The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1884-08-09
THE LONG PACK.

/
California is small tavern, much fre-
quented by commercial Travellers and which
bears the odd title of ''The Long Pack"
"Does that mean long pack of cards?"
inquired a traveller, glancing at the swing
ing signboard, which also represented the
weather-worn picture of something resem
bling a soldiers overgrown knapsack.
''No, replied the gray-haired landlord.
''It means peddler's pack. Nowadays
they call them sample cases, 1 believe"
pointing to the baggage of several COM
mercial drummers that stood in a corner
''You see I have good deal of that sort
of custom. try to make the road boys
as comfortable as possible, for l was little
hard on their fraternity once
"How was that p
sWell," said the mountain Boniface,
who had waited until his daughter, bux-
ON matron, had left the room, sit amt
very pleasant story, but like to tell it
sometimes, just to remind myself that the
worst thing man can have in this world
is hot, obstinate temper. You see, L
came to this coast soon after the gold fe-
yer broke out and settled down in the
Santa Barbara valley, below here, ranch
ing. was a widower even then, and had
brought with me from the states my only
child-a daughter, past seventeen. She
was pretty girl, if do say it, and being
as good as pretty, you can imagine | was
quite wrapt up in her. Of course, | was
anxious to keep her with me, and if not
that, at least looked for her to do some.
thing better than fall in love with ped
dler"
"And did she ?"
eyes; you sec, in those days, the coun
try was full of young fellows, who had
struck out for themselves, and were trying
to get start by carrying knick-knacks
around from one mining camp to another.
Some of them were lively chaps enough
and well educated but | was fresh from
the states with all the eastern predjudices,
and it almost drove me wild when Nellie
told me she wanted to marry young fel-
low who brought his pack through our
district a good deal oftener than the trade
seemed to require. | was a hot-tempered
fool in those days, so stormed, threaten
ed, locked Nellie up for a week, and sent
word to her lover that 1 had loaded my
gun for wildcats and peddlers.' y
"What did Nellie do?''
'NYou might have guessed it, stranger.
One day when 1 came back from q cattle
sale she was missing. | chased her cou-
Pile of days, but they had taken to the tall
timber and it was no use After a while
I got a letter from Frisco, and | wrote
back saying that disowned her, and that
he had better keep out of the range of my
deer rifle"
"What did you do then ?"
Suffered, mister just suffered. [ knew
was wrong, but I'd have died rather than
give in, For four years lived like a toad
in rock, hating the whole world All
the pleasure | had was in watching for
peddlers The number chased off the
ranch during that time would astonish you.
One evening, after terrible rainstorm, one
of the tribe came to my house and asked
for shelter for the night He was thin,
weak-looking fellow, with his face covered
by huge, ragged beard. He carried on
his back an enormously long and heavy
pack, and seemed so exhausted with his
tramp through the mire that | hadn't the
heart to do more than order him off the
place.
"That was pretty hard" said the lis
tener.
II suppose it was. The peddler seemed
all broke up when he found l wouldn't
even give him bunch of straw in the sta
BILE, and no other house within twelve
miles, Instead of complaining, however,
he merely begged that l would let him
leave his pack, which he said contained
goods of value, under shelter from the rain.
finally consented to this. So, as / had
sworn one of his trade should never cross
my threshold, 1 carried his pack inside,
while its owner limped off to crawl under
some bush or other"
"Didn't you feel mean?"
eyes; mean and bitter at the same time,
for something about the man reminded me
of Nellie's husband a little. However,
locked and barred all the doors and win
dows, as usual, for some road agents had
been around those parts about that time,
and had stood up and robbed several ranch
ers; and, as 1 told you, was all alone.
Somehow, l couldn't go to sleep, when, af-
ter that, 1 went to bed, After tossing
around for awhile, | got up and sat by the
fire, brooding over my trouble, and tried
not to think of the poor devil shivering
out there in the cold and rain somewhere.
looked at his pack sitting up in the cor
ner and wondered what made it 50 long.
As [ watched it 1 fancied I saw it move
'Saw it move y
"Exactly; l wouldn't believe my eyes at
first, but after Watching intently for while,
1 distinctly saw the front of hand pressed
against the canvas from inside. Like
fash then understood the whole thing,
The peddler was one of the road agents
gang, and, knowing | had considerable
money about the house. they had adopted
that plan for smuggling one Of their crew
inside the house. After | had gone to
sleep, the fellow inside could let in the rest
and finish the job. l walked quietly across
the room, took my gun from the antlers,
knelt down few feet from the pack, aimed
square in the centre, and pulled the trig
ger"
$50 on, murmured the listener, with
shudder. :
''Rut the gun didn't go of" continued
the landlord, clearing his throat. "The
nipple was rusty and wouldn't work, so |
laid down the rife and got an axe from
the kitchen. 1t had been newly ground
that day, and when | lifted it over my
head, counted upon cleaying that pack,
robber and all, clear to the foot. Just as
I raised the axe and braced myself for the
blow, IL saw ghost
"a ghost ?"
eyes, sir. The pack opened and saw
sticking out of its top the curly yellow
head, blue eyes and rosy cheeks of my Mel
lie when she was little tot of four.
The shock staggered me so that | sank