Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1892-06-25

quietly and gloomily accepted his fate
To-day. as he sat there smoking his brier
root pipe and reading novel his face
was no more nor no less hopeful than It
was twelve years before when he first
came to live at the mill just as the war
clouds lifted and peace brought with it
utter penury to him and his loved ones.
1t is early May and early morning
The smoke from Colonel Wilton Che
nier's pipe goes swiftly away on a fresh
stream OF mountain air that dips into
the valley as if blowing out of that won
derful blue sky which hangs overhead. A
tall. dark woman still 1.-the and youth
full in appearance despite her thirty tive
years and the look of settled sorrow in
her face. comes out of the mill with
some light work IN her hand and sits
down upon weather beaten bench be
side her father You would at once
know that she is the daughter of this
man she IL SO like him AS she bends
over her sewing her features tall into
their hahltnaI retrospective repose Her
hair and eyes are black her nose small
formed her forehead low and broad
They make strange dark picture
these two sorrowful looking forms out
| lined against the dull background of the
! old mills NOISY wall They do not seem
to note each others presence. The
| growing OF the mill is enlivened by the
| song of a mocklng bird mp in the mul
berry tree An ivory billed woodpecker
Is cacklln9 merrily on the great oak
| Wonder by the brook From some in
definite distance comes the mellow tin
| l,llng of COW bell
Suddenly few strong notes from the
banjo came out OF the mill The man
and woman looked up bali smile
lighting their gloomy faces They al
ways smiled when they heard the sound
Of that han1o, tor the player WAS the life
pf the old mills household
| Colonel Chenier ceased reading and
| Adelaide ms sad faced daughter let
tail her sewing rs they both gazed upon
| a lovely apparltion now passing out
through the WIDE doorway of the mill
| II was RnSalie Chenler. the colonels
| Youngest chld She held in her hand a
| hHnJo of fine Workmanship dark old
| with lewrlpi keys and polished silver
screws She sat down on the stone step
and began To play IA lively medley, made
| up Of concoriant bits snatched from this
| and that familiar old tune, sort of
| morknlg bird performance which threw
| together the cheerlest parts of many
| pieces she knew
She was beautiful, IN the best sense of
the word, from head to foot. Without
lacking anything of strong. almost
voluptuous development, her form was
slender, 1.-THE and graceful, as so many
mountain girls forms are, and her fea-
lures were of almost Grecian fineness
and regularity The color of her hair
was that pale, sheeny gold so seldom
seen IN the south. the true harvest yel-
low very thick and long plated into
two heavy braids and bound with scraps
OF blue ribbon Her eyes were gray
| green, specked with, amber, full of ex-
preston, clear, deep and innocent as a
babes There was that in her complex
ion beyond its extreme fairness, which
| is best called bloom the warm flush Of
Incompatible purity and health She
turned her head slightly to one side,
keeping time with slender. high arched
foot as she played The contrast Of
color and expression between her and
the other two whom we have described
were much stronger than mere words
can make it appear 1t was in fact
the contrast between the new and the
old, in all the phases of the two,
The big outside, far away world of
wealth and fashion and business turmoil
had no immediate relationship to her
| life Its doings had reached her only in
the vaguest and most indefinite way, as
rumors from another sphere, or as the
murmur of a battle heard from great
distance Unlike her father and her sis
ter Adelaide she had no war memories,
nor recollections of former wealth and
splendor to keep her looking back to a
better day Three years old when the
war ended, scarcely six when brought
here to the mill. she had no distinct no
tion of life beyond the limits of this lit
tie valley She had entered her eight
eenth year knowing as little of social life
as II she were still a child in the nursery
Of nature however she had learned
much and her father and mother had
carefully tanght her the usual routine
lessons OF the schools For the rest she
took to the banjo as naturally as does a
mocklng bird to singing, mastering its
difficulties with scarcely an effort She
had found this fine old instrument hid.
den away in pile of rubbish IN the at
tic of the mill where its owner had left
it at some distant time No doubt it had
been hidden there that it might escapt
the fate OF everything valuable which
came in the way OF Shermans army. Al