The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1878-03-07

out from ditch as he gazed sorrowful
: ly after the flying heels of Jimmy, "bu
it's only the second load of cabbage
I'm bringin' the day, and if she's shtrucl
'sOIC-it's ruined | am entoirely.' Blu
J he was mistaken; after two hours o
rumination, jimmy returned of her owl
free will, having evidently mistaken tn.
J time, and it is said even consented t
draw an extra load to make up the de-
ficiency. 1t may be imagined from thi:
and other circumstances that Michae
stood little in awe of Jinny's superior
intellect, and that jimmy occasionally
with the instinct of her sex, presumed
upon it. After the Sunday episode al
ready referred to, she was given her lib
erty on that day, a privilege she grace.
fully recognized by somewhat unbend-
ing her usual austerity in the indul-
gence of a saturnine humor. She
would visit the mining camps, and, graz
ing lazily and thoughtfully before the
cabins, would, by various articles and
coquetries known to the female heart,
induce some credEious stranger to APP
proach her with the intention of taking
a ride. She would submit hesitatingly
to halter, allow him to mount her back,
and, with every expression of timid and
fearful reluctance, at last permit him to
guide her in laborious trot out of sight
of human habitation. What happened
then was never clearly known. In a
few moments the camp would be arous-
ed by shouts and eXecrations, and the
| spectacle of jimmy tearing by at q
| frightful pace, with the stranger cling
! ing with his arms around her neck,
afraid to slip off, from terror of her
circumvolving heels, and vainly implor-
ing assistance. Again and again she
would dash by the applauding groups,
adding the aggravation of her voice to
the danger of her heels, until, suddenly
wheeling, she would gallop to Carriers
pond, and deposit her luckless freight
in the muddy ditch. This practical
joke was repeated until one Sunday she
was approached by Juan Ramirez,
Mexican UaquerO, booted and spurred,
and carrying RATA. A crowd was as
sembled to see her discontinue. But
to the intense disappointment of the
camp, jimmy, after quietly surveying the
ambled away to the little cemetery on
the hill, whose tangled chaparral effectu-
ally prevented all pursuit by her skilled
antagonist. From that day she forsook
the camp, and spent her Sabbaths in
mortuary reflections among the pine
headboards and cold "hic facets y of
the dead
Happy would it have been if this cir
cumstance, which resulted in the one
poetic episode of her life, had occurred
earlier. For the cemetery was the IA
vorite resort of Miss Jessie LawtOn,
gentle invalid from San Francisco, who
had sought the Foot Hills for the bal
sam of pine and fir, and in the faint
hope that the freshness of the wild |
roses might call back her own. The |
extended views from the cemetery sat
istied Miss Lawton's artistic taste, and |
here frequently with her sketchbook in /.
hand she INDUCED that taste and GER
tain shy reserve which kept her from |
contact with strangers. On one of the |
leaves of that sketchbook appears a |
study of a donkey's head, being none |
other than the grave features of jimmy, |
as once projected timidly over the art
lists shoulder. The preliminaries of this .
intimacy have never transpired, nor is .
it settled fact if jimmy made the first
advances. The result was only known .
to the men of Sawyer's Bar by vision
which remained fresh in their memories
long after the gentle lady and her four
footed friend had passed beyond their
voices As two of the tunnel-men were
returning from work one evening they
CHANGED to look up the little trail, kept
sacred from secular intrusion, that led
from the cemetery to the settlement.
In the dim twilight, against sunset
sky they beheld a pale-faced girl riding
slowly toward them. With a delicate
new to these rough men, they
drew closer in the shadow of the bushes
until she passed. There was no mis-
taking the familiar grotesqueness of
jimmy, there was no installing the Ian
guild grace of Miss Lawton. But
wreath of wild roses was around Jinny'S
neck, from her long ears 1oated Miss
Jessie's hat ribbons, and mischievous, /
girlish smile was upon Miss Jessie's
face, as fresh as the azaleas in her hair.
By the next day the story of this gentle
apparition was known to dozen min
ers in camp, and all were sworn to Sc
crecy. But the next evening, and the .
next, from the safe shadows of the /
woods they watched. and drank in the
beauty of that fanciful and all uncon-
scious procession. They kept their Sc
cret, and never whisper or football |
from these rough men broke its charm .
or betrayed their presence. The man
who could have shocked the sensitive |
reserve of the young girl would have |
paid for it with his life.
And then one day, the character of the |
procession changed, and this little Incl !
dent having been told, it was permitted |
that jimmy should follow her friend, Ca
parisoned even as before, but this time |
by the rougher but no less loving hands |
of men. When the cortege reached the |
ferry where the gentle girl was to begin
her silent journey to the sea, jimmy |
broke fromThose who held her, and al
ter a frantic effort to mount the barge |
fell into the swiftly rushing Stanislaus.
A dozen stout arms were stretched to
save her, and rope skillfully thrown
was caught around her feet. For an in
slant she was passive and, rs it seemed,
saved. But the next moment her dom
inant instinct returned, and with one
stroke of her powerful heel she snapped
the rope in twain and so drifted with
her mistress to the sea.-NeW York Sun.
The Key to the East.