Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1896-06-26

lieved that, too, and that is how tn
child had come to imbibe the idea. Th
man looked and saw the word Glove
do you know what that word means
papa?" asked the boy.
"Oh, yes" said the father. And h
began thinking He thought for lonl
time, for there were SO many thing
love is that he hardly knew where to be
gin defining. And the longer he remain
ed silent the harder it seemed to find ;
beginning. sit is difficult to answer,
he observed, and the boy interrupted
him.
when we find difficult problem a
school" he said, eve go to the rule
What is the rule about love?'
The father looked at him, but did no
answer. He thought. Then he gazef
anxiously about. and out through the
window he saw man passing
"Ah," he said, "there is Mr.. Brown,
and want to see him. "
And he hurried out to speak to the
man, and the boy never heard what love
is or what is its rule.
4
Ford, being quite satisfied that the
story was lie from the beginning and
that his search for the wonderful lost
desert tribe would result in no benefit to
the Smithsonian institution, stopped to
rest in the shade of the water wagon,
the wheels of which were sunk 8 inch
es into the roasting sand.
Look out he yelled to one of the
drivers, ''or this Nevada sun will get
action Oh you and you will pop like
corn! Lord, ism IT it hotI' And he looked
about at the blistering white and blue
and cudgeled out of his memory certain
verses:
And when grim spirits come to that CURSE
land.
To be where wanderers fell,
They look in terror at the burning sand
And hurry back to hell
"And that's desert Nevada, and where
we are driving and swearing and sweat
ing through it to find the desert tribes
man, who is lie. -
by the powers, it isn't lie!" yelled
Graves, his assistant ''Lookr'
"a Chinese boy!'' roared Ford. ''And,
ye gods, redheaded Chinese boy, and
OH a camel, and in Nevada!'
Hong Foy was dismal failure. Nc
Goggin told him so daily. He could not
lamp Southern Pacific ties half as well
as Yo Heave, or whatever the pockmark-
ed Chinaman' s name was, and Fon Kee
could almost carry a $50 pound to the
yard rail by himself, while Hong Foy,
being young and pale and calm, found
it difficult to lug even the spike maui or
the pinch bar Wherefore the invest
ment of the Southern Pacific Railroad
company in Hong Foy was denominated
by Mike McGoggin, the section fore
man, as a weird and wonderful failure
--only McGoggin used words of the
same import, but Of different pronuncia-
tion. Hong Foy, however, could cook,
and he showed Maggie McGoggin how
to make soup out of potato sprouts
which McGoggin declared to be the tri-
u1uphant work Of the devil Soup, by
the way, is a thing not to be expert
house is a: a place in Nevada where the
water is brought in a tank from a sta
tion 80 or 100 miles away McGoggin
appreciated the SOUP and because of it
refrained for two weeks from discharg-
ing Hong Foy. But on Saturday night
Of the month Of June, in the year 1881,
he threw bolt at Hong Foy, hit him
with crooked spike and made a run to
the Toulouse to get a wrench to kill
him with. He bad seen Maggie when
she kissed the Young Chinaman in the
kitchen.
In tiae shade of the Toulouse, after
McGoggil had retired, Hong Foy crept
like a dog which had been whipped out
of its kennel but knows not where to go.
He knew two lines of steel oyer which
Cinnamon Iabored, while a fedheaded
white man swore volubly at them. He
knew blue horizon, and these things
were all he knew III that land-except-
ing the sun. Where could he go? AS he
leaned dejectedly against the Toulouse
and thought Of his love making, ne
Wepss and weeping, Maggie found him.
Hong Coy had not dreamed of the flu
ture, and had not expected the coming Of
the girl He ssad expected to sleep in
the Toulouse that night and be beaten
again il the morning. Rut Maggie had
planned. The best part of her plan was
that she had brought huge bottle and
it had water in it. 1--WE will go that
way, she said, pointing out into the
desert.
co 1nd To xxv111 oil i.St.f
through the desert if you are sure sol1.
are going to have shade in which to
rest the next day. But the next day
came, and as Maggie and Hong Foy
looked about them all they saw was
what couple of ants in a plasterer's
box of lime see. Far, far, far away,
round about and near it was white.
And It was so fiat that they seemed to
look up ont Of basin to a brim which
was white ana blue, and the alkali and
the sky nestled so close to each other and
the sky arched over as though it were
the roof of the plain in such wise that
Maggie thoaght they might as well
have been imprisoned in the shell of
monster egs-only it would have 10 be
the biggest egg and biggest shell eve,
created, and thee would be room for
On y one Of such like IN the world. The
sun was beautiful in the early morning,
and there were roses in the desert east
5ust as there are roses in the east of the
orchard land. tTile sun looked on them
with friendly rotundity for an hour,
and then he frowned, and the frown
was of white heat. And sleepily they
plodded Oh, searching for brush big
enough to cast two square feet of shade.
They had no means of telling time
other than by the sun, but the girl kueW
the secrets of the sub and knew it was
10 o'clock when the pale, calm face of
Hong F'oy looked into hers with dumb
piteousness, and he sank in a swoon.
Hn1riedly the girl uncovered his head
and saw for the FIRST time the great,
Jagged, ragged hole made by that bent
spike thrown by her father. The iron
had dug deep, but the Chinaman had
plastered the wound with the clean
waste taken from the toolhoEee and had
wrapped his cue around it. Maggie re-
garded the hurt with little bit of wo-
manly horror, and then she thought Of
how her lover had walked all that night
through the sands with his head wreck