The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-25


except them checks around their necks. And
they've wanted for nothin else Why, I've
carried heaps of treasure before, gentlemen.
and once hundred thousand dollars IN
that was watched and guarded as them
kids! Why. the division Inspector at Stock
ten wanted to go with 'em over the line but
jim Bracy. the messenger. said he'd call 1t
a reflection on himself and resign eff they
didn't give EN- to him with the other pack
agesi Ye had a pretty good time, Bobby
didn't We? Plenty TO eat and drink eh?'
The two children laughed a little weak
laugh. turned each other bashfully around
and then looked up shyly at Yuba Bill and
DO you know where you're goin'?" asked
Starbuck, in constrained voice.
1t was the little girl who answered quick
~ and eagerly:
ITO what?" asked Starbuck
Here the boy interrupted with superior
air
Thee meanth Couthin Dick Heth got
Krithmath."
Where's your mother?"
And your father?''
In orthpittal."
There was a laugh somewhere on the out
skirts of the ecrowd. Everyone faced an
grily in that direction, but the laugher had
disappeared: Yuba Bill, however, sent his
voice after him. Yes, in hospital! Funny,
amt it? - amoosin' place! Try it, Step
over here, and in five minutes by the living
Hoky, I'll qualify you for admission and not
charge you a cent? He stopped, gave
sweeping glance of dissatisfaction around
him, and then, leaning back against the bar,
6 efd M to someone near . the door, and
galoots how it happened, Bracy They
| make me sick!''
Thus appealed to, Bracy, the express mes
senger, stepped forward in Yuba Bits
place. It's nothing particular, gentlemen
he said, with laugh, only it seems that
some man called Spindler, who lives about
here, sent an invitation to the father of
these children to bring his family to a
CHRISTMAS party. 1t wasn't a bad sort of
chi. 1lp. n
they were his poor relations, though they
didn't know him from Adam, was it," He
paused; several of the bystanders cleared
their throats but said nothing. AT least"
resumed Bracy, that's what the boys up at
Red Hill, Oregon. thought when they heard
of it, Well, as the father was in hospital
with a broken leg and the mother only a
Few weeks dead, the boys thought it mighty
rough on these poor kids if they were done
out of their fun because they had no one
to bring them. The boys couldn't afford to
go themselves, but they got the idea of
sendin' EN- by express. Our agent at Red
Hill tumbled to the idea at once but he
wouldn't take any money in advance and
said he would send 'em C. o. D. like any
other package: And he did, and here they
are! That's all! And now, gentlemen as I've
got to deliver them personally to this Spind-
Ter, and get his receipt and take off their
checks. | reckon we must toddle. Come, Bill,
help take em up!''
Hold on!' said a dozen voices. A dozen
hands were thrust into a dozen pockets; L
grieve to say some We're regretfully with
drawn empty, for it was a hard season in
Rough and Ready But the expressman
stepped before them, with warning uplifted
mot a cent, boys-not a cent! Wells
Fargo Express Company don't undertake to
carry bullion with those kids at least on the
same contract He laughed, and then look
ing around him, said confidentially in d
lower voice, which, however, was quite
audible to the children: There's as much
as three bags of silver in quarter and half
dollars in my treasure box in the coach,
that has been poured, yes, just showered
upon them, ever since they started, and
nave been passed over from agent to agent
and messenger to Observation-Disclosures to paw
their passage from here to China! It's time
TO say quits now. But bet your life they are
not going to that Christmas party poor!''
He caught up the boy, as Yuba Bill lifted
the little girl to his shoulder and both
passed out. Then one by one the loungers
in the barroom silently and awkwardly fol-
lowed, and when the barkeeper turned back
to his establishment the room was empty:
spindIer's house. or "spindler's splurge''
as Rough and Ready chose to call it, stood
above the settlement, on a. deforested hill
side, which, however, revenged itself by
producing not enough vegetation to cover
even the few stumps that were ineradica-
BILE A large wooden structure in the
pseudo-claSsic style affected by Westerners,
with an incongruous cupola it was oddly
enough relieved by a still more incongru-
Gus veranda extending around it's four
sides upheld by wooden Doric columns
which were already picturesquely covered
with Towering vines and sun-lOving roses.
Mr. Spindler had trusted the furnishing of
its interior to the same contractor who had
upholstered the gilded barroom of the Eu-
reka saloon, and who had apparently be-
slowed the same design and material, i'm
rocs all over the house and chilly marble
topped tables, gilt plaster Cupids in the
corners and succeed lions lin the way
everywhere. The tactful hands of Mrs.
Price had screened some of these with sea
sonable laurels, fir boughs and berries, and
had impaired q slight Christmas flavor to
had been employed in trying to Subdue the
eccentricities of Spindler's amazing rela-
tons. in tranquilizing Mrs: Aunt Martha
Sp1ndler-the elderly cook before alluded to
who was inclined to regard the gilded
spIendorS of the house as indicative of dan
gerous immortality; in restraining Cousin
Morley Hewlett from considering the din
tng-room buffet as a bar for intermittent
refreshment,' and in keeping the weak
minded nephew, Phinney Spindler, from
shooting at bottles from the Veranda, wear
ing his uncle'S clothes, or running up ac
count in his uncle's name for various ar
t1cles at the general stores. Yet, the UNI
looked-for arrival of the two children had
been the one great compensation and diver
sion for her. She wrote at once to her
nieces brief account of her miraculous de-
liVerance. Il think these poor children
dropped from the skies here to make our
of the sympathy they have created in
Rough and Ready for Spindler. He is go
ing to keep them as long as he can, and is
writing to the father Think of the poor
little tots travelling thousand miles to
'Krissmass,' as they call it-thOugh they
were so well cared for by the messengers
that their little bodies were positively
stuffed like quails. So you see, dear, we
will be able to get along without airing
your famous idea I'm sorry, for know
you're Just dying to see it all
Whatever Hates idea might have been,
there certainly seemed now no need of any
extraneous aid to Mrs. Prices management.
Christmas night came at last, and the fate
full dinner party. Yet in spite of the gloomy
vestal fears of Aunt Martha who was
now more than ever convinced that Mrs.
Prices position in the house was more than
equivocal, the weak garrulity OF Phlnney
Spindler the boisterous alcoholic sentiments
Of Morley HaWlett or the half-frightened,
half-chocked silence of the two children
the dinner passed off without serious disas-
ter But the ordeal of the reception of
Rough and Ready was still to come. For
Mrs Price well knew that, although the
bows were more subdued and, indeed, in
clined to sympathize with their hosts UNI
couth endeavor there was still much in the
aspect of SpindIers relations to excite their
sense of the ludicrous. If they overlooked
a kindred human weakness in the drunk
ard, swaying in ostentatious dignity beside
the window, they would be sure to resent
the uncompromising self-righteous and lofty
dissatisfaction of the cook. rigid in her hos
tess's silk dress, in a gilded armchair She
had automatically put the two children in
front but even then she could not help see
ing that in their new adoTnments OF bows
and ribbons they had lost the pathetic
aspect of their chains and labels and even