The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1875-07-08

| In the neishbOrhO0d or DIG Pe2chblOw
who had Just finished the camphene, un
less they wished him TO go of. ''And we
can't spare Old Peach YETI said 10
.'even TO make a burning and shining
! light of him."
| When at last the tobacco gave out, Old
| Peachblow's partner sOlaced himself for 9
| while from box of mandrake pills, hus-
banding them carefully, and one at time
rolling them under his tongue as a sweet
morsel in the pla 3e Of his fine-cut; but, in
| spite of geometry, that pill-box came to
an end, and there was nothing left to do
| but play an even game with time. $50
| day, come day, God send Sunday" said
10. They continued their loose and ir-
regular prospecting as well as they were
able from day to day, with its unsatisfac-
| tory issues; they fell back for amusement
on their soiled packs of cards, and on the
| tremendous and impossible romances con-
cerning their past lives, which they had
told so often that they really believed
them true; sometimes they only lay in
their cabins and cursed the light, cursed
the grandeur of the scenery too, and
would have changed the brightest peak
above them for any hay cock in a meadow.
How bright, how bright and cruel, were
those icy heights above III the sunshine,
wrapped in rainbow glories, the rose and
gold of the morning, the scarlet and pur-
pie of sunset, the phantom-like fields of
night, lonely and chill in their mOnstrous
life And when the clouds rolled round
them, filling the black chasms with their
thick white volumes, turbid with storm,
despair itself settled in the narrow canyon
like pail. "There's one mercy, though,
we amt thankful enough for" said 10.
q har &c
perpetual itching without the privilege
of scratching. Well-we've got the privi-
lege."
10, in fact, was all that kept the spirits
of these poor fellows above the suicidal
point. Suicide was not a word they ever
said in their thoughts, to be sure, but they
were fast getting into that state when
suicide speaks for itself. 10 used to go
about from one to another for the sake of
a social scratch, as he called it. At one
time he proposed scratching match, or,
again, a scratch race, adjuring all to come
to the scratch or be scratched from the
ticket. "I'd give n. ore ounces th2nI shall
ever have" said 10, for one drink o that
old sulphur spring up in the Highfield
pasture at home. Nasty? L believe you
And SOS the scurvyl I've followed it up
by the reeds, sir, to its pool with the blue
flies darting over il. and the water-sHake
looking out of tiff twas snake, and not
a bit of root bobbing on the spring"
"Healthy old snake!" said Tad.
"The old sarpint himself, maybe-by
his liking for brimstone," remarked Old
PeachblOw.
"Well, then, it counts me in. for many's
the stone I've SHE'D at him. Lord! how
long ago that was Well, used to think
twas ditchwater then, sir; but L sorter
banker after some of il nOw."
"'Tain't ditchwater L banker after, I"
said OLD Peachblow.
MAYBE it's snakes you banker after"
said 10, slyly.
"Oh, shoi quit yer fooling! I'll take
my chance for snakes with the best of yer !!
Ifit hadn't been fol, you fellers, said Old
Peachblow, with trembling voice, ''Ed
"a been washing taiings with my pard
over in the Widows Cruse, land "a made
my pile and lit out long ago. TO think OF
the gravel that's running to waste over
there! ~
"And quick too, Peachy," said Tad.
"And quick toO,'' said Peachblow, as
if fnothing had been said. For the allu>ion
was TO the greatest exploit of Peachblow's
life, when, coDjecturing the waste o.
quicksilver by a certain company's wor Ks,
he had taken the companys empty TASKS,
and using them as retOrts, in cOnjuncti on
with the wet rth, had gathered the pre-
cious material, and sold back to the COM
pany their own quicksilver in ther own
TASKS, till discovered and driven from the
claim with no reward for his ingenuity.
Been using my discovery again if L hadn't
cast in my lot with you fellers."
"That's So" said 10. "Old Peach has
stuck TO his friends-so long as they stuck
to pay dirt"
" AS long as twas Topside Galow with
u.s." said Tad, who, lying on his face and
PLAYING cards with himself, was secret ly
and delightedly dealing better card to
his right hand than his left.
but now we're Teg'lar Dead-beats," !"
whimpered Peachblow "and that's the
name we'll be known by"
Come now, old man. don't go back on
u.s." cried 10. "lf you go.under, Wen all
go with you. It'll be ablamed fine look
out for the pony express to come up and
find US every one with our throats cut.
Dead-beats be blowed They'll call US
then, as far as the dust flies, the Camp of
the Cut-throats, The Camp of the Cut
throats! That'sa deuced pretty charac-
ter to give us. And the pony express is
coming"
"So's Christmas" said Old Peachblow.
swell, when it comes, we'll keep it.
Keep it?'' said 10, with a great laugh.
It'll be the only thing we've conhived
to keep. Keep Christmas? | amt kept
the day since left old Newbury."
And so the long, the dreedful winter
crept by, and the SHOWS began to break
and soft wet winds to blow; and when
the freed and swollen streams came
whistling down, and life began to stir in
the earth, the tide was ebbing fast in the
veins ef these disconsolate wretches, who
saw the splendor burning on the peaks
above and the shadows deepening in the
black bristling gorge below with equal in
difference. The little Jew was dead !;
Old Peachblow was very low, his partner
not much better; and the rest of the camp
were alive, and that was all. When the
way might have been clear at last, for all
they knew, theIe was not man among
them with strength or will enough to car
ry down a cry for help, and they waited
for the express TO come up. ''lf he don't
come soon,'' said Jo-''if he don't come
soon, sir, he'll only find a place of skulls
when he does come. Every man his own
grave-stone. For I'll be eternally' it is
Ofno use to say just what 10 said) ''if
there's one of us here now can put the
other out of sight"
But he did come sOon-sOon as passes
were clear and torrents were fOrdable; for
he was an old comrade, and suspected how
the case might be with them. Feeble
were the hurrahs that greeted the first
imagined glimpse of him on far-away
ledge from those who had crept to the out
look, losing sight of him with sinking
hearts, finding him again as large as lite
and when at last he rode Gathering into
camp, the men who met him greeted him
with bursting tears. Wet place." said
10, seeing not one but twenty expresses at
the moment. "Tie your Handkerchief
round your throat, Doctor it's too damp
here to be wholesome" As soon, how
ever, as the moisture disappeared, differ
ent sort of moisture replaced it from the
lust arrived canteen; and presently the
dropping spirits were looking up brightly.
as weeds after a summer shower; and
then the express rider gaZed about him,
and exploded into q storm of oaths at the
condition of the camp.
"Durned fools! when yere's the mud
springs not a mile below" said he.
stCome, buckle on yer harness" he said
after the fashion of the old knight-errant,
whom the pony express modernizes. "By