The Savannah morning news., 1901-04-14

was hurriedly disentangling two singing
tears from her long lashes before she
threw back his handkerchief Her sprain-
ed ankle obliged him to lift her into the
saddle and adjust her little shoe in the
stlrup. He remembered when it was still
smaller You used to ride astride," he
said, flood of recollection coming over
him, and it's much safer with your tenn
per and that brute
And you" she said in a lower voice.
used to be" But the rest of her sem
tence was lost in the switch of the whip,
and the jump of her horse, but he thought
the word was kinder"
Perhaps this was why, after he watch
ed her canter away, he went back to the
garden, and from the bruised and tramp
led strawberry bed gathered a small
basket of the finest fruit, covered them
with leaves, added paper with the high
ly ingenious witticism picked up with
YOU" and sent them to her by one of
the Cinnamon. Her forcible entry moved
Ii Sing, his foreman also chief laundry
man to the settlement. to "reminiscences:
Me heap knew Missy Wells and ole
man, who go dead. Ole man allie time
make chin music to missy. Alice time
jaw jaw-alee time make lows-allee time
cuttee up missy! Plenty time lockee up
missy top side house; no can walkee-no
can talkee-no hab got-how can get?-
must washee, washee alice samee China
man. Ole man go dead-Missy all lightee
now. Plenty fun. Plenty stay in Blown
big house, top side hill; Blown first chop
man." Had he inquired he might have
found this pagan testimony, for once. cor
roborated by the Christian neighbors
But another incident drove all this from
his mind. The little stream-the life
blood of his garden-ran dry. Inquiry
showed that it had been diverted two
miles away into Browns ditch. Well 5
| indignant protest elected a formal reply
! from Brown stating that he owned the
adjacent mining claims, and reminding
! him that Mining Rights to Water took
| precedence of the Agricultural claim-but
offering, by way of compensation, to pur-
chase the land thus made useless and
sterile. Jackson suddenly recalled the
prophecy of the gloomy barkeeper The
end had comet But what could the
| scheming capitalist want with the land
| equally useless, as his uncle had proved,
| for mining purposes? Could it be sheer
malignity, melted by his vengeful cousin
! But here he paused, rejecting the idea as
| quickly as it came. No. his partners were
| right. He was trespasser on his cous-
| ms heritage-there was no luck in it
he was wrong. and this was his punish
ment! Instead of yielding gracefully as
| he might, he must back down now, and
she would never know his first real feel
| ings. Even now he would make over the
property to her as a free gift, but hi;
partners had advanced him money from
| their scanty means to plant and work IT.
He believed that an appeal to their feel.
| ings would persuade them to forego ever
! that; but he shrank even more from con-
| Tossing his defeat to them than to her.
He had little heart in his labors that
| day and dismissed the Chinaman early
He again examined his uncle's old mining
claim on the top of the slope, but was
satisfied that it had been a hopeless en-
terprise and wisely abandoned 1t wa:
sunset when he stood under the buck
eyes, gloomily looking at the glow fade
out of the West as it had out of his boy
ish hopes. He had grown to like tbs
place. 1t was the hour, too, when tht
few flowers he had cultivated gave bach
their pleasant odors as if grateful fol
his care. And then he heard his name
called.
1t was his cousin standing a few yards