The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1880-03-03

and bet on his gal every trip. as be
afterward explained.
She had come into camp week or
two previously to the greatest sur
prise Of everybody, including her
father. Old Stacy, good many
years before, some eight or ten, had
lost bis wife, and so graat was bis
grief that he could not be induced to
remain longer in the place she had
made little heaven for him. So he
placed his daug ghter-his ONLY child
in the fashionable female seminary
of the State, providing her with ev-
erything that was necessary for her
comfort or happiness and then struck
cut for the San Juan silver mines 20
forget his recent loss among the ex.
elements aud priya;ions of the front
ier.
Stacy was one Of the fortunate fe ~
out OF the unlucky many that enter a
mining country, aad in few years
be was possessed of properties yield-
ing him an excellent income from
their hard, white quartz He regu-
larly correspondee with his daug htsr
aud kept her supplied with pocket
money far in excess of her needs or
requirements, but be never went back
ON visit, aud when the young lady
was duly graduated with high hon
ors, she determined TO seek out her
long absent paternal progeniior
With an independence ana courage,
the wondermenI of the boys, she tray-
eled across the plains, took passage
on the stage aud finally rode into
Mineral City on horseback, the first
white woman ia camp and the OBJ
ject OF the shy alteration of the men
1t was some time before the BOYS
could stand their ground and face
her, instead of scampsring away az
Der approach, as had hitherto been
the case; but the western miner is
not long il getting accustomed TO
strange things, and it was not over
ten days after her arrival that the
Colonel inundated himself on the al
tar of her affections Encouraged by
mis- example and unterri6ed by his
unceremonious defeat, the boys, one
after another, tried their luck, though,
as | have before mentioned, with no
better success
Stacy was partner of mine in the
Ajax mine, in which there were
three of us Interested, and as we
were doing considerable development
on the vein | was Of necessity much
in his company and consequently in
that OF bis daughter She was very
pretty girl, with dainty, delicate
ways fer more bedtting house on
Walnut street than q rough mining
camp bat she loved her father with
an earnest clinging affection that
would not listen to her leaving
him, and so she continued to reign
Queen Of Mineral City all through the
summer OF 1876.
| don't knog when it was tha: |
was unduly attracted towards Nellie.
think it was when she asked me TO
call her therea5ler by that name. Size
made the request so innocenily, SO
sweetly, and SO tenderly, alleging
that as | was her fat1er's partner, a
gentleman by birth and education.
and such kind friend TO ber, il would
oe ever so much nicer for ne to say
Nellie, instead of Miss Stacy, which
sounded SO formal, that | came very
nearly adding other words to tue
name that our short acquaintance
would not justify After that spent
most of my evenings with Nellie, and
sometimes an afternoon, We took de-
licious little rambles together on the
mountain sides and into the heavy
timber lining the valley or canon of
Uncompahgre One evening Is We
were returning home, we stopped to
rest on the rOcky-crested summit OF
Mineral Point a few hundred feet
below Us lay the little mining camp,
Its log cabiBs looking doubly pict-
uresque ia the gathering gloaming
The blue smoke was curling from a
dozen caimneys as the men prepared
their evening meals ana here aud
there, over the various trails, blue
sbirIed miner, with pick and drills
across his shoulder, came stridi0g
home Tee sun sinkiug behind the
Wasatch Mountains, oDe hundred aud
sixty-tiye miles distant, cast great
long shadows across the surrounding
peaks, and yelled the rayines and
gulches in deepening darkness.
Nellie sat on the groupings of q
vein OF quartz and | lay stretched
out at her feet, watching her pretty,
tender eyes, as they wandered about
the horizon, drinking in the beauty
and the grandeur of the scene. She
had some light, Rseey arrangement
a nubia, | believe ii is called
wrapped loosely about her head snd
shoulders, and her hair, in whose
meshes the sunbeams seemed TO have
caught, peeped from beneath, helping
10 frame face stamped with inno-
cence and purity. Young people al
ways get sentimental in the evening,
when surrounded by quiet, and | was
no exception to the rule, and almost
before | knew il | was toying with
the little hand, so white and soft, lying
carelessly on the hinty quartz
Nellie" said, after few mo-
men;s, "don't you ever long to leave
this rough place end go back to the
east ~
Not now she said, slowly,
though | might under some circum-
stances"
"Wny not now 2"
'Oh, beeause-because.-I don't
wan, to leave papa
'Is that the real reason ~ | asked,
her shyness and evident avoidance Of
my eyes giving me hopes that set ny
heart beating with quicker pulsations.
Let Us 90 down." she said quick
ly, as she arose.
"No, not until you answer me, aud
| caught again the little hand.
She drew it from nv grasp, and,
with saucy Come" started down
the trail ana | FASTENED to follow. /
made several attempts to renew the
conversation on ibe way, bat Nellie
always turned OF from The subject
nearest my heart; and yet when |