The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-06-03
LOVE IN THE DESERT.

Louisville Democrat.
LOVE IN THE DESERT.
One day a boy came running to his IA
Their with q book "What does this word
mean?" he asked, for he believed that
his father knew all the world and most
Of the things beyond. The parent be-
lieyed that, too, and that is how the
child had come to imbibe the idea. The
man looked and saw the word Glove"
do you know what that word means,
papa?" asked the boy.
ooh, yes" said the father. And he
began thinking. He thought for a long
time, for there were 80 many things
love is that he hardly knew where to be-
gin defining. And the longer he remain
ed silent the harder it seemed to find o
beginning. sit is difficult to answer"
he observed, and the boy interrupted
him.
when we find a difficult problem at
school,, a." he said, "we go to the rule.
What is the rule about lover"
The father looked at him, but did not
answer. He thought Then he gazed
anxiously about, and out through the
window he say a man passing.
"Ah," he said. there is Mr.. Brown,
and I 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
y y q
Ford, being quite satisfied that the
story was a 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 IS inch
es into the roasting sand
Look out, he yelled to n of the
drivers, "or this Nevada sun will get
action on you and you will pop Like
cornl Lord, ISM it hotl" 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 curs'd
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 o lie.
"By the powers, it isn't liel" yelled
Graves, his assistant. "Look!"
"a Chinese boyl" reared Ford. "And,
ye gods, a redheaded Chinese boy, and
on q camel, and in Nevada!"
Hong Foy was a dismal failure. Nc
Goggin told him so daily. He could not
lamp Southern Pacific ties half as we'll
as 70 Heave, or whatever the pockmark-
ed Chinaman's name was, and Fon Zee
could almost carry a go 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 q weird and wonderful failure
only McGoggin used words of the
same import, but of different pronuncia-
ton. Hong Foy, however, could cook,
and he showed Maggie McGoggin how
to make a soup out Of potato sprouts
which McGoggin declared to be the tri-
umphant work Of the devil Soup, by
the way. is a thing not to be expert
mented .on when the section boarding
house is at a place in Nevada where the
water is brought in a tank from a sta
ton 80 or 100 miles away. McGoggin
appreciated the soup. and because Of it
refrained for two weeks from discharg-
ing Hong Foy. But on a Saturday night
Of the month Of June, in the year 1881,
he threw o bolt at Hong Foy, hit him
with a 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 Chinamap in the
kitchen.
In the shade Of the Toulouse, after
McGoggin 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 over which
Cinnamon labored, while a redheaded
white man swor volubly at them. He
knew q blue horizon, and these things
were all he knew in that land-except-
ing the sun. Where could he go? AS he
leaned dejectedly against the Toulouse
and thought of his love making, he
wept, and weeping, Maggie found him.
Hong Foy had not dreamed Of the fu-
ture, and had not expected the coming Of
The girl He had expected to sleep in
the Toulouse that night and be beaten
again in the morning. But Maggie had
planned. The best part Of her plan was
that she had brought a huge bottle, and
it had water in it. I'VE will go that
way" she said, pointing out into tho
desert.
It is not so bad to walk all night
through the desert if you are sure you
are going to have shade in which to
rest the next day But the next dey
came, and as Maggie and Hong Fuy
looked about them all they saw was
what a couple Of ants in a plasterer's
box of lime see. Far, far, far away,
round about and neal it was white.
And it was so fiat that they seemed to
look up out Of a basin to a brim which
was white and 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 thought they might as well
have been imprisoned in the shell of a
monster egg-only it would have to be
the biggest egg and biggest shell ever
created, and there would be room for
only one of such like in the world. The
sun was beautiful in the early morning,
and there were roses in the desert east
Just as there are roses in the east Of he
orchard land. The sun looked on them
with n friendly rotundity for an hour,