Omaha daily bee., 1874-05-02
THE ROSE OF TuoLuMKE.
BY BRET HARTE.
From the New York Times.l
CONTINUED.

bear up and keep dark, Jimmy
dear, and trust to the old man. Va
rious men has various ways. Thar
is WAYS as is common and ways as
is uncommon, ways as is easy and
ways as is Uneasy. Bear up and
keep dark" With this Dslphic ut
terance he put his finger to his lips
and vanished.
1t was ten o'clock when he reached
Four Forks. A few minutes later
he stood on the threshold OF that
dwelling described by the -Four
Forks Sentinel as "the palatial res
idence of John Ashe," and known
to the local satiri5t as the .ash-box.'
"Hsvin' to lay by two hours, john"
he said to his prospective son-in-law,
as he took his hand at the door, ga
few words of social converse, not on
business, but strictly private, seems
to be about as natural a thing as a
man can do" This introduction,
evidently the result of some study,
and plainly committed to memory,
seemed so satisfactory to Mr.. Nc
Closky that he repeated it again af-
ter John Ashe had led him into his
private Office, where, depositing his
valise i'm the middle ofthe floor and
sitting down before it, he began
carefully to avoid the eye of his host.
John Ashe, a tall, dark, handsome
Kentuckian-with whom even the
trifies of life were evidently full OF
serious unprecedented with a kind
of chivalrous respect the further
speech of his guest. Being utterly
devoid of any sense of the ridicu-
lOus, he always accepted MI. Nc
Closky as a grave fact, singular only
from his own want of experience of
the class.
cores is running light now"
said Mr.. McClosky, with easy indif-
ference.
John Ashe returned that he had
noticed the same fact i'm the receipts
of the mill at Four Forks.
Mr.. McClosky rubbed his beard
and looked at his valise, as if for
sympathy and suggestion.
"You don't reckon on having any
trouble with any of them chaps ez
you cut out with Jinny?"
John Ashe, rather haughtily, had
never thought of that. ~ saw
Rance hanging round your house
the other night when | took your
daughter home, but he gave me a
wide BERTH" he added, carelessly.
Surely" said Mr.. McClosky,
with a peculiar winking of the eye.
After a pause, he took a fresh de-
parture from his valise.
ga few words, John, ez between
man and man, ez between my
daughters father and her husband
who expects to be, is about the
thing, l take it, as is fair and square.
1 KEN here to say them. They're
about Jimmy, my gal"
Ashes grave face frightened, to
Mr.. McClosky's evident discompO-
sure
"Aiaybe 1 should have said, about
her mother; but the same bein' a
stranger to you, l says, materially.
jimmy"
Ashe nodded courteously, Mr..
McClosky, with his eyes on his
valise, went on:
att Is sixteen years ago as l mar
ried Mrs. McClosky, in the State of
Missouri. She let on at the time, to
be q widder-a wilder with one
child. When I say let on, l mean
to imply that I subsekently found
out that she was not a wilder, nor a
wife, and the father Of the child
was, 80 to speak-onbeknowst. That
child was Jinny-my GAL"
With his eyes on his valise, and
quietly ignoring the wholly-crim-
soned face and swiftly-darkening
brow of his host, he confined:
"Many little things sorter tended
to make our home in Missouri on
pleasant. A disposition to smash
furniture and heave knives around,
en- inclination to howl when drunk,
and that frequent; a habitooal use
of vulgar language, and a tendency
to cuss the casOoal visitor, seemed to
pint" added Mr.. McClOsky with
submissive Observation-Disclosures
was-so to speak-quite onsuited to
the marriage relation in its hottest
aspeck."
'.Damnation, Why didn't"
burst out John Ashe, erect and furi-
Gus.
"At the end Of two years, contin-
ued Mr.. McClosky, still intent on
the valise, ~ allowed I'd get a di-
worce. Etabout tibet time, however,
Providence sends a circus into tibet
town, and a Teller az rode three
bosses to onct. Hevin' allez a taste
for athletic sports, she left town
with this Teller, leavin' me and
jimmy behind. 1 sent word to her
tibet if she would give Jimmy to me
we'd call it quits. And she did"
"Tell me-" gasped Ashe, "did you
ask your daughter to keep this from
me, or did she do it of her own ac-
cord ?"
"She doesn't know it," said Mr..
McClosky; "she thinks I'm her
father, and that her mothers dead"
"Then, Sir, this is your"
az don't KNOW" said Mr.. Nc