The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1903-11-06

city street, never havin' seen either
one O. them or knowed what they was.
It's all in the life you live. miss. City
folks come down here, an takes fright
at tame little moody cow goin along
try folks, when we gets up there, is
skeered plum into fits at the trolley
cars. If you are raised under the feet
O. a cow, you don't mind her; If
you've been raised to get out from I'M
der one o. them cow-catchers in front
o. them trolleys, you kin get out from
under it with your life, an if you
amt been, you can't. It's all in the
bein' used to things. That's half the
battle. an more.
Maybe, when all was said an done,
that gal Beth was leetle more afraid
than she might "a been o. readin' an
'rithmetic, Gaze ST could do nothing at
all with her when it come to goin' to
school an larnin' out O. books an that.
Not to say he tried so hard, not bein'
what you might call larned man his
self; but he could "a tried harder. But
accordin' to my notion, now in these
days, when gals knows as much about
books an things as all their great
gran mothers put together, it was a
sort o. relief, seemed like, to come
across a gal like Beth Slocum, what
didn't know nothing, an didn't pre-
tend to know nothing, but the earth
an the sea an the air an the clouds,
an the shells that growed all over the
beach thick as the pebbles, an the
flowers that bowed themselves tired
in the woods, then dropped to the
ground an rested till it got time to
blow ag'in. I say, it was sort O. re-
freshin'. Huh"
II never said a word" l declared.
mot a solitary word"
Andrews. blue-shirted shoulders
moved with mighty shrug.
"Bein' a woman" he explained, 81
happen to know you're dyin' to ask
some question or other, if you amt
actually askin' o. it; so l might jest
as well tell you the story o. that there
yacht from start to finish. If l don't,
your curiosity will be gettin' the bet
ter O. you sooner or later, an you'll
be skeerin O. the fish, a-bustin' out
tallzin.
''As l said before, that yacht be-
longs to old man Smythe, up on the
hill"
His voice sank a trifle lower, mys-
FERROUS undertone it was, though there
was no one but me to hear.
They're gettin' it ready for his son
jeans weddin'-tower to foreign parts"
he finished, pausing for the space of
some minutes to observe the effect.
Obi" dared to calculate.
Eyes, that's what they be a-doin'.
You see, old man Smythe want like
ST Slocum. He made his son take all
the 'vantages O. college education.
He sent him to about dozen, if re-
ports is true, which they mostly amt.
You can't any more count on 'em than
you kin count on ketchin' fish when
there are wimen round talkin'.
don't know how he happened to send
him to so many, unless he'd got ex-
PEELED from few. They said that,
too, while they was a-sayin' things.
Anyway, he come away from them col
leges a great expert, they tell me, in
rowin' an swimmin' an playin' leap
frog or football, or whatever that there
game is where they double each other
into knots an set on 'em an break
their backs, when they don't kill EN-
outright. What is it you call it?"
Football" said.
'Um! Football. Well, when he'd
finished them colleges he had splendid
muscles, they said, an face as brown
as Beth Slocum's. Yes, you wouldn't
want to see a finer specimen O. man
than that Jean Smythe when he come
from college.
"Um! For all the Latin an Creek
them deceased languages they stuff
'em with at them there colleges there
want much more larnin' lookin' out
out O. Beth Slocum's. When you come
to think O. it, want Beth trained
about on the same principle, 'ceptin'
she was trainin' herself with her row.
in an exercisin' in the open air, "a
maxim O herself strong? What was
the difference? Money. That was all.
A fortune bein' spent on him an moth
ing on her. Takin' it all in all, though,
they was mighty fine pair, them two
ath-ath-"
Athletes" l volunteered, with some
timidity on account of the fish.
Athletes" he repeated, drawing a
coarse sleeve across stubby mustache
in an embarrassed way. 81 always dis
remembers jest how them city swells
calls the name, or how they pronounces
it.
"Leastways, after he'd finished that
there college trainin' O. his'n, there
was high old doin's all 'round-the
New York mansion in the winter time,
with balls an parties an dancin', an
this here place on the sound in sum-
mer, an sich place! A p'latial resi-
dence-that was what them city swells
called it-with smooth, sheered grass
all round it, gate house big enough
for ordinary family, conservatory
with glass windows, an army O.
servants to keep the common herd out
o. the gate an often the grass"
His old blue eyes, faded to the color
of the sea, gazed straight ahead for a