The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1879-12-18

and awkward, and all of that, amt
been the best man in the world. /
never harmed anybody, but 1 generally
kept pretty full, and if got ahead any,
why, it all went in a few days for Ii
quor; and so l travelled round, and was
never anything but a vagabond. Well,
last spring struck the camp, an saw
men making money, an after big
drunk found myself without q cent.
This amt no place for a man when he's
dead broke, an tumbled to myself an
chopped short. 1 worked a month in
the Little Pittsburg. an never got
drunk once, an then / took my money
and laid in two months grub stake,
an went up South Evans an took up a
claim. There's where 1 first met Kitty,
out there. Her father had the next
claim to mine, an she kept house for
him, an we got kinder neighborly like.
When / got broke l was down forty
feet, an the hole looked good. work
ed for the Little Chief a month then,
and then 1 went at it again. All that
time didn't drink drop. The second
day after 1 went back to the hole Kit
ty's father sickened, and in three days
he was dead. Me an two or three
others did all we could for the girl, but
there wasn't many of us up there then,
an we was all poor, an she had no
money to get away with, so l just
moved my grub over to her cabin, an
an l struck it, I'd share even with
her. She couldn't do anything else,
poor thing, an so l went on work
course 1 felt good, an if L d been broke
it would have been all right. But 1
had n couple of dollars, an came to
town, an when the money was all gone
l was too drunk to go to that little gal;
an because knew she'd come over to
my cabin to call me to supper, /
thought I'd go down the shaft an
sleep it off. But a drunken men can't
calculate, you know, an after I'd let
the rope down an fastened it 1 went to
slide down the rope an touched the
bucket, which was on the edge of the
hole, and it came down on my face an
left this scar. don't know how l got
down the rope, but know that when
1 got down couldn't get up, an laid
there without knowin' nothing, an
when came to it was mornin', an
there was that little girls face lookin'
down the shaft. thought it was an
angel, an kinder swooned off again,
an the next thing knew some one was
tyin' the rope around under my arms,
an blessed if it wasn't that little gal
When she got through she just Skinned
up the rope and histed me up herself.
l don't know how she did it, but she
got me out an nussed me, an I'm well.
L sold my hole yesterday, an got
enough to keep US both comfortat lie,
an I've got used to her, an don't know
how to get along without her, an so
we want to get married, an that's the
long an short of it."
"But there's such a difference in
your ages"
mot so much Squire" said the
man, with a movem6M of the eve that
would have been a wink had a wink
been possible. "She's twenty-five and
Pm fifty-two-the same figures you
know"
"But is the girl entirely willingP'
"You can ask her," and as the old
man spoke the door opened and the
girl, who had become impatient at the
long conference, walked in.
There's nothing wrong about this,
Judge" she broke out, "Pm turning
twenty-five, an my own mistress, an
Jim is the kindest, best man in the
world, an love him, an though he
don't say much, know he loves me,
an we've got 10000, an we're going
to get married unless" and here she
broke down with sob, "he changes
his mind"
I'm never change my mind, Kitty"
said the old man, drawing her toward
him.
In a few minutes man and wife went
out of office, and the Squire, with
gratified smile pocketed the best fee he
had received for a month.-LeadUilie
(Col. Herald.