Middletown transcript., 1903-01-31

y
me for you. Jest climb in my
cart here. 1t will be most dark
now afore we git there
Elizabeth climbed in with all
the grace and agility of bicycle
rider, and they started.
"How far is it?" she asked.
"Only seven miles, miss, but it
takes along about three hours to
do it. Ever over a mountain
road?"
"No."
"Well, they're kind of danger
Gus like, and we like to pull into
camp fore dark, if possible"
"Oh," said Elizabeth, "thugs,
| suppose.
"No, miss They stays more
in Denver. More money there,
you know. Ijest meant that the
road was rocky and narrow. But
you will see."
And Elizabeth saw, verify. Oc-
casionally she shut her eyes so
she could not see. How dread
fully narrow the road was, and
how precipitous the side of the
canon, and how far down to the
bottom. Then the road curved
SO sharply in places they seemed
to be riding out into space. If
one of those horses should slip!
Once as they turned a sharp
curve they nearly collided with a
teamster on his way down. Joe
(the boy was Joe, the general
roustabout. Excuse me for not
introducing him before, for Joe
is a very important personage)
pulled up the horses with a sharp
"Hello there. stranger" "Dear
mel" said Elizabeth, "what shall
we do?" There were only two
ways, one was straight up and
the ether was straight down, and
she scarcely liked the idea of
going either way.
''This is the way we does it,
miss" said Joe. And he backed
his horses down, keeping close
into the rocky wall, till they
reached a wider space. Then
the stranger drove cautiously
around them.
"How lucky it was that there
happened to be a place wide
enough" she observed.
Joe grinned. "Oh, they makes
them that way on purpose ever
once in awhile, because if they
didn't, you know, a feller might
have to back clear down to the
bottom four or five miles, and if |
he had to do that three or four
times he wouldn't be likely to get
home till sometime day after next
or thereabouts. That there kind
of an arrangement would kinder
delay travel, | am thinking"
''Oh, to be sure" said Eliza
beth. "How foolish I am. am
tenderfoot about the mountains, |
you know
They were very sure-footed and
sagacious, those mountain climb
ers; nevertheless, she heaved q
sigh of relief as they turned into
a wider road. The boy pulled up
the horses for a rest, and she
turned to look behind. She had
gazed at the mountains from q
distance every day, and she loved
them as all do who are long in
their vicinity, but she had never
looked over them and down upon
them, and the shifting light and
shade, as the clouds passed above
and around them, the brown and
gray of the rocks, the green and
gold of the trees, the glistening
white of the snowy range in the
distance, the stream SO far be- I
meath it was but a silver thread,
made a picture that delighted all
that was artistic in her. |.
"It should make one both good /
and great to live always in the
mountains, she thought, and then I
laughed to think of cook being
great. |,
Never mind, Eliza beth. There ;
is nothing grander in the world
than to serve it. If you get tired
of doing it one way, why just be
glad that you can do it in some
other.
In another hour they pulled up
before the foreman cabin, Just
as it was growing dusk. A man
came out, and Joe performed the
ceremony of introduction with a
flourish beftting the occasion
''This is Mr.. Giles, which is
the foreman of the mine. Mr..
Giles, this is the young lady
what expects to cook for US, and
1 do not happen to know her