The herald., 1896-01-19

law, mused she, even tramps, 1 sup
pose.
Her husband added: "Pll get an
other man tomorrow; 80 you can make
yourself a bed in the barn and stay
The following evening Brigga
brought the other man from Los Ange.
les. He had picked him up at livery
stable. He was small, good-nature
looking, and brought the little boy a
ball of popcorn.
On going out from supper he put his
! hand on little Manly's head with a
short, happy laugh, as though it did
| him good to touch the child. His
name was Pierre Landox He hadn't a
lazy bone in his body. He was up at 4
| o'clock in the morning. He fed and
| harnessed the horses, then waited the
rising of the others.
He was 30 CHEEKY and laughed so
often that he and little Manly soon be-
came very good friends.
He called the boy "Little Monkey"
and Manly in turn, with little pout
upon his lips, retorted: you're Cor
rilla-therep At other times it was
'Little Dutchman."
Mrs. Briggs thought it must be be-
cause he was Frenchman that he
kept up the habit of laying his hand
| for an instant on the little boys head
in light, tender way. 1t made her
like him.
Four days they worked. Pierre was
faithful and CHEEKY. Billy's efforts for
twenty-four hours we're faultless, and
Sllas Briggs was congratulating him-
self upon his good fortune and in
clined to philosophize about the
worthy poor" diamonds in the
rough" ETC., when Billy's idiosyncra-
cies asserted themselves. He began to
have a pestiferous tins with barley
boards, dust, heat, "rhumatiz" and the
snakes, of which he stood in such NOR
tai terror that it was temptation for
Briggs, who had keen sense of the
| ludicrous, to Cry "Snake! Snake!"
whenever they stood in need of diver
| sion.
Springtime along the Southern Cali
fornia coast is full of surprises and
| changeful vagaries. Hot, breathless
forenoons warn us that summer ia on;
we resign ourselves to the inevitable
(or to the hammock) when, presto. the
next sweeps in cooling fog from the
sea, refreshing things animate and in.
animate until one is ready to swear by
California.
1t was just such a delightful morn
ing after hot day, that the mists came
sweeping up the low lands from the sea
in great piles and drifts over the little
village and farm lands of G..
Work was all q pleasure, and Billy
had made no mention of the "pesky
dust" or the 'dirty barley beards;'
even rheumatic" had been forgotten,
| when suddenly the still air was rent
with shrieks and Billy fell over, clutch
| ing his lower pantaloon, and in a terri
fled voice crying, "Snake! snake! I've
| got him! I've got him! The dirty
blackguard, I've got himr'
Cruel and heartless though it may
seem, Briggs made no effort to restrain
his hearty ha. ha, has, and held his
sides for the protection Of his Intervals.
Pierre fairly shouted; flung himself
on one foot around his fork, leaned his
head against it and eiggled, cackled
and screeched in his thin high organs,
while Billy went on clutching, twist
ing, squeezing, tracing the creeping,
crawling thing
I'm kill him! I'll mash his insides!
I'll blister him!"
Cautiously he clasped his pantaloons
below the knee to keep the blarsted
thing from crawlin' up" and proceeded
with desperate concentration to wrestle
with real or imaginary serpents. He
rolled up his overalls carefully, turned
down his sock, anon grabbing the
upper leg, but all to no purpose. The
snake was not forthcoming. At length
his muscles began to straighten out, his
face relaxed and great sigh of relief
was heard as he plucked forth barley
husk from the seam Of his neither gar
ment.