the
Sierra, call it the "king of diments
with the emerald In his dream Is
that what you're goin' for Pr
"No, William. Truly admire what
we now behold around U.s."
"You dol Well, don't. I'd as
s1on look at q Quaker meetin' when
their spirit was off on particular busi-
ness. Scsnery's sometnin' Fat don't
snavey. / always thought it meant
sOmethin' green s-standin out of
doors in the worst place it could get
to. But here we are at the spring,
and we may as well put up for the
| night.D And Bill dismounted.
Putting up for the night on pros
1 pectl0g trip may De rc0ueFeQ lying
out for the night; but there is pure
aired satisfaction IN bustling about the
lmprOmptu location with the ever
! present thought of "what next ?" that
drives away all WEAKNESS, TO be re-
! placed by zesty keenness of appetite
as the prelude tO y simple supper, q So
/ lacing pipe, aud sound slumber.
After we had done all that a sage
brush camp requires in the way of un.
packing, unsaddling, hObblIng, pick
eting. making fire, cooking, eating,
unrolling blankets into bed-shape and
were laid down for the night, with
our faces upturned to the bright,
sparkling, starlit sky, observed to
William
This is grand"
"Wot ga said Bill.
"rnis night of calm repose In the
gorgeous bridal-chamber Of our first
parents"
"There you go agin! Looney as q
new convert at q esmp-meetin'.n
TsT