Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-07-19
RETIRING FROM BUSINESS.



What the coloners business was nobody
knew, nor did anybody care, particularly.
He purchased for cash only, and he never
grumbled at the price of anything he wanted;
who could ask more than that
Curious people occasionally wondered how,
when it had been fully two years since the
colonel, with every one else, abandoned
Dutch Creek to the Chinese, he managed to
use money freely and to lose considerable at
cards and horse races. In fact the keeper of
that one of the two Challenge-Hill saloons
which the colonel did not patronize, was once
heard to absent -mindedly wonder whether
the colonel hadn't II money mill somewhere,
where he turned out double eagles, and
''slugs' (the coast name for fifty dollar gold
pieces.)
When so important a parsonage as a bar
keeper INDUCED publicly in an idea, the in
habitants of Challenge Hill, like good Califor-
mans everywhere, considered themselves i'll
duty bound to give it grave consideration, 80
for few days certain industrious profession
al gentlemen, who won money of the colonel,
carefully weighed some of the brightest
pieces and tested them with acids, and tasted
them, and sawed them in two, and retired
them, and melted them up, and had the Jumps
assayed.
The result was a complete vindcation of
to the indiscreet bar-keeper.
The colonel was as good natured a man as
had ever been known at Challenge Hill, but
being moral the colonel had his occasional
times of dependency, and one of them oc-
Cured after "a series of races in which he had
staked his all on his own bay mare Tipse,
and had lost.
Looking reproachfully at his beloved ami
NAL he fnied to heed the aching void of his
pockets, and drinking deeply, swearing elo-
quently and glaring defantly at all mankind
were equally unproductiye of coin.
The boys at the station sympathized most
feelingly with the colonel; they were unceas-
ing in their invitations TO drink, and they
even exhibited considerable Christian forbear-
ance when the colonel savagely dissented with
every one who advanced any proposition, no
matter how incontrovertible.
But unappreciated sympathy grows decid-
edly tiresOme TO the gver, and 1t was with a
feeling of relief that the boys saw the colonel
stride out of the saloon mount Tipsie, and
gallop furiously away.
Riding on horseback has always been con-
sidered an excellent sort of exercise, and fast
riding is universally admitted to be one of the
most healthful and delightful means of exhil-
aration in the world.
But when a man is so absorbed in his ex.
ercise that he will not stop to speak to a
friend, and when his exhilaration is so COM
plete that he turns his eyes from well-mean-
ing thumbs pointing significantly into door
ways through which Il man has often passed
while seeking bracing influences, it is but
natural that people should express some Won
der.
The colonel was well known at Toddy Flat.
Come Hand, Blazers Murderer's Bar, and
several other villages through which he passed
| As no one had been seen to precede him bet
ting men were soon Offering odds that the
colonel was running away from somebody.
| Strictly speaking they were wrong, but
| they won all the money that had been staked
| against them, for within half an hours time
| there passed over the same road an anxious
looking individual who reined up in front of
| the principal saloon of each place, and asked
! il the colonel had passed.
Had the gallant colonel known that he was
followed, and by whom, there would have
been an extra election held at the latter place
very shortly after for the pursuer was the
| constable of Challenge Hill, and for consta-
| bles and all officers of the law the colonel
possessed hatred of unspeakable intensity.
On galloped the colonel, following the
stage road, which threaded the old mining
camps on Duck Creek but suddenly he
turned abruptly out of the road and urged his
horse through the young pines and bushes
which grew thickly by the road, while the
constable galloped rapidly on to the next
camp.
There seemed to be no path through the
thicket into which the colonel had turned,
but Tipse walked on between the trees and
shrubs as if they were the familiar objects OF
| her own stable yard.
Suddenly voice from the bushes shout.
| ed -
Whats upy'
business what" replied the colo
mel.
Its time" replied the voice, and its own
er-a bearded x-foOter-emerged from the
bushes and stnoked 1ipSie's nose with the