The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1905-01-21
! ELIAS LUCK.
by MAX MCNEIL.
BY MAN MCNEIL.

TWICE a year the Columbia rive
i rises above its banks in the vale
below the mouth OF the Willamette
and changes the property rights Of
tribe of scow-dwellers who skirt il
shores. These arbitrary tra~nsposition
by the resistlcsS stream of the rive
lead to many complications; some
times TO blo0dshed. In one case TO
solution of a problem that had yexe,
the tender hearts Of two young PEG
pie.
On Wild Mans island, which lies be
low Kalama, and is tucked under tn,
nigh shores OF the Washington side
there lived in comparative state
rancher named Walker, with his dos
n his son. He vas g proud man
n his house, originally a scow, was
surrounded by a fence painted yellow
lie also possessed a chicken yard ant
raised potatoes in a patch of ground
elevated slightly above the water
mark. The dog drowsed most of the
time in the muddy foreyard, and The
son fshed on the swelling river and
cut ccrdwood for the steamers.
Six miles above. a gayly-oainted
houseboat had come ashore during an
unusually high food and the master of
II, a lonely Missourian, had slid
skids under it, put out a sang-plank
and accepted the adjoining land as a
perqulslte of discovery. His daughter
had grown up till she was. an efficient
aid to her father in handling his net
n the two of them called the slimv
strip OF bar home. Their one %grievance
was that the water was not low enough
10 justify a fence. They We're simply
squatters; no more.
1t was the difference In the social
standing of these two men. Walker and
StoWler, that caused much anguish to
the children, Hennery and Eliza
Hennery tried to blind himself to the
TACT that his father was a nroner
rancher, while Eliza was simply the
daughter of a scow-dweller. But Eliza
knew very well that old man Walker
would never forget. And as she was
proud, she assumed disdain of Hen
nery's clumsy efforts to obliterate the
dividing line between responsibility
and shiftless poverty.
Walker, like most men sienalIy fa-
vored OF Fortune, attributed his own
position OF atiuence to personal en-
erSy, and as authority must have a
suDJect, he was fond of slyly meeting
StoWler TO nag him into the rage of an
interior, and these encounters he re-
tailed with gusto to Hennery and the
dog, knowing that the boy resented
keenly every sighting reference TO
the father of the girl he loved. Hem
merry many times attempted TO. re-
tallate, IL somehow it never entered
ms head that his fathers place in So
ciety was due solely to a lucky eddy
n q swift current some ten years be-
ore, So his words fell emptily and
Lruitlessly, except in so far as they
gave the old man opportunity for
sarcasm.
In the spring of a new year. when !
ne alders on the bank were thicken- F.,
ng with foliage and the clouds on the /,
MS were worn thin and .ifted with
'umnler, Hennery met Eliza by the ,
Xix Rock, and told her many things ;
had little reference to ANYBODY q
'ut themselves. Eliza responded slow q
y and with tears. Womanlike, she h
vas unable to see how she was TO be =
lade napier by Hennery's love unless I
ne entire world acquiesced. But she i,
Used him pa~ssionately. and saw the Il
peaks Of the Cascade range h
S in a dream. =
driven beyond himself by ELIAS
Uses, Hennery went, late in the /
pr1ng, ans told his father that he was II
oing to marry the seow-dweller's n,
angnter. Walker stroked his scrawny
card, and called the dog for an eyecu- :,
We session. When he had introduced II
y measure and carried 1t by two To- i,
le, he turned his back on Hennery ~
his fiat-buttoned skiff into the IN
ater. and Went up stream, rowing
i'm regularity and slow strength. Ia
ne found Stowler sitting bootless Il
the back platform of his little scow. a.
wing his feet in the weak sunshine ~
hstless pose of the man filled -
alker With rage, and he, was of two m,
lnds about speaking. But he had 81,
lled six miles. and he saw no use in
ting anger defeat his purpose. u,
How do, Stowler?p he said grufr- "
as he tied the painter to a stake in "
/ mud. NJ
'FtlFty weIln VA the answer. ~
NV I'll y ySn7s ~