The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-02-11
VOLUME ".


said, turning round to admire her work
through the open door.
"That isn't bad, 'pon my word, I"
laughed the stranger. "Do you know"
he continued, "that you're a genius 2"
"What's that ?" and Madge looked
bewildered.
Something good to eat, I guess"
'Then you're simpleton."
It was now the strangers turn to feel
nonplussed.
81 mayn't be Solomon, but know
what suits me, and you come nearer
filling the bill than anybody Tve come
across in month of Sundays. Let's
have some supper, please. Pm hungry
as bear. After that shall want you
to come out here and help me read this
poem"
"Are you poet ?"
"People say So"
"Well, well !"
"What do you gaze at me in that
curious way for? Am not like an or
binary mortal?"
"Perhaps."
(which means you don't see it."
"You may have more sense than
some people, but you're a bigger fool
than some," said Madge, nettled beyond
self-control at his peculiar audacity.
1t was now the strangers turn to
blush.
"What's your name? ?" he asked, at
tempting to hide his confusion, and feel
ing immeasurably vexed with himself
for allowing her words and manner to
annoy him.
"My name, did you say ?" asked
Madge, while her eyes snapped mis-
chievously.
"That's what I said"
"Smith, if you must know"
"Why, Madge Morrison, you ought to
be ashamed of yourseltw exclaimed her
brother Sam.
''By Jove! I've struck a capital run
of luck! !" said the fellow, lying fiat
upon the grass and laughing immoder-
ately.
Madge was offended with the famil-
iarity and rudeness thus displayed by a
stranger, and abruptly left his presence
to attend to her duties in the kitchen.
'I don't want any more gentlemen
fooling around here, if that one gives
me specimen of the airs they put onp'
she soliloquized, Indignantly.
And now, good reader, let us leave
Madge in the kitchen, and pay little
personal attention to the stranger as he
lies upon the sward. You must know
that the gold fever in California was
at that time in its earlier stages, and
though the infection had penetrated to
the interior of the great Northwest, and
carried off a goodly number of its scat
tered inhabitants, none had, as yet, re-
turned. This stranger was fresh from
the mines, where marvellous Strikes
were made, and where gambling,
drunkenness, and every kindred vice
ran riot among all classes. A bad run
of luck at faro table, and the cOnse-
quent borrowing, without leave, of a
few thousands in virgin ore, was the
real cause of his present visit to the
rural shades of Molalla. AT the time oi
his visit to Madge he had already been
for several days the guest of the neigh
borhood; and he had heard so much
about her that he had come upon some
novel adventure bent, and in truth he
was getting enough of it, though not in
a manner as satisfactory as he had
hoped.
The few young girls in the country
that had not been appropriated as wives
had disgusted him with their silly ma
neuvering to entrap him.
No matter how unworthy a man be
of the marked attentions of any woman
charged with matrimonial thoughts, he
wants the glory of the wooing all tc
himself, and yet he doesn't want the
winning ever to be so difficult as to be
humiliating.
George Hanson, the stranger of whom
we write, fancied himself superlatively
handsome. He was elegantly clad, in g
suit of black broadcloth, and wore 6
handsome gold chain and other orna-
ments, the like of which the rustic
country damsels had never seen before
His figure was 1.-the and light, hi:
hands white and soft, and his yellow
hair, curled slightly at the ends, blend.
ed finely with the delicate blue of hi:
languishing eyes, and the feeble but
glossy beard that nestled lovingly upon
his upper lip and chin.
'tBy Jovev he said, to himself, as ht
reclined at ease upon the grass, cpl
captivate Madge Morrison, just to show
her that I camp
The last dainty touches had been fin
ished at the neat supper table, and every
child had been fed at a temporary side
board to hush their eIamor and rendel
the evening meal quiet one for the
older members of the household, wher
the marketing party came home.
Every one was full of joyous greeting
upon their return except Madge. Hei
hands were icy cold, and her manner Sc
strange and wierd that her mother