Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1896-04-03
TRIAL BY FIRE.

MAKE fortune on vineyard or whea
ranch. The plan always looks feasible il
England, and the agent assures his vic
tim that the thousand pounds will blu,
ten acre plot, plant vines, build de
cent bungalow and tide the owner owe
until the vines shall bear and bring hin
q harvest Of good American gold.
The major was going the way of man.
Of his English friends. The 81, 200 Legacy
was gone, and the monthly allowance O
$50 (Which, viewed from a 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
a 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-
WINGED Of this after 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 bachelor
then. The gods alone know i'll what I'M
propitious moment he picked up Pete to
hang about his neck, milestone 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 Sor a man S ward
robe 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
hlnting boots being one of Pete's mas
terpieces. 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 hero
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,
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 aff1atus, and conse-
quently much time was devoted to art
and little time TO ranching.
But this was not without protest from
one individual. Not hat 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 &C.
casion, for he had taken up his tool with
the honest intention of wedding the
primitive vegetable garden. Though be
had scudded through the back yard and
climbed the rear fence he had not count
ed Oh 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 fed down the mountain side in
utter despair.
''Stop, stop, Peter, right there. Don't
move an 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
very landscape like
"'The Man With the Hoe,' % shouted
the major gleefully. "I'll get your
paints, Ellie. Hold Oh, Pete!" And be-
fore that honest son of toll had time to
collect his scattered senses, be found
himself posing in very uncomfortable
attitude, with the Napa valley lying at
his feet and the major familiar phrases
ringing in his ears-"fine pose-jolly
good bject-delicious co!oring.n
After Pete had posed for hundred or
more Indifferent works of art without
names, he began to think of DESERVING
his master and leaving him to just and
awful fate. But this stupendous blow
was ayerted by the arrival of Brompton
Edwards, another Englishman, who had
come to learn practical ranching under
the direction of his fathers old friend,
the major.
After 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
worm eaten grapevines. Ellie soon dis
covered in the young man S clean cut
features and fine, athletic figure an en-
tirely new field for art study, and Ed
wards f0nnd the time pass more pleas
antly rs model than as an embryo
}ancu6r. AAeJ Hbtb lOs6lu6f during
most Of the daylight hourE. When
Brompton was not posing for wild
Norsenap or Greek hero, he was sit.
ting very close TO Ellie, criticising, in
soft, caressipg tones, the sketches Of
himself which she had been doing. With
ont actually straying from the path of
duty, Ellie was treading on dangerously
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 state,where
warm hearted but vain young woman
needed friend with the strength to
hold up 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
doglike devotion, and only glowered
when Ellie came out to the orchard one
morning with her paints and succeeded
in bringing upon herself a scolding from
her oyerindnlgent husband. She held
1,or basd vary hioh ood ctsT a,,d ,,,orob