The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-02-14
reign Queen of Mineral City all through

don't know when it was that was
unduly attracted towards Nellie.
think it was when she asked me to call
her thereafter by that name. She made
the request so innocently, so sweetly,
and so tenderly alleging that as 1 was
her fathers partner, gentleman by
birth and education, and such kind
friend to her, it would be ever so much
nicer for me to say Nellie, instead Of
Miss Stacy, which sounded SO formal,
that | came very nearly adding other
words to the name that our short &C
quaintance would not justify. After
that | spent most of my evenings with
Nellie, and sometimes of an afternoon
we took delicious little rambles to-
gether on the mountain sides and into
the heavy timber lining the valley or
canon of the Uncompahgre. One even
ing as we were returning home, we
stopped to rest on the rock sum-
NIT of Mineral Point. A few hundred
feet below us lay the little mining
camp, its log cabins looking doubly
picturesque in the gathering cleaning.
The blue smoke was curling from a
dozen chimneys as the men prepared
their evening meals; and here and
there, over the various trails, blue
shirted miner, with pick and drills
across his shoulder, came striding
home. The sun sinking behind the
Wasatch Mountains, one hundred and
sixty-five miles distant, cast great long
shadows across the surrounding peaks,
and yelled the ravines and gulches in
deepening darkness.
Nellie sat on the groupings of a 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 grandeur of
the scene. She had some light, feecy
arrangement "a nubia, l believe it is
called-wrapped loosely about her head
and shoulders, and her hair, in whose
meshes the sunbeams seemed to have
caught, peeped from beneath, helping
to frame face stamped with innocence
and purity. Young people always get
sentimental in the evening, when sur
rounded by quiet, and 1 was no excep-
ton to the rule, and almost before 1
knew it was toying with the little
hand, so white and soft, lying carelessly
on the fiinty quartz.
"Nellie." 1 said, after a few mo-
ments, "don't you ever long to leave
this rough place and go back to the
Eastp"
"Not now," she said, slowly,
"though might under some circum-
stances"
"Why not now?"
80, because-because-l don't want
to leave papa"
sis that the real reasonP" | asked,
her shyness and evident avoidance of
my eyes giving me hopes that set my
heart beating with quicker pulsations.
"Let us go down." she said, quickly,
as she arose.
emo, not until you answer me-" and
l caught again the little hand.
She drew it from my grasp, and, with
saucy Come" started down the
trail, and l FASTENED to follow. Imade
several attempts to renew the CONVEX
sation on the way, but Nellie always
turned it Oft from the subject nearest
ny heart; and yet when left her at
her fathers door she shyly extended
her hand, and l thought detected a
soft pressure as took it in mine. A
moment, and she had vanished, and l
noticed rosy flush on her pretty
cheeks and an unusual light in the ten
der eyes. went back to my little
cabin with strange admixture of GER
tainty and doubt in my feelings, and a
quickening of my pulses that made me
oblivious to my rough surroundings.
After supper l lit my pipe and sat
upon my roughly-hewn door step. The
sun had gone down, but yet there was
light enough for me to see her cabin
and notice her father standing in the
doorway chatting with Mineral Bob,
the best prospector in camp and the
third owner with Stacy and myself in
the Ajax. l turned my head and
saw the lights in the shaft-house of the
Big Giant mine on Red Mountain gleam-
ing away in the distance; 1 heard the
changing blows OF. the blacksmith at his
forge, as he sharpened the tools for the
mornings work, and the deep boom of
the blast in the Little Emily mine came
floating through the still night air.
Then my eyes wandered back to the
cabin which held Nellie. Bob was still
there, his tall figure and broad Shout
ders contrasting greatly with the little
old man in the doorway. What was he
doing there so long l thought, and l
pulled my pipe viciously as saw Mel
lie moment later join the two. The
night settled down, and the cabins
faded from view, their presence only
revealed by the lights shining through
the little square windows, or the sparks
streaming out of the stone and mud
chimneys. 1t was getting cool, too,
and knocked the ashes out of my pipe
and re-entered my little home and
stirred up the smouldering embers on
the hearth. An hour went by and the
moon sent its beams across my little
table, with its tin plates and cups;
across my earthen and rocky floor,
touching lightly my books on shelf at
the head of my bed and resting softly
on the rolled-up coat that served me
for pillow. turned on my stool and
glanced out of the window. The tops
of the surrounding timber were silvered
by the moonlight, and the cabins stood
out against the dark background of the
tall spruces. The sound of singing
came up from the saloon and the wind
oinhad ftft1I1xy