The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1875-06-17
EVENING. JUNE II, 1875.

AAAC UA MlACu was NHlCu-
"You poor cuss," said DOty, IL
tones Of mingled pity and der.slon
''you poor demented euss."
Convinced by this sapercilious con
fidence Of him whom be thought q
be infAllible in all questions con eern
ing the gentle sex, Oatehison listIess-
ly fell into mis- partners plan for AL
/ immediate return to the canon. Onea
there a dissolution of partnership was
soon in progress. That half-formsd
resolution to Atalk the matter over
with the young woman aeted as q
tonic and an elixir on the Junior
member, and, In his anxiety to follow
his love into the sunset, he manifest
ed 3 prodigal contempt for such
material as eamp-kettles and picked
pork, and thus much plunder fell in
70 Dutchis0n's languid possession.
Each man retained his favorite mule,
for the thoroughbred Westerner
is nothing if not an equestrian. Their
treasury of proceeds for ties delivered
was shared equally between them,
and uaught remained for division, ex-
cept the kit OF cooking vessels, q scant
supply of eOmWissary stores, and the
harness and implements of the field.
In an amicable game of poker they
cast lots for these. They fell to Doty,
and the magnanimOus lover forth
with gave them, parting present
and testimonial, to his ancient ehum
and most beloved friend, James
Dutchison ; but the recipient painful
ly realized that no accumulation of
sOrCiid chattels could compensate for
an unrequited passion.
One more night did Doty pass in
the somberness of Yankee Canon,
sleeping little, imagining many things
concerning the delights in store for
him, tossing on his bunk OF pine
boughs, whose branches and NUS
were numerous and wen-defned, ed
anticipating tue swimming luxury of
the featherbed which his bride would
bring him as q dowry, for his ideas Of
the coniugal economy were derived
from an age in which this was an in.
e7itable and most prsiseworthy GUS
tom. Frying into the future, he saw
himself q life-partner in q domestic
establishment which possessed a win
dow and door and the most complex
eooking-stove on exhibition Sny-
where, these being attributes of civ
iliZatiOn which he has not known for
many q day and many a year. In
his troubled doze he saw himself at
the feet of his beautiful Rose, with
the widespread fingers OF one hand
covering his heart, and the other
clinched in his shock of hair, ready to
uprOot the last fiber If she should say
to him nay, for be was bound to OBJ
serve the proprieties OF courtship,
though ii be among the sage bushes of
an alkali waste. Then his suspicious
Imagination showed himself search
ing every military post on the route
for chaplain, and ransacking every
civic city for q justice of the peace
who might weld them together ere
their ardor cooled. After that the
features of his vision were q morsei
dim and confused, but among them
he could discern q cottage beyond the
Sierras, snug little cottage with
floor Of planed lumber and a honey
suckle wIeathing the porch in fra
grant anadems, and within was that
same eOOking-stOve, crowded in every
Granny with delicaeies, hot and sim
mering for the table, and ever in tue
foreground fiuttered the curls and the
snugly-girt jacket, while all the mis-
nap and misery Of celibste life was left
with unfortunate Dutchison In the
Loneliness of Yankee Canon.
This sentimental halo did not van
ish with his slseD. When, in the
morning, he bestrode his trusty Jack,
caparisoned plainly, but sufficiently,
with blanket aud sureingle, and a
bride whose rickety blinders swayed
and tapped like haunted bsrn-door,
his soul was full of poetry, and his
mouth was musical with song. Be-
hind him, in the east, he saw the sun,
big and golden, raise itself on the top
of the highest peak, and he felt how
broad were the aisles OF natures great
cathedral, how few the worshipers
there, and how far above the works
of man was this spire, this mountain
pinnacle with summit all in q glitter
of FURNISHED blazonry. Who says
that the lover is blind ? I claim that
a clearer sight is his when the film of
egOtism is banished from his eyes,
and they become open doors between
his liberated soul and ali that Is most
beautiful on the earth and in the sky.
Turning again just on the limits OF
ear-shOt, Doty cried to the fOrssken
one, VINO was gloomily currying his
mule and feeling very badly, "GoOd-
bye, Jim, and good luck DOn't be
bluffed off! Keep your spine in
and your hands out OF
your pockets, and the first time Cap.
Seward dies, Ill send you word ~ and
thus he vanished.
Clear and white as ribbons of pol
ished metal shone the rivers far away;
clear and white were the snowy
mountain-crests, smirched only by the
cedar-llned gulches which, black and
dismal, crawled down their slopes.
Clear, and blue, and placid was the
sky above him, and most perfectly
clear the air around him. No wells OF
lowland mists were there. Not the
chilly ether between the stars has q
more crystalline pureness than the
pellucid atmosphere which hangs
lightly over our mountain parks, and
Obliterates the distance between. their
walls No sight was there but seren-
ity, no sound save the clatter Of Jacks
hoofs and the jingling of his aceOuter-
ments. Mile after mile of the brown
busted trail was left behind. Far in
the perspective the roadsides narrow
ed to point, and on this point Doty's
gaze was steadfast. Once only he di-
Verted his eyes in order to select
chew of tobacco, and when ne lifted
hem, 10 where there had been moth
ng was now q dot, a mere speck of
low motion, and his heels COM
nenced doubly vigorous tattoo on
lacks ribs.
And yet it was dark night before be
cached this will-o'.the-wisp OF dot,
md it had developed into q c3pacious
wagon, by the side of which a camp
ire was burning and two women were
lifting, and one was young and pref
y, and the other, faded, was soothing
| baby as before. At the formers
'eet DOty threw himself, striking the
attitude which We have described
and which he had learned
n an itinerant theater down in Oma-
IA. But this histrionic pose was of
short duration. Seward, in whom the
Did Adam had been fermenting since
he first temperance Of the wooer,
Itepped one stride toward, and, with
. vim hardly to be expected in so
Hight man, with swing and q jerk |
lifted the suitOr ID his feet.
"YOung man." he rOared, ''sines |
you seem determined to bring things !
% q crisis, we'll have a crisis right I
lsre, and the end and upshot OF this
.risis is that if you ever so much as
ook at my wife sgaia without spec
se.es, I'll perfOrate your fleshy taber- |
iaeIe as many times az there are holes |
n my Smith & WessOn. A mans |
wife ought t) be as sacred as his tooth |
)rush, and here you've been buzzing
Iround mine for the last two days as /
you had never heard Of suen a
hing as decency. IfyOu're dying for I
woman, go over there and spark 1
Rose, IdOn't care !; but see that you /
lever again look bare-eyed at my
wife ~
'TIour-wife :" gasped Doty, with
lis hand to his brow in a crazy sort
If a way. Slowly it dawred upon
lin that he was a victim of an abom-
nable duplieity, especially when he
aw the wicked eoquette's lips con-
Tulse and her lips culver with sup
lressed merriment.
"Yes, my wife" was the inexOra-
lie answer, "and now there are two
Dads in good travelling order leading
ut Of this camp, and they're either
ne at your disposal; you under