The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1896-03-19
TRIAL BY FIRE.


~ with . younger sons portion and
mall monthly allowance, and hope
make . fortune on a vineyard or .
Aeat ranch. The plan always looks
Aaible In England, and the agent aA-
1tes his victim that the s 1000 will
Nv . ten-acre plot, plant vines, build
: decent bungalow and tide the owner
Dver until the vines shall bear and
ring him o harvest of good American
6old.
The major was going the way OF
nAny of his English friends. The
- - ,0O0legacy was gone, and the month
n Allowance of $40 (Which, viewed
|fkom q distance, seemed large) always
yx0w painfully small as it neared Cali
prnia and the debts it was supposed
- cover, The majors little mountain
Vineyard had been destroyed by phyl-
9Fera, and he was living on the uncer-
Nh promise of . number of green
&eOts. called, respectfully, "the olive
tAASd-" But the major was not un-
When he was not tilling the
tpd1y ~ on his little veranda, with
NJ od pipe between his teeth,
|6nd studled the long, narrow, pictu-
ksque Napa valley far below.
/ It may b that the majors failure to
eucceed In the grape business was not
|the fault of the country, but that his
|genial, impractical nature was the true
|ubstacle to success. The major was, in
TACT, the most helpless Englishman
who ever came to California to take
|Dare of himself. The poor fellow be-
came SO convinced of this after a short
|trial that he engaged a man to act as
valet to himself and incidentally cook
|4he meals for both The major was
y solitary bachelor then. The gods
|alone know in what unpropitious mo-
lment he picked up Pete, to hang about
bis neck, milestone of inefficiency.
Bete's poverty must have been his rec
and the majors poverty
the excuse for keeping him. Pete had
about as much knowledge of laying out
and caring for a mans wardrobe as
the major had of running a ranch. The
was that the major often
presented himself at his friends
houses in the most surprising garb, a
of white duck trousers,
black frock coat and russct hunting
boots being one of Pete's masterpieces.
I'm his capacity as cook Pete was not
|Cne whit more efficient, and often suf-
Tered mental agony over the ponderous
directions of the majors French cook
book, which were like the hieroglyph-
les of the ancients to his clouded intel.
oect. Considering the diet of sour bread
and timed meats which Pete provided,
A. is only less than marvellous that his
benefactor was still alive.
When the major married Ellie Smith,
= pretty San Francisco girl, Pete was
promoted to be manager of the ranch,
and expended his grooming talents on
the pet mule. The majors wife was
psartistic." She had studied sketching,
and did some really clever bits. Her
admiring husband was sure that she
possessed the divine atflatus, and con-
requently much time was devoted to
art and little time to ranching.
But this was not without protest
from one individual. Not that he was
disturbed by lack of work, but poor
Pete was oftener than not the unwill-
Ing model for Ellie's clever studies.
One day Pete posed for "The Man With
the Hoe" His temper was particular
" tried on that occasion, for he had
taken up his tool with the honestinten-
lion of wedding the primitive vegeta-
BILE garden. Though he had scudded
through the back yard and climbed the
rear fence, he had not counted on meet
Ing his young mistress in the barnyard.
He began to wrestle with the weeds
md pretended not to see her. His edu-
sation, however, had not included q
sight of Millet's picture, or he would
have fed down the mountain side in
hitter despair.
S"Stop. stop, Pete, right there. Don't
move an inch," called the sweet voice
HAT drove him to madness. "Keu-
Deth," Ellie called to her husband.
Look. Isn't it wonderful? The lights,
he pose, the very landscape like"
= The Man with the Hoe,' shouted
he major. gIeefully. "I'll get your
paints, Ellie. Hold on, Pete" and be-
Eorc that honest son of toll had time
b collect his scattered senses he found
himself posing in very uncomfortable
Multitude, with the Napa valley lying
~ his feet and the majors familiar
Dhrascs ringing in his esars--"Fine pose
Jolly good subject-deiicious color
|ag."
/ After Pete posed for a hundred or
more indifferent works of art without
names. he began to think of DESERVING
bis master and leaving him to a just
md awful fate. But this stupendous
blow was ayerted by the arrival of
brompton Edwards, another English
nan, who bad come to learn practical
I1ncning under the direction of his
MIXERS old friend, the major.
After week had been been given
- to driving his protege about the
Ialley and introducing him to the Eng
~ colony. the major returned to his
lily routine of pruning olive trees aud
gKing out worm-caten grape vines.
ne soon discovered in the young
81 "a. a