Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1890-12-20
A TREASURE OF THE GAL
LEON.
BY BRET HARrE.

b1 bhE& nAAAA'
Her fathers house was nearly
mile from the sea, but the breath OF
it was always strong at the windows
and doors in the early morning, and
when there were heavy southwest
ers" blowing in the winter, the wind
brought the sharp sting of sand to
her cheek, and the rain an odd taste
of salt to her lips. On this particu-
lar December afternoon, however, as
she stood in the doorway, it seemed
to he singularly calm; the southwest
trades blew but family and scarcely
broke the crests of the long Pacific
swell that lazily rose and fell on the
beach, which only slanting copse Of
scrub-oak and willow hid from the
cottage. Nevertheless she knew
this league-long strip of shining sand
much better, it is to be feared, than
the scanty flower garden, arid and
stunted by its contiguity, 1t had
been her playground when she first
came there, motherless girl OF
twelve, and she had helped her father
gather its scattered driftwood-as
the fortunes of Millers were not
above accepting these occasional
offerings of their lordly neighbor.
Il wouldn't go far to-day, Jenny
said her father, as the girl stepped
from the threshold, II don't trust
the weather at this, season-and be-
| sides you had better be looking over
your wardrobe for the Christmas
Eve party at Sol Catlin's."
"Why, father, you don't intend to
go to that man's?" said the girl look
ing up with troubled face.
"Lawyer Miller" as he was called
by his few neighbors, looked slightly
embarrassed. "Why notY" he asked,
in a family irritated tone.
"Why not ?" why, father, you
know how vulgar and conceited he
is-how everybody here knuckles to
him?"
every likely, he's very superior
man of his kinda kind they under
stand here, too-a great trapper,
hunter and pioneer
"But l don't believe in his trap.
ping. hunting and pioneering, said
the girl, petulantly. ~ believe its.
all as hollow and boisterous as him.
SELF It's no more real, or what one
thinks it should be, than he should
be, than he is. And he dares to pat
ronize you-you, father, an educated
man and gentleman |"
"Say rather an unsuccessful law
yer who was fool enough to believe
that buying a ranch could make him
farmer" returned her father, but
half jestingly. 81 only wish 1 was
as good at my trade as he is"
"But you never liked him you
always used to ignore him; you've
changed, father" She stopped
suddenly, for her recollection of her
fathers quiet superiority aud easy
independence when he first came
there, was in such marked contrast
to his late careless and weak Access
sion to the rude life around them,
that she felt pang Of vague degra-
dalton, which she feared her voice
might betray.
"Very WE'LL Do as you like" he
replied, with affected carelessness,
"Only l thought as we cannot afford
TO 60 elsewhere this Christmas, it
might be well for us to take what we
could find here"
flake what we could find here |"
1t was SO unlike him-he, who had
always been SO strong in preserving
their little domestic refinements in
their rude surroundings that their
poverty had never seemed mean, nor
their seclnsion ignoble. She turned
away TO conceal her indignant color.
She could share the household work
with squaw and Chinaman, she
could fetch wood and water. Catlin
had patronizingly seen her do it, but
to dance to his vulgar piping-never
She was not long in reaching thei
sands that now lay before her. warm,
swaet-scented from short beach grass,
stretching to dim rocky promon-
tory, and absolutely untrod by any
foot but her own. Tt was this vir-
ginity of seclusion that had been
charming to her girlhood; fenced in
between the impenetrable hedge of
scrub oaks on the one side, and the
lifting green walls of breakers-tip-
ped with cheveaux de fries of white
foam on the other, she had known q
perfect security for her sports and
fancies that had captivated her town.
bred instincts and native fastidious-
ness. A few white winged sea birds,
as proud, reserved and maiden-Iike
as herself, had been her only COM
panions. And it was now the custo-
dian of her secret-a secret as limo
cent and child-like as her previous
Youthful far s-but still secret
known only to herself.
One day she had come upon the
rotting ribs of q wreck on the beach.
Its distance from the tide line, its