Connecticut western news., 1896-07-30
TRIAL BY FIRE.

mia with a younger sons portion and small monthly allowance and hope tz make a fortune on vineyard or a wheat lanch. The plan always looks feasible in England, and the agent assures his vio- tim that the thousand pounds will buy a ten acre plot, plant vines, build a de- cent bungalow and tide the owner over until the vines shall bear and bring him harvest of good American gold.
 The major was going the way of many of his English friends. The e1, 900 legacy was gone, and the monthly allowance of e20 (which, viewed from distance, seemed large) always grew painfully small as it neared California and the debts it was supposed to cover. The majors little mountain vineyard had been destroyed by phylloxera, and he was living on the uncertain promise of number of green shoots, called. re- spectfully, "the olive orchard. But the major was not unhappy. When he was not tilling the soil, he sat on his lit tie veranda, with his brier wood pipe be- tween his teeth and studied the long, narrow, picturesque Napa valley far be- low.
 It may be that the majors 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 became so con- vinced of this after short trial that he engaged man to act as valet to him. self and incidentally cook the meals for both.
 The major was a solitary bachelor then. The gods alone know in what un- propitious moment he picked up Pete to hang about his neck, millstone of in- efficiency. Pete's poverty must have been his recommendation and the ma jor's poverty the excuse for keeping him. Pete had about as much knowledge of laying out and caring for a man s 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 trousers, black frock coat and russet hanting boots being one of Pete's mas. terpieoes. In his capacity as cook Pete was not one whit more efficient and of ten suffered mental agony over the pom derous directions of the majors French cookbook, which were like the hiero- glyphics of the ancients to his clouded intellect. Considering the diet of sour bread and timed meats which Pete pro vided, it is only less than marvellous that his benefactor was still alive. When the major married Ellie Smith, a 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 sketching and did some really clever bits. Her ad- miring husband was sure that she pos sessed the divine afflatus, and conse- | quently much time was devoted to art and little time to ranching.
 | But this was not without protest from one individual Not that he was disturb ed by lack of work, but poor Pete was oftener than not the unwilling model | for Ellie's clever studies. One day Pete | posed for The Man With the Hoe ' His temper was particularly tried on that oc- casion, 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 count ed on meeting his young mistress in the | uo fn To xyIth weeds and pretended not to see her. His education, however, had not included g sight of Millet's picture, or he would have fed down the mountain side il utter despair.
 ''Stop, stop, Peter, right there. Don'' ! move an inch," called the sweet voice that drove him to madness. Kenneth, , Ellie called to her husband, "look. Ism it wonderful? The lights, the pose. thu very landscape hke'-
 "'The Man With the Hoe, -" shouted the major gleefully. ''pll get you paints, Ellie. Hold on, Petel" And be fore that honest son of toll had time t. collect his scattered senses, he fount himself posing in very uncomfortabl' attitude, with the Napa valley lying a
 his feet and the major familiar phrase
 ringing in his ears-"fine pose-joll,
 good subject-delicious coloring."
 After Pete had posed for a hundred O
 more indifferent works of art withou names, he began to think of desertini
 his master and leaving him to just an'
 awful fate But this stupendous bloy
 was averted by the arrival of Bromptol
 Edwards, another Eng glishman, who ha
 come to learn practical ranching unde
 the direction of his fathers old friend
 the major.
 After a week had been given up t
 driving his protege about the valley an introducing him to the English colony
 the major returned to his daily routin
 of pruning olive trees and digging ou
 worm eaten grapevines. Ellie soon di: Q covered in the young mans clean cu
 features and fine, athletic figure an CT
 tirely new field for art study, and E6
 wards found the time pass more pleal
 antly as a model than as an embry U rancher. They were together durin
 most of the daylight hours. Whe v Brompton was not posing for will ' Norseman or Greek hero, he was sit
 ting very close to Ellie. criticising, i
 soft, caressing tones, the sketches C
 himself which she had been doing. With ,f put actually straying from the path ( e duty, Ellie was treading on dangeronsl
 uncertain territory. She quite frank
 admitted to herself that she was prett
 and charming, and, being of that mine
 she did not repress comparisons betwee
 her husband and the younger man.
 l Mattara had arrivad at a stata where