The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1895-10-30

had broken down in this wild but wooded
defile Of the Sierras, and he had been
forced to O winter encampment with
only rude log cabin for shelter, on the
very verge Of the promised land. Un'
able to enter it himself, he was never.
theless able to assist the better equipped
teams that followed him with wood and
water, and 8 coarse forage gathered
from q sheltered slope OF wild oats.
This was the beginning OF rude sup.
ply station, which afterward became &c
profitable that when spring came ano
Hays team were sufficiently recruited
to follow the food Of immigrating gold.
seekers to the placers and valleys, there
seemed no occasion for it. His fortune
had been already found in the belt OF
arabic slope behind the wooded defle,
and in the miraculously located coigne
Of vantage on what was now the great
highway Of travel and the only oasis
and first relief of the weary journey.
The breaking down of his own train at
that spot had not only been the saliva
ton of those who found at Hays the
means Of prosecuting the last part OF
their pilgrimage, but later provided the
equipment of returning teams.
The first two years Of this experience
had not been without hardship and dan
ger. He had been raided by Indians,
and besieged fo- three days in his stock
aded cabin; he had been invested by
wintry drifts of twenty feet OF snow,
cut off equally from incoming teams from
the pass and the valley below. Dur
ing the second year his wife had Joined
him with four children, but whether the
enforced separation had dulled her con-
tugal affection. or whether she was
tempted by a natural feminine longing
for the land Of promise beyond, she
sought it one morning with fascinat-
ing teamster, leaving her two sons and
her two daughters behind her; two years
later the elder OF the daughters followed
the mothers previous example, with
such maidenly discretion, however, as
TO forbear compromising herself by any
previous matrimonial formality what
ever. From that day Hays had no fur
ther personal intercourse with the valley
below. he put up hotel mile away
from the farmhouse that he might not
have to dispense hospitality to his Gus
toners, nor accept their near compan-
ionship. Always severe Presbyterian
and an uncompromising deacon Of q
3ar-scattered and scanty community
who occasionally held their serv-
Ice in one Of his barns, he
grew more rigid, sectarian and narrow
day by day. He was feared, and, al
though neither respected nor loved, his
domination and endurance were ac-
cepted. A grim landlord, hard creditor,
- Gr+1
neighbor, who neither gambled nor
drank, odd Hays" as he was called.
while yet scarce fifty, lad few ac-
quaintances and fewer friends. There
were those who believed that his domes-
tic infelicities were the result OF his
ansympathetic nature; it never oc-
Cured to any one (but himself, prob
ably that they might have been the
cause. In those Sierran attitudes. as
elsewhere, the pelleI IN original sin
popularly known as pure cussedness"
dominated and overbore any consid-
Grafton OF passive, impelling circum-
stances or temptation, unless they had
been actively demonstrated with a re-
volver. The passive expression Of
harshness, suspicion, diStrust, and
moroseness was looked upon as inher-
ent wickedness.
The storm ragged violently as Hays
emerged from the last Of long range
OF outbuildings and sheds, and crossed
the open space between him and the
farmhouse. Before he had reached the
porch with its scant shelter, he had
foundered through snowdrift and faced
the full fury of the storm. But the snow
seemed to have glanced from his hard.
angular figure as It had IRON his roof
ridge, for when he entered the marrow
hallway his pilot jacket was unmarked,
except where a narrow line OF powdered
flakes outlined the seams, as II worn.
ITO the right was an apartment, half OIL
flee, half sitting room, furnished with 9
dark and chilly iron safe, sofa and
;chairs covered with black and col1ly
ishining horsehair. Here Hays not only
removed his upper coat but his under
;one also, and drawing chair before the
fire. sat down in his shirt sleeves. 1t
was his usual rustic pioneer habit, and
might haYe been some lingering renil-