The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1892-11-02


Of the board. When he came up, an
hour latter, he noticed that the woman
was just leaving the tree, and, further
more, that she had writtem something.
Boulder went up to the lire. He
read:
81 know you. you are DUN. am
Asechegas widow. he got lSiledin'a snow
slide, am here to workAe his chame."
She was standing on knoll, little
way of, and Boulder nodded again.
This time she returned recognition.
Carefully rubbing out her words, the
man replied:
al am pleased to make your acquain-
tauce am not deef you kan TAX to me
all rite but i'll have to write)to YOU"
She came down to the board again
aud took the chalk:
''i don't care wether you are pleased
or not. don't talk because am in
your fix only worse--I am def aud
dunn"
Boulderlooked at her symbathizingly;
look that met with scold return.
The reply shocked him.
ego to grass with your sympathy
don't want eny more to say to you.
just wanted you ITO now II amt here to
jump"
With this she went tosher cabin.
Boulder returned to his prospect. II be
had known anything about women he
would, probably, have considered her a.
queer one but, asrI have said, -he didn't,
and was merely puzzled. He went
about'his work in his usualimethodical
way, ignoring his neighbor justias sue
cessfully as she ignored him. In this
way an uneventRutmonth passed. Finally
Boulder struck "a vein in his prospect
and prepared to- follow it up. 1t led
norfhward, and in the eccentric way
some veins have, trended up instead of
down On the seventh day he was in a
good ten feet when he met with sur
prise. He could distinctly hear the un-
steady and yielding thuulp of a pick
almost in front Of him. Now, by all
reasonable, calculations, Bbulderis claim
extended twenty feet to the north; the
stump blackboard proved this; that was
mainly what it was there for. II was
plain to him that the woman, striking
the evidence of vein at its upper end,
was, with true miners instinct, fol-
lowing it up, or, in this case, down, and
had, in her ambition 'overstepped the
bounds.
Making this discovery Boulder paused
o while, aud in the cool blaclSness at
tempted to decide wAlat'ccufse to pursue.
Finally the sound above him became
more aud moredistlnct. Suddenly ythere
was crash. The yielding mass came
down and with it red petticoat in
which houndered avery geeatly excited,
not to say frightened woman. Sitting
there on the mass of mineral debris she
blinked in a dazed manner at. t.Boulder's
candle and then at Boulder. In an in
slant she was up again and climbing
through the aperture she had uncon-
sciously made. Boulder also started for
the surface through ms own property.
They arrived at the blackboard by a
common impulse almost the same time.
Boulder seized the chalk.
"Your on my ground"
Her fingers were still yellow and gray
from the mass of stuff she had struck in
her fall, but she found them useful
enough to write:
"Your lire"
Boulder did not hesitate thisltime. He
wrote:
'Your lady"
Perhaps this appeased her somewhat.
Perhaps the modest and indisputably
manlike attitude of the miner took her
fancy. She was. certainly lessrvehement
in her use of the echalkwhen,she. replied:
"Whare is the line"
Boulder indicated the tree I, and board
and, taking stick, traced a mark in
the ground for several feet between the
claims. Common sense was enough to
show the creature in the petticoat that
the mau was right She did not trust
herself to reply, but walked away. Fif-
teen minutes later Boulder saw blanket
flying, without'any visible means of To-
oomotion, from the doorway of her
cabin. 1t was followed by another and
then another. Therevwas no.doubt oft,
Mrs. Asechiga was preparing to leave,
and that suddenly.
Boulder, looking himself over, hesi-
tatingly walked timidly toward the door
and beckoned her to come out. She did
so and walked behind him ungraciouslY
toward the blackboard. She followed
him with interest as he formed the fol-
lowing:
''I don't like TO give you theIwurst, of
it. ThaIe is one way out of this; TAX
intrest in my clame aud I'll takl4 in
yours"
She nodded s'no." and wrote:
"No, that woldn't be fare to q you,
you haf the vaue."
But she was WAGERING in the offer,
even after she had declined it. They
looked steadily at one another for some
time; finally, seized with an idea and
growing bolder, thesman vcntured this:
al am As yrs. old and want part
ner, and haf little money and we mite
get ritch. Win you axcept proposle
of maragef"
Mrs. Asechiga looked at him doubtfully
for a second, aud then even became coy
as she took the chalk:
"Asechiga sed he mared me because
was deef and dun and couldn't talk him
blind"
This time, she handed the'bit of white
over to him, and their hands met for the
first time. | believe there was some
blushing, aud Boulder inscribed his final
message:
know a Justice of the pece in aspin
who will marry us for 81, we can go over
| - ,,o--ort. mill uor9