The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1900-03-16
5ele&t Misfelluuu.
The Wedding at Miles Flat.

Miles Flat was wide awake that fine
June morning.
Every man had ON his best suit.
Some attempt at style had been made
by a few, who had bouquets of wild
flowers stuck in their frayed button
holes. One ambitious miner sported a
white tie. Dan Symmes, better known
as "the Weasel" wore white gloves.
A group of horses, bronchos and
mules made background of tossing
heads and ragged names and tails. In
the farther distance the rugged foot
hills, scanned by PANIED out ''lead,
and yellow with heaps of clay and
gravel thrown out by those who, in
some remote age of the history Of Miles
Flat, had hoped to make their fortunes
from the washings. At tue right, the
turgid, sodden waters of the San Estel-
10 river cutting their aggressive way
down through the gold-bearing sand OF
the valley-at the left the opening
which led out to the coast, through
which the soft wind of the Pacific blew
up in the faces of the men.
The conversation was naturally OF
the expected wedding, for wedding
was not an ordinary occurrence at
Miles Flat.
Grant Wardwell, the prospective
bridegroom, was a general favorite.
Everybody wished him we'll. He was
honest, square and brave. He had
been one of the first men who had in
vaded the silence of the mountains in
search of the precious metal which
cropped out Of almost every rock and
rivulet in the valley.
He was thirty-fve now, tall and stall.
wart, as miner should he to with
stand the hardship of his life. He was
well-bred and fairly we'll educated.
For six years he had been toiling to
make a home for the woman out east
to whom he had been betrothed when
he left civilization behind him and
turned his face to the setting sun.
When Wardwell was twenty two
there had been brief, sweet romance
in his life. He had loved, with all the
rugged strength of his nature, Adelaide
Ralston, girl far above him in sta
ton. For the space of three months
he had known all the delights ofheaven,
and suffered all the pains Of hell-the
first, when he thought Adelaide loved
him; the second, when she told him
gently tina, she could be nothing to
him. For awhile he thought himself
wounded unto death, then his manhood
asserted itself, and he acknowledged
her right to go her ways if she chose.
1t was little after that, and while
he was still smarting from the pangs
of his first disappointment, that Caro-
line Conway came into his life. The
hurt he had received healed under the
ministrations of the blue-eyed golden
La red girl who smiled on him, and
when he left the east she was his prom
ised wife-to come to him as soon as h.
had made a comfortable home for her
And all through those six years
when his days toll was over, Grant
worked on his cabin. He fashioned it
with all the skill and cunning at his
command, making the little kitchen
handy for Carolne-bringing the wa
ter from the hills in pipe, SO that she
would not have to 90 outside in rainy
weather; contriving cupboards and
closets for her dishes, and cosy hooks
for her sewing machine and rocking
chair, which he had already brought
| down from San Francisco.
The miners laughed when he sub
scribed for Ladies' Home Magazine, and
spent the evening, while the rest of tue
! settlement devoted to poker playing