Kimball enterprise. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1883, 1883-06-01
hard as could and tried to be punctuai
and steady ard thnunhtfl1l Not I ,raa

| tlOn. that 4fs1yas meantime elected Judge
Of the county and had begun to write
the Songs Of the Sierras." My life was
a sober ard severe one, For without
learning I was trying to administer the
law; without knowing how to read or
spell was trying to write a book. I
| was walking a new road of life now. All
was Strange. What availed my knowl-
edge of wood-cralt in the courts Of law?
The mystery of making fire by the fric-
| ton Of two sticks of wood, the secret of
| finding water in the desert by the flight
| of a bird, the cunning of foreteling the
force OF the coming winter Or the depth
of the snow, all these and the like were
of no use now.
If the shrewd and sharp lawyers who
| quilted and beat me had come into my
elements | had beaten them. But had
chosen to enter theirs, and must be
equal to the undertaking. And SO it was
worked and studied as never man
worked aud studied before. Often I
never left my office till the gray dawn,
after a day of tot! and night of study.
My health gave way, and l was indeed
old and thoughtful. Well. ali this, you
can see, did not suit the merry-hearted
and spoiled child of the mines at all.
Then she WAS not SO ambitious as | was;
then she had not such a strange, wild
! life behind to haunt her. She became
the spoiled child here that she had been
at her fathers. and naturally grew inn
patient at my persistent toll and study.
But she was good all the time; good and
honest and true in all things and in all
ways; understand that distinctly. And
let me gay here, once for all, that. no
man or woman can put q finger on any
stain in this woman's whole record of
life, so far as truth and purity go. But
she was not happy here. Impatient of
the dull monotony of the exhausted
mining camp, and longing for the sea
and the old home that almost overhung
the sounding waters, she took her two
children and returned to her mother.
while | sold the little home we had built
and kept together. the new orchard and
the lanes of roses we iad planted to-
gether, and remained rherein the camp,
promising to follow her, yet full of ambi
ton now to be elected to place on the
Supreme Bench of the state, and l re-
manned and worked on to the end cease
lessly.
She had been absent from me quite
year when the convention was called
and 1 went to Portland, seeking the
nomination for the place l desired. But
ways and angry that should have kept
SO long away, had forwarded papers
from her home, hundreds of miles re.
| mote, to lawyer here, praying for d.
vorce. This SO put me to shame that I
abandoned my plans, and in rage and
disappointment formed colluson with
her lawyer to give her pretense ofthat
which she professed to desire Yet l
knew quite well that this was only AFRO
mantle and foolish freak that meant
nothing. How often she has written me
that she did this only in order to get me
to come to her, and that she did not
| dream she could pe divorced unless I
came to her when the action was brought.
Nor could she in fact But court was
in session, and lawyer, who looked to
me, only for his fee, entered the case,
and in about the time it takes to write it
the sham divorce WAS announced to the
world, while was sailing away for 9TH
er lands.
OF course, the whole pitifn! proceeding
was as nothing; but her lawyer, nov
dead, got his fee from me, and never
betrayed the treacliery to her And it
was perhaps quite ten years before she
by chance met some one who told her
the truth, She had married, but at
once left all and came to me here.
had not been greatly fortunate at
i best. A few thousand dollars / had
thrown up as a wall between myself and
work; but | had grown so impatient of
this moderate position in life and l
SO wanted to get great fortune and re-
turn to the west that I deliberately
staked all in Wall street, and of course
lost all. l, beaten and discouraged and
broken in health, had returned to gar
ret and was therfagain preparing to use
my pen, when one stormy night
strange woman crept up my stairs and
mo inc |, 4
minnie Myrtle" was in the city and
must see me- And how helpless 1 was
to help her or any one now. | had seen
her form but once for nearly dozen
years. And such years, Let me not re-
cite any Of the horrors they hold in this
connection; and yet | heard from her
all the time, and while she wrote against
me and lectured about me and did all
that made my life SO miserable, she did
not really mean my ruin; but thinking
me strong and prosperous and happy
she exhausted her witand sarcasm on me
and laughed that she might not weep.
But IN time she drove me nearly mad,
and l left the country and proposed new
er to return. My publishers, Roberts
Bros, Of Boston, had sent her $50 q
month as regularly as the months came
all the time. She was receiving that
sum, and perhaps rs much more directly
from myself, as l eoad spare it, all the
| time | was in Europe; and she received
these sums for years after her marriage.
But the poor, spoiled child of Port OK
ford never quite got over her childish
love for wastefnl folles and dress and
show and travel, and so was forever
pinched and in debt.
And now, having hastily passed over
all those terrible years, we come to the
closing chapter of this singular life. l
followed the good woman who came to
me that stormy night in silence till we
came at last to little lselk, room in the
top Of a house, with bed in the centre
and doubtful fire strugglingln the CRATE.
The good woman turned away and left
us in the room together. The place was
almost dark. She did not give me her
hand, but stood before me with one
hand holding on the bedpost, long
time silent.
~ have come to you at last she said,
after awhile.
"You have come to drive me from the
country again."
I" have come 10 ou to diew she said.
And as she turned so that the light was
| on her face ! saw that it was so. And
then we sat down and had long talk. It
was our last talk l was not very kind.
| God knows am sorrowful now. She
j 4 III