The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-07-09
liberty Jones' Discovery
BY BRET HARTE.

copyright, 1899, Dy Bret darle.D
1t was at best merely a rocky trai
winding along a shelf of the eastern
slope of the Santa Cruz range-yet tbs
only road between the sea and the in
land valley. The hoof prints of whole
century of ZigZagging mules were i'm
pressed on the SOIL regularly soaked by
winter rains and dried by summer suns
during that period; the occasional ruts
of heavy, rude, wooden wheelS-lone
obsolete-were still preserved and Wis
ible. Weather-worn boulders and lodges,
lying in the unclouded glare Of an Au-
gust sky, radiated a quiVerlng heat
that was intolerable, even while above
them the masts of gigantic pines rocked
their tops in the cold southwestern
trades from the unseen ocean beyond
A red, burning dust lay everywhere, as
if the heat were slowly and visibly pre-
cipitating itself
The creakiug of wheels and aXles, the
mufiled plunge of noofs and the cough
of a horse in the dust thus stirred, pres
emily broke the profound woodland 81
1ence. Then a dirty, white canvaS-cov-
cred emigrant wagon slowly arose with
the dust along the ascent. 1t was trav-
el-stained and worn, and with its raw
boned horses seemed TO have reached
the last stage of its journey and fitness.
The only occupants, man and a girl,
appeared to be equally jaded and eX-
h&usted, with the added querulousness
of discomfort in their saIlow and badly
noUrished faces. Their voices, too, were
not unlike the creaking they had been
pitched to overcome, and there was an
absence of reserve and consciousness in
their speech which told pathetically of
an equal absence of society.
It's no user talkin'I 1 tell We We
hain't got no more sense than coyote,
I clio II IF it-dnO-onrad If I
anti Ye amt no more use nor a boss
hy-and jest w hinderin'i 1t was along
O. you that we lost the stock at Lara
mic, and eff ye'd bin at all decent and
takin', we'd hev had kempany that
helped. instead of laggin' on yere
alone?'
What did We bring me for?" retorted
the girl, shrilIy. Il might hev stayed
with Aunt Marty. 1 wasn't hankerin' to
come"
Bring We for?" repeated her father,
contemptuously. Il reckoned ye might
be o. some account here, whar Wimmin
folks is skeerce. in the way o. helpin',
and mebbe gettin' yer married to some
likely Teller. Mighty much chance o
that, with yer yalleT face and skin and
bones" .....
I've can't blame me for takin arter
you, dad she said, with shrill laugh,
but no otner resentment of his brutal
ity.
.'Ye want somebody to take arter you
with club he retorted, angriiy:
-'Ye hear! Wot's that yer're doin'
now?"
She had risen and walked to the tail
of the wagon. Coin to get out and
walk I'm tired O. bein' jawed at
She jumped into the road. The act
was neither indignant nor vengeful.
The frequency OF such scenes had
blunted their sting; she was probably
tired of the quarrel and ended il
rudely. Her father, however, let fly
a Parthian arrow.
"Ye needn't think I'm goin' to wait
for ye-ez / hev. Ye'Ve got to keep
fetch with the team or get left. And d
good radiance of bad rubbidge.'
In reply the girl dived into the I'M
derwood beside the trail, picked a wild
berry or two, stripped q wand of young
hazel she had broken off, and switching
il at her side, skipped along on the out
skirts of the wood and ambled along
after the wagon. Seen in the full mer-
CHESS glare of a Californian sky, she
justified her fathers deScription-thin
and bony, her lank frame outStripped
the body of her ragged calico dress,
which was only kept on her shoulders
by straps-possibly her fathers cast-off
braces. A boys soft felt hat covered
her head, and Swallowed her only not
able feature pair of large dark eyes
looking larger for the hollow temples
which narrowed the frame in which
they We're set.
So long as the wagon crawled up The
ascent the girl knew she could easily
keep up with it, or even distance the
tired horses. She made one or two IN
cursions into the wood, returning like
an animal from quest of food with
something in her mouth, which she was
tentatively chewing, and once only with
some inedible madrono berries, plucked
solely for their brilliant coloring. 1t
was very hot and singularly close; the
higher current of air had subsidized and.
looking up, a singular haze seemed to