The Owosso times., 1881-07-29
RETIRING FROM BUSI-
NESS,
BY BRET HARTE.

What the COlOnePS business was no.
body knew, nor did any body care par
ticularly. He purchased for cash only,
and never grumbled at the price of
anything he wanted. Who could ask
more than that?
Curious people occasionally wonder
ed how, when it had been fully two
years since the Colonel, with everybody
else, abandoned Ditch Creek to the
Chinese, he managed to spend money
freely and to lose considerable at cards
and horse races. In fact, the keeper of
that one of the Challenge Hill saloons
which the Colonel did not patronize,
was once heard to wonder, absent
mindedly, whether the Colonel hadn't a
money mill somewhere where he turn
ed on eagles and "slugs" (the coast
name for fifty-dollar gold pieces.)
When so important parsonage as a
bar-keeper INDUCED publicly in the
idea, the inhabitants of Challenge Hill,
like good Californians everywhere,
consider themselves in duty bound to
give it grave consideration; so, for a
few days, certain Industrious profess
ional gentlemen, who won money of
the colonel. carefully weighed some of
the brightest pieces, and tested them
with acids, and sawed them in two, and
retired them, and melted them up, and
had the Jumps assayed.
The result was complete vindica-
tion of the Colonel, with loss of con-
siderable custom to the indiscreet bar
keeper.
The Colonel was as good-natured a
man as had ever been known on Chal-
lenge Hill, but, being mortal, the Col
enel had his occasional times of de-
spondency, and one of them occurred
after series of races In which he had
staked his all on his bay mare Tipsie,
and had lost.
Looking reproachfully on his below
ed animal, he failed to heed the aching
void of his pockets, and drinking deep
ly, swearing eloquently, and glaring de-
family at all mankind were equally un-
productive of coin. E
The boys at the saloon sympathized
most feelingly with the Colonel. They
were unceasing in their invitations to
drink, and they exhibited considerable
Christian forbearance when the Colonel
savagely dissented with every one who
advanced any proposition, no matter
how incontrovertible. But unappreci-
ated sympathy grows decidedly tire
some to the giver, and it 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
considered an excellent sort of exercise,
and riding Is universally admitted to be
enc of the most healthful means of eX-
hilaration in the world; but when a
man will not stop tospeak to his friend,
and when his exhiliration is so COM
plete that he turns his eyes from we'll
meaning thumbs pointing insignificant
~ into doorways through which man
has often passed while seeking bracing
Influences, it is only natural that peo.
pie should express some wonder.
The Colonel was well known at Tod.
dy Flat, Come Hand, Blazers, Murder.
er's Bar, and several other villages
through which he passed. AS no one
had been seen to concede him, betting
men were soon Offering odds that the
Colonel was running away from some
body.
Strictly speaking they were wrong
but they won all the money that haC
been staked against them, for within
half an hour there passed over the
same road an anxious-looking individ
nal who reigned up in front of tn,
principal saloon of each place, and in
quired if the Colonel had passed.
| Had the gallant Colonel known tina
he was followed, and by whom, thel,
certainly would have been an extr;
election held at the latter place yer,
shortly after, for the pursuer was th
constable, and for all officers of the Law
the Colonel possessed hatred
On galloped the Colonel, followin,
the stage road, which threaded the.ol
mining camps on Dutch Greek, bu
suddenly he turned out Of the road ant
urged his horse through the youn,
pines ana bushes which grew thickl
by the road, while the constable gal
loped on to the next camp.
There seemed to be no path througl
the thicket into which the Colonel ha
turned, but Tipsie walked between tn
trees and shrubs as il they were famil
lar objects of his stable yard.
Suddenly voice from the bushe
shouted: