The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-03-05
TRIAL BY FIRE.

y
wheat ranch. The plan always looks
feasible in England, and the agent as
sures his victim that the C 1000 will
buy ten-acre plot, plant vines, build
decent bungalow and tide the owner
over until the vines shall bear and
bring him a harvest of good American
gold.
The major was going the way OF
many of his English friends. The
$1,000 legacy was gone, and the month.
1y allowance of 6 20 (Which, viewed
from distance. seemed large) always
grew painfully small as it neared Cali
tornia and the debts it was supposed
to cover. The majors little mountain
vineyard had been destroyed by phyl-
1oxera, and he was living on the uncer-
tain promise of a number of green
shoots, called, respectfully, "the olive
orchard" But the major was not I'M
happy. When he was not tilling the
soil, he sat on his little veranda, with
his briarwood pipe between his teeth,
and studied the long, narrow, pictu-
esque Napa valley far below.
1t may be that the ma or's failure to
succeed in the grape business was not
the fault of the country, but that his
genial, impractical nature was the true
obstacle to success. The major was, in
fact, the most helpless Englishman
who ever came to California to take
care of himself. The poor fellow be-
came so convinced of this after d short
trial that he engaged a man to act as
valet to himself and incidentally cook
the meals for both. The major was
solitary bachelor then. The gods
alone know in what unpropitious mo-
ment he picked up Pete, to hang about
his neck, milestone of inefficiency.
Pete's poverty must have been his rec
ommendatiOn and the ma jor's 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 ranch. The
consequence was that the major often
presented himself at his friends
houses in the most surprising garb, a
combination of white duck trousers,
black frock coat and russell hunting
boots being one of Pete's masterpieces.
In his capacity as cook Pete was not
one whit more efficient, and often suf-
fered mental agony over the ponderous
directions of the majors French cook
book, which We're like the bieroglyph-
les of the ancients to his clouded intel.
lect. Considering the diet of sour bread
and timed meats which Pete provided,
il is only less than marvellous that his
1ene!factor 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
artistic" She had studied sl1etching,
and did some really clever bits. Her
admiring husband was sure that she
possessed the divine aff1atus, and con-
sequently 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
ly tried on that occasion, for he had
taken up his tool with the honest inten-
ton 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
and pretended not to see her. His edu.
cation, however, had not included a
sight of Millet's picture, or he would
have fed down the mountain side in
utter despair.
"Stop, stop, Pete, right there. Don't
move an inch," called the sweet voice
that drove him to madness. "KeD-
METH" Ellie called to her husband.
"Look. Isn't it wonderful? The lights,
the pose, the very landscape like"
""The Man with the Hoe shouted
the major, gleefully. "Ill get your
paints, Ellie. Hold on, Pete" and be-
fore that honest son of toll had time
to collect his scattered senses he found
himself posing in very uncomfortable
attitude, with the Napa valley lying
at his feet and the majors familiar
phrases ringing in his ears-"Fine pose
Jolly good subject-delicious color
ing"
After Pete posed for a hundred or
more Indifferent works of art without
names, he began to think of DESERVING
his master and leaving him to a just
and awful fate. But this stupendous
blow was averted by the arrival of
Brompton Edwards, another English
man, who had come to learn practical
ranching under the direction of his
fathers old friend, the major.
After a week had been been given
up to driving his protege about the
valley and introducing him to the Eng
fish colony, the major returned to his
daily routine of pruning olive trees and
digging out worm-eaten grape vines.
Ellie soon discovered in the young
mans clean-cut features and fine ath-
letic figure an entirely new field for
art study, and Edwards found the time
pass more pleasantly as a model than as
an embryo rancher. They were to-
gether during most of the daylight
hours. When Brompton was not pos
-, FO,