The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1875-01-28
them" cried Redwing, picking up his

lay on the table. "We'll do it cross the
crick, at daylight"
cts daylight now," said Sim Ripson,
hurriedly, after looking out of his win
dow at the end of the bar. He was
good storekeeper, was Sim Ripson, and
he knew how to mix drinks, but he had
an unconquerable aversion to washing
bloodstains out of the floor.
The two gamblers rushed out of the
door, pistols in hand, and the crowd fol-
lowed, each man talking at the top of
his voice. and betting on the chances of
the combatants.
Suddenly, above all the noise, they
heard a cracked soprano voice singing,
with some unauthorized flatting and
sharping:
"Another six days W rk is done
Another Sabbath is begun.
Return, my soul, enjoy thy rest,
Improve the day thy God has blessed
Redwing stopped, and dropped his head
to one side, as if expecting more; Flipp
stopped; everybody did. Arkansas Bill,
whose good habits had been laid aside
last Saturday afternoon, exclaimed:
Well, Pll be blowedp'
Bill didn't mean anything of the sort,
but the tone in which he said it expressed
precisely the feeling of the crowd. The
voice was again heard
"0h, that our thoughts and thanks may rise
As grateful incense to the skies;
And draw from heaven that sweet repose
Which none but he that feels it knows"
Redwing turned abruptly on his heel.
Keep the ounces" said he. "Ther's
an old woman to hum that thinks sight
o'me-I reckon, myself, Pm good for
somethin' besides film a hole in the
ground"
That night Sim Ripson complained
that it had been the poorest Sunday he
had ever had at Tough Case; the boys
drank, but it was in a sort of nerveless,
unbusinesslike way that Sim Ripson
greatly regretted; and very few bets
were settled in Sim Ripsen's principal
stock in trade.
When Sim finally learned the cause of
his trouble, he promptly announced his
intention of converting Mrs. Blizzer to
common sense, and as he had argued
Uncle Ben, first into perfect frenzy and
then into silence, the crowd considered
Mrs. Blizzer's faith doomed.
Monday morning, bright and early, as
men with aching heads were taking their
morning bitters, Mrs. Blizzer appeared at
Sim Ripson's store, and purchased bar
of soap.
Boys heern ye singin' yesterday" said
Sim.
"Yesw inquired Mrs Blizzer.
"Yes-all of 'em delighted" said Sim
calamity. "But you don't believe in no
sich stuff, l s'pose, do ye?"
"What stuff?' asked Mrs. Blizzer.
"Why, bout heaven and hell, an the
Bible, an all them things. Do ye know
what the Greek fur hell meant? An do
ye know that the Bibles all the time
contradictin' itself? l can show ye-"
~ tell you what do know, Mr.. Rip
son." said the woman; az know some
things in my heart that no mortal bein'
never told me, an they couldn't be
skeered out by all the dictionaries an
commentators a-goin'; that's what l
know"
And Mrs. Blizzer departed, while the
astonished theologian sheepisnly ad
mitted that he owed drinks to the crowd.
While the ex-deacon, Uncle Ben, was
trying to determine to go home, he found
pretty nugget that settled his mind,
and he announced that same night, at
the store, that all his mining property
was for sale, as he was going back East.
"Pf go with you Uncle Ben," said
Fourteenth Street.
The crowd was astounded; men of
Fourteenth Streets calibre seldom had
pluck enough to 60 to the mines, and
their getting away, or their doing any
thing requiring manliness, was of still
more unfrequent occurrence.
"Iknowit," said the young man, trans
lating the glances which met his eye.
"You fellows think 1 don't amount to
much, anyway. Perhaps l don't. l
came cut here because fell out with
girl l thought 1 loved. She acted like
fool, and l made up my mind all women
were fools. But that wife of Blizzer's
has shown me more about true woman
illness than all the girls ever knew, and
Pm going back to try it over again"
One morning a small crowd of early
drinkers at Sim Ripson's dropped their
glasses, yet did not go briskly out to
work as usual. In fact, they even hung
aloof in most ungentlemanly manner,
from Jerry Miller, who had just stood
treat, and both these departures from the
usual custom indicated that something
unusual was the matter. Finally, Top
jack remarked:
"He's stranger, an typhus is bad
thing to hev aroun', but SOmethin' ought
to be done for him. 'Tain't the thing
to AK fur volunteers, for it's danger with
out no chance of pleasin' excitement.
We might throw keerds arouR' one to
each feller in camp, and him as gifts ace
of spades is to tend to the poor cuss."
Il think Jerry ought to go himself"
argued Flipp. "He's been exposed al
ready by lookin' in to the feller's shanty,
ans prob'bly hurt ez bad as he's goin' to
be-"
81 might co." said Sim Ripson, who, in
his character of barkeeper, had to sus-
tain reputation for bravery and public
spirit, "but 'twouldn't do to shut up
the store, We know, an specially the bar
-nobedy'd stan it"
Needn't trouble yerselves," said Ar
kansas Bill, who had entered during the
! conversation; "she's thar"
.. "Thunder!" exclaimed Topjack,
frowning, and then looking sheepish.
"Yes, " continued Bill, she stopped
, me ez l wuz comm along, an sed she'd
! jist heerd of it, an was a-goin'. I toP
her ther' wuz men enough in camp to
look out for him, but she said she reck-
oned she could do it best. Wants some
,, things from Frisco, though, an Pm go
|, in for 'em." And Arkansas Bill departed,
while the men at Sim Ripson's sneaked
guiltily down to the creek.
For many days the boys hung about
' the camps single street every morning,
e unwilling to go to work until they had
seen Mrs. Blizzer appear in front of the
sick mans hut. The boys took turns at
e carrying water, making fires and serving
o Mrs. Blizzer generally, and even paid
: handsomely for the chance.
: One morning Mrs. Blizzer failed to ap
pear at the usual hour. The boys walked
t about nervously-they smoked many
s pipes, and took hurried drinks, and yet
s She did not appear. The boys looked
h suggestingly at her husband, and he him
t self appeared to be anxious, but being
n one of the shiftless kind, he found anx
d iety far easier than action.
d Suddenly Arkansas Bill remarked, q
e can't stan it any longer" and walked
= rapidly toward the sick mans hut, ant
knocked 1iuhtlv on the door and LOOKED