Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-03-10
ICopns0ht Secured A1 Rtohts Reserped.l Driven From Sea to Sea;
 Or, JUST A CAMPIN'.
HY Q. 0. POST.

He had whitewashed the outside care. fully, and had built porch over the front door, doing everything himself and lingering long over the nicer jobs; thinking of how it would add to the pleasure and comfort of the wife who was undergoing the tedious journey across the plains in order to be again with him.
 'She's worthy of a palace," he had said to himself over and over again, "an' I'm just goin' to make this hero shanty as comfortable an as conven- tent as contrivin' an tixin' kin do it." And every evening. after cooking and eating his supper of bacon and beans, he was not too tired or too indifferent to cook them, he would light his pipe and sit in the front door for hours, looking out along the track by which he knew they must come, and wonder where they were at that hour; if they were travelling late. as they sometimes must in search of water for their teams; if all were well; if they were in danger from tho Indians; if the horses with which they started were holding out well, and thousand other similar things, but always refusing to believe that evil could come to them now, when their long separation seemed so near m end, and firmly clinging to tho thought that they would soon all be together again in the homo which he was preparing, and which he meant never to leave until called over the range to the better one.
 II wonder now if the little girls will know me-" he had said aloud, as he sat thinking one evening.
 ''They were such little bits O tots when left that I really 'spect they have forgotten how their own father looks. There's Martha, now, she'd recognlze me in minute, I'll venture; six years is long time. though. and I've had some awful hard knocks durin' that time; wonder now if I am lookin' much the wus for wear," and he arose a little hurriedly and went and hunted up the bit of looking-glass among his kit of things, and took long look at himself with a queer kind of feeling about the heart, that some way re- minded him of t(sI days when he first knew himself to be in love with Martha Simmonds, and was a little uncertain as to how his advances would be received.
 Every day after that until they came, he had looked in the glass at least once,
 
 his hair and beard combed and his clothes looking as well as possible, con- sidering the fact that, to very great extent. he was forced to rely on strings to do the duty usually performed by buttons
 He had at first thought of meeting his family at Sacramento. and had gone down there in tho middle of August with the intention of remaining until they arrived; but as the time of their coming was quite uncertain, and might not be for several weeks yet, and as some things remained to be done to the cottage, he had made arrangements with Jo Bronson, who also had friends in the expected company, to see that they were properly directed after being supplied with anything of which they might be in special need, or to at once notify him in case anything had gone wrong with them. and had returned to the ranch to await them there.
 For several days after his return he busied himself about the cottage, put ting in a shelf here; driving up a nail there; going out to look at the garden. the ground for which he had broken early in the spring almost the first day after he had laid his claim and written his family to come-and which now, thanks to his careful tending and the natural adaptability of the soil and climate, could easily furnish vegetables and melons enough for a larger family than the one whose wants they were in- tended to supply; and remembering that but a few days or weeks intervened they might be in sight from the bluffs at the bend of the creek whose wind ings tho road followed, that they might be coming around the bend at any mo- ment, is it any wonder that he slept but lightly, or that he often raised himself from his blanket, fancying he heard a familiar voice calling to him through the darknessP
 Only two days before their arrival a peigboring squatter called at the ranch, and the two men spoke together earn estly and excitedly, and when the nelgh- bor left John Parsons hastily mounted his pony and dashed away across the country at break-neck speed, casting anxious glances back over the track in the direction from which he expected any day, any hour, to see the canvas covered wagon in whose occupants every hope of his life centered.
 After an absence of few hours he returned at the same reckless pace, but only to dash off again, after making cer- tain that no one had been at the cottage during his absence.
 Just at nightfall he came home, fastened instead of turning loose his pony, and cut for him & bundle of the wild oats that grow so Justify upon the rich soil of the Susool Ranch and sur rounding valley,
 Then he began to pace back and forth before the porch of the cottage. He did not cook or eat any supper; he even forgot to light his pipe.
 All through that night he paced ur and down or stood looking into the sky | or out toward the distant hills.
 When morning came he cooked anc tried to eat his breakfast, but coulc | only swallow with an effort, and wher it was over he set the unwashed dishes aside and looked in the bit of glas, again.
 What he saw there seemed to hur