Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1892-03-11

was a blackboard
S&- day, for there was
not single passenger. What was more
to the point, as the Gold Butte Mining
Company regarded it, was that under
the drivers seat was a box with ten
thousand dollars in the newest Of new
tens and twenties in it.
The driver had looked very blue when
he drove his four mustangs from the
postoffice-where he took on a very fiat
leather bag, which spoke loudly of the
incapacitv or Discrimination of the
Thimble Spring people for letterwriting
over to the railroad station, where he
was to take on the box. Things were
gong all wrong at home. That was why
his brown face looked SO haggard; that
was why he held so loosely too the
''lines;" that was why he chewed so
hard on the bit of "plug" in his mouth.
"Such hard scratchln' I never seed
afore" was what he had said as he
had listlessly thrown the mailbag into
the wagon; "can't git no decent job now
adays. Nothin' ter be he'd by prospect
in'-tried tibet time an agin; eff I git
anything it peters out inside of week.
I might make strike over ter Sand
Gulsch, but It's long way off, an me n
Sue an the kids heZ moved so often at
we can't raise nothin' ter move on now.
Why in Sam Hill did Sue hev ter git
that rheumatic jes now, when we's so
hard up, an afore she weaned the baby?
It's shame. Why can't Bill git some
thin ter do?-great big, lunkheaded
cuss. Eff he'd a brother, poorer crow.
dye think I'd go an live on him, an
live on him, till thar warn't nuthin' ter
eat in the house? Sho, Zach Springer,
you're blamed fool. Bill hain't done
that. He amt ter blame fer gittin' his
leg broke that time. Bills all right, but
he's onlucky. Been tryin' fur month
ter git job, an can't git in nowhere.
He's willin' ter work. He'd stan croch-
deep in the creek all day long washin
out tailins eff he could make his salt at
it. Tried it for six weeks an didn't git
enough to buy pair O. gum-boot
Whoa, Buckskin!
And then the box was taken on, and
the express agent had something to say.
That something" was not to Zach
Springer's liking. He chewed harder
than ever on the bit of plug, and sawed
the hard mouths of the mustangs by an
unnecessary yanking of the reins. 1t
was positive relief to be able at last to
whack his lash down upon the sides of
the nervous brutes and turn them loose
for the forty mile run to Gold Butte.
Why had he needed a lecture from a
hireling of the express company, and
why should that smooth iowled agent
have looked at him with such dark sus-
picion2
"They think COS got stood up down
ter Black Rocks las time I had a big
load O gold, thet need to be preached
to every time go out now with full
box. I'd like ter see one on 'em hand
lin the ribbons when thar's a Winches-
ter lookin' at 'em with an eye as big as
bari head. Can't tell me they wouldn't
give in! The sweet seemed, calf skin
booted young ladies! Thar ain't a man
among EN-"
Zach Springer's indignation was now
in more complete possession of him than
had been his feeling of blueness little
earlier. What he had delivered himself
of just now was not what he would have
said had he voiced his true sentiments
with reference to the express agents
lecture. In between the words ran the
thought, that "they' had suspected him
of having hand in the Black Rocks
robbery. 1t had come to MIN before in
what he called cleft handed" way, and
he had had other outbursts of righteous
indignation, but none III which the up
heaval was SO great as that of the pres
ent. Had that been the reason the stage
company had cut down his pay to ''sixty"
a month? The chances were that it was.
It was too blamed mean for a lot of
swine, like these people, to come it so
high handedly over poor man who only