The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1896-02-14
TRIAL BY FIRE,

Englishmen who come to California with
a younger sons portion and small
monthly allowance, and hope to make a
fortune on a vineyard or wheat ranch.
The plan always looks feasible in Eng
land. and the agent assures his victim
that the $1,000 will buy a ten-acre plot;
plant vines build decent bungalow aid
tide the owner over until the vihes 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 fnoilthly d.
lowance of EGO (which, viewed from a
DISTANCE, seemed large) always grew
painfully small as it neared California
and the debts it vas supposed to cover.
The majors little. mountain vineyard
had been destroyed by phylloxefa, and
he was living on the uncertain promise
of /; number of green shoots, called,
respectfully, the olive orchard, But
was not tilling the soil, he sat Oh his lit
tie veranda. With his briarwood pipe be-
tween his teeth, and studied the long,
narrow. picturesque Napa valley far be-
low.
1t may be that the majors failure to
succeed in the. grape business wis not
the fault of the country, but that his
obstacle to success. The ma jot; was in
fact. the most helpless Englishmah who
ever came to California to take care
of himself. The poor fellow became SO
convinced of this a fter a short trial that
he engaged man to act as valet to him
self and incidentally cook the meals for
both. The major was solitary ,bache-
Tor then. The gods alone know In what
unpropitious moment he picked up Pete,
to hang about his neck, milestone of in
efficiency. Pete's poverty must have
been his recommends ton and the ma
jor's poverty the excuse for keeping him.
Pete had about as much knowledge of
laying out and caring for mans ward
robe. as the major had of running a
ranch. The consequence was that the
major often presented himself at his
friends houses in the most surprising
garb, a combination of white duck trou-
sers. black frock coat and russell hunt
ing boots being one of Pete's master
pieces. In his capacity as cook Pete
often suffered mental agony over the
ponderous directions of the majors
French cook book, which were like the
hieroglyphics of the ancients to his cloud
ed intellect. Considering the diet of
sour bread and timed meats which Pete
provided. it is only less than marvellous
that his benefactor was still alive.
When the major married Ellie Smith.
Il pretty San Francisco girl, Pete was
promoted to be manager of the ranch,
and expended his grooming talents on the
pet mule. The ma or's wife was ''artis-
tic. She had studied sketching, and did
some really clever bits. Her admiring
husband was sure that she possessed the
divine aft1atus, and consequently much
time was devoted to art and little time
to ranching.
But this was not without protest from
one individual. Not that he was dis
turbed by lack of work. but poor Pete
was oftener than not the unwilling model
for Ellie's clever studies. One day Pete
posed for 1.-The Man With the Hoe
His temper was particularly tried on
that occasion, for he had taken up his
tool with the honest intention of wedding
the primitive vegetable garden: Though
he had scudded through the back yard
and climbed the rear fence, he had not
counted on meeting his young mistress
in the barnyard. He began to wrestle
with the weeds and pretended not to see
her. His education, however, had not
included sight of Millet's picture, or he
would have fled down the mountain side
in utter despair
"Stop, stop, Pete. right there, Don't
move All inch,' called the sweet voice
that drove him to madness. KENNETH"
Ellie called to her husband, "look Isn't
it wonderful? The lights, the pose, the
"'The Man With Sle Hoe shouted the
major, gleefully. ''l'll get your paints,
Ellie. Hold on, Pcte,' and before that
honest son of toll had time to collect his
scattered senses he found himself pos
ing in a very uncomfortable attitude,
with the Napa valley lying at his feet
and the majors familiar phrases ringing
in his ears-"Fine pose-jolly good sub
ject-delicious coloring''
After Pete posed for 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
ranching under the direction of his
fathers old friend. the major.
After a week had been given up to
driving his protege about the valley and
introducing him to the English colony,
the major returned to his daily routine
of pruning olive trees and digging out
worln-eaten grapevines. Ellie soon dis
features and fine, athletic figure an en-
tirely new field for art study, and Ed
wards found the time pass more pleas
antly as model than rs an embryo
rancher. They We're together during
most of the daylight hours. When
Brompton was not posing for wild
Norseman or Greek hero, he was sit
ting very close to Ellie, criticising, in
soft, caressing tones. the sketches of
himself which she had been doing.
Without actually straying from the path
of duty, Ellie was treading on DANGER
ously uncertain territory. She quite.
frankly admitted to herself that she was
pretty and charming, and, being of that
mind, she did not repress comparisons
between her husband and the younger
man.
Matters had arrived at a state where
q warm-hearted but vain young wom-
an needed friend with the strength to
hold up Il good powerful, unrelenting
mirror for her to gaze into. Pete could
have held up the mirror with right
good will, but he did not know how.
In those days he followed the major
around with dog-like devotion, and only
glowcred when Ellie came out to the
orchard one morning with her paints
and succeeded in bringing upon herself
q scolding from her over-indulgent hus-
band. She held her head very high ami
stiff and marched over the hill some
distance away, where she seated herself
and pretended to SKETCH but was in real
ity nursing her injured feelings to keep
them alive. The major watched her
disappear with q panied expression OH
his eood-natured face. and then went
dejectedly into the house. Pete was
deeply incenscd against Ellie, and made
another solemn vow to desert the ranch,
It was the ninety-and-ninth time that he
had done so, and this time he sealed
tlle. yolytWith an oath. -5.5
The long grass on the Napa hills. was
burned and criat, a nj Ellic Jva ia hintr