The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-12-25

AHeef up, Mr.. Splndlef, she sdiu, man
| fully. 'I'H see you through this thing
don't you mindi But don't you say any
thing Observation-Disclosures vigilance COM
mittee business to anybody. Nor about
YOUR niece-it was your niece, wasn't it?-
divorced. Charley 0he late Mr.
/. had a queer sort of sister who
b. IS neither here nor there! And
you. mayn't come you know; or
If she A.you amt bound to bring her
out to ; eral company"
At parnNSNe pdier- in sheer grateful
RS oPsr eas e d s1S brans 30
ss u do9Tose b s her b bsapa
for she went to Sac. the next day.
previously enjoining -<anx er on no ac-
count to show any ansW he might re-
ceive. At Sacramento - 'eces flew to
her with condolences. s.sssMs
eve so wanted to see you, aA dy
for we've heard something 50 u
about your funny Christmas party! -
Prices heart sank, but her eyes snap,
"Only think of il! One of Mr.. Spindler
lOng-lost relatives-a Mr.. Wragg-lives in
this hotel. and papa knows him. He's a
sort of half-uncle, ] believe, and he's just
furious that Spindler should have invited
him. He showed pape the letter; said 1t
was the greatest piece of insolence I'm the
world that Spindler was an ostentatious
fool who had made a little money aud
wanted 20 use him to get into society; and
the fun of the whole thing was that this
half-uncle and whole brute Is himself a
parvenu-a vulgar ostentatious creature
who was only a.
Never mind what he was, Kate" inter
rupted Mrs. Price hastily II call his
conduct a shame.
80 do We" said both girls eagerly
After pause Kate clasped her knees
with her locked fingers and rocking back
wards and forwards, said "NIlly and
have got an idea. and don't you say mo-
to il. We've had 1t ever since that brute
talked in that way. Now, through him,
we know more about this Mr. Spindlers
family connections than you do and we
know all the trouble you and he'll have
in getting up this party. You understand?
Now we first want to know what Spind-
ler's like Is he a savage, bearded crea-
ture, like the miners we saw on the boat?''
Mrs Prices said that on the contrary he
was very gentle, soft-spoken and rather
goOd-looking.
young or old?'
"Young-in fact a mere boy as you may
judge from his actions returned Mrs.
Price with a suggestive matronly air.
Kate here put up a long-handled eye
glass to her fine grey eyes. fitted 1t os-
tentatiously over her aquiline nose and
then said in a voice of simulated horror:
AUNT Huldy-this revelation is shock
mgr
Mrs. Price laughed her usual frank
laugh. albeit her brown cheek took upon
it a faint tint of Indian red. "If that's
the wonderful idea you girls have got,
don't see how it's going to help matters"
she said, drily.
mo! that's not IT, We really have an
idea. Now look here"
Mrs. Price Cooked here" This pro-
cess seemed to the superficial observer to
be merely submitting her waist and Shout
ders to the arms of her nieces and her
ears to their confidential and coaxing
voices
Twice she said sit couldn't be thought
Of" and cit was impossible once adj
dressed Kate as you limbr and finally
said that she ''wouldn't promise-but might
writer
II was two days before Christmas.
There was nothing in the air, sky, or
landscape of that Sierran slope to sug-
gest the season to the Eastern stranger.
A soft rain had been dropping for a
week from laurel, pine and buckeye, and
the blades of springing grasses and shyly-
opening flowers. Sedate and silent hill
sides shat had grown dumb and parched
towards the end of the dry season became
gently articulate again; there were muir
murs in hushed and forgotten canons. The
leap and laugh of water among the dry
bones of dusty creeks and the fun song
Of the larger forks and, rivers. Southwest
winds brought the warm odor of the pine
sap swelling in the forest or the faint
far-off spice of wild mustard spriuging
In the lower valleys. But, as if by some
irony of nature, this gentle invasion OF
spring in the wild wood brought only dis
turbance and discomfort to the haunts
and works of man. The bitches were
overlooked, the fords of the fork impassa-
Bile. the sluicing adrift and the trails and
wagon roads to Rough and Ready knee
deep in mud The stage coach from Sac
ramento, entering the settlement by the
mountain highway, it's wheels and pan
els clogged and crusted with an unctuous
pigment like mud and blood passed out
of il through the overlooked and danger
Gus ford and emerged in spotless purity
saving its stains behind with Rough and
Ready. A week of enforced idleness on
the river "bar." had driven the miners
70 the more comfortable recreation of the
saloon bar, its mirrors, its florid paintings
its arm-chairs and its stove. The steam
of their wet boots and the smoke of their
pipes hung over the latter, like the sacri-
fetal incense from an altar But the at
titude of the men was more critical and
EeDSO1lOQS IMAM COiituAeN, ana showed
little of the genteness of the weather or
season.
Ibid you hear if the stage brought down
any more relations of Spindlers?"
The barkeeDer to whom the question
was addressed shifted his lounging POSI-
ton aga.nst the bar and said: II reckon
not-ez far ez l know"
And that old bloat of second cousin
that crimson beak-what KEN down yes
terday--he amt been hangin' round here
to-day for his regular pizon?"
mo" said the barkeeper thoughtfullv
81 reckon Spindlcrs got him locked up
and is settln on him to keep him sober
until after Christmas, and prevent Won
boys gettin' a. him.
"He'n have The jimjams before that"
returned the first speaker, "and how abont
that dead beat of a half nephew who bor-
rowed $40 OF Yuba Bill on the way down
and then wanted to get off at Shooter.
VILE but Bill wouldn't let him. and scoot-
cd him down to Spindler's and collected
! Gnf