The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-01-17
THE VERGE OF DEATH

the east to visit her father, and the en-
ployees of the ranch, with three excep-
tons, were on the tiptoo of expectancy.
Those three exceptions were old Bar
ton and his wife and James Lyall, or
Deacon Jim, rs he was moro commonly
called
The morning of the day OH which Miss
Rose was to arrive the cowboys, with tho
exception of Deacon Jim, spent two
hours or moro in making preparations
for the event
Deacon jim alone appeared in his or
binary everyday clothing
why don't you fix up, deacon" some
one asked, land do the honors of tho oc-
casionl"
IL don't propose to make u fool of my
SELF" Jim replied, "by parading before
Miss Newell like circus clown. I'm
not SO anxious to show off what little
clothing | own, and guess she's seen
better many n time.
"Hunph! Have you fellows got an
idea that Miss Newell is going to take
any notice of your It's hardly likely she's
going to come out here and get dazzled
by such common cow punchers with q
lot of gaudy trappings. l amt fool
enough to mako spectacle of myself
and give Miss Newell a chance to laugh
at me, you betr'
When the carriage bearing Miss Rose
arrived at the ranch, the cowboys, with
the exception of tho deacon, stood about
the door, each one with his best foot
forward" anxious to be seen by the
l.,1
impression on her heart
That night when jim came in from
tho plains they gathered about him, in
tent on singing the praises of Roses
lovelincss.
Il tell you, Deacon" Arson said, you
just ought to seen her; never saw Il
woman so beautiful in all my life"
81 don't doubt her beauty" the deacon
replied, "but what good would it have
done me to have seen her? She's not go
ing to care anything for u.s."
Maybe you know about that" said
Arson, land maybe you don't. If you
had seen her smile when she saw us, YOU
might think differently from what you
do now"
Eyes, and she was looking right smart
at mo when she smiled" cried Alb John
son. II noticed that"
"Humph!' said Arson. "She was look
ing as straight at mo as she could look"
She wasn't" exclaimed Alb angrily.
Hold on now" said jim at isn't
worth while for you to fight over that
l can easily believe that she'd "a smiled
whichever one of you she was looking
at, when she saw the clothes you had
on. 1t was enough to make her smile
Pm sure"
Alb and Arson muttercd something
then went away, and tho subject was
dropped.
From that timo OH they viewed each
other as rivals and were never on good
terms again.
A month passed.
Miss Newell proved a very sensible
young lady, and though she had grown
up under the influences Of the highest
refinement she adapted herself readily
to her new surroundings.
She treated her fathers EMPLOYEES
with the liindest consideration, laughing
and chatting with them with perfec,
freedom, little suspecting what stress
they placed upon every word and every
ripple of laughter that fell from her
lips.
Arson and Alb both grew more san
guinc and hopeful rs tho days went bv.
and each in his own heart came to feel
assured that he was winning his way
into Roses love.
Deacon jim had continued on from the
first in the even tenor of his way.
He never thrust himself forward at all
never made any effort to gain admis-
sion to Roses society but if anything
rather seemed to avoid her.
a change had come over the deacon
too. Always serious. he had become al
most melancholy.
He liked to NOPE about alone or sit for
hours gazing thoughtfully into space.
lie was i'll love, though he tried hard
to conceal the fact from himself, and for
all the world would not have admitted
it to any one else.
One morning when the men were pre-
pairing to begin the work of the day a
dispute arose between Arson and Alb,
and as it grew warmer and moro bitter
the former said:
when | become a partner Oh this
ranch, you'll go, Alb Johnson, as sure as
shooting. won't have you here"
when You get to be a partnerl" sneer-
ed Alb. "When | get to be partner.
you'll go, and don't you forget it,
"You partner" Arson said mock
ingly. "Why, Rose Newell wouldn't
have you if you were the last man on
earth!'
"My notion is you'll both see that you
are making fools of yourselves" old Bar
ton observed. Miss Rose will never