The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1909-12-04

duJO1neQ NINE, anu, tnOugl III never
seen him, | heard stories now and
then-the sart of tales you can't fell
to a good woman-so it worried me
when l heard of his attentions to this
girl. Still, | thought she'd surely find
him out and recognize the kind of fell
tell a man from Il dog, and there
wasn't anx n to warn her.
This Bennett came from the town
below, where he ran a saloon and a
brace game or two; but. being as he
rode into our camp and out again in
the night and as | didn't drink nor
listen to the music of the little rolling
began coming to Chandon. Under
stand, l wasn't too good for those
amusements. | just didn't happen to
banker after them, for l was living
with the image of the little school
ma'am in my mind. and that destroyed
what bad habits I'd formed.
at was along in the early spring that
she began to see | had notions about
her. but my ID backwardness
wouldn't let me speak. and, in addi-
ton, | was getting closer to ore every
shot at the mine and was holding off
until l could lay both myself and my
gold mine at her feet and ask her to
take the two Of us, so IL one didn't pan
out the other might. But it seemed
like I'd never get into pay. The closer
l got the harder | worked, and, of
course, the less | saw of her. likewise
the oftener Bennett came. | reckon no
man ever worked like | did-two shifts
a day, eighteen hours, with six to
sleep. The skin came off of my hands,
and l staggered when l came out into
the daylight. At last | struck it, and
still | waited awhile longer till l could
be sure. Then I went down to my lit
tie shack and put On my other clothes.
I remember I'd zone so thin that they
hung loose, and my palms were SO raw
l had hard work handling the buttons
and got my shirt all bloody, for I'd
been In the drift forty hours without
sleep and breathing powder smoke till
my knees buckled and wabbled under
me. To this day the smell of stale
powder smoke makes a. woman of me
, but that morning | sang, for l was 60
ing for my bride, and the world was
brighter than it has ever been for
eighteen years. The little schoolhouse
was closed, at which I remembered
that the term was over. I'd been liv-
ing underground for weeks and lost
track of the days, SO that | had to
count them up on my fingers. 1t took
me a long time, for l was pretty tired
In my head, but when I'd figured it out
I went on to where she was boarding.
1.-THE woman of the place came 30
the door, a Scotchwoman. She had a
mole on her chin. l remember, a brown
ish black mole with three hairs in 1t.
She wore ar apron. too. that was kind
of checkered, and three buttons were
open at the neck of her dress. | recall
a lot more OF little things about her,
though the rest of what happened IL
rather dreamy.
II asked for Merridy, and she told
me she'd gone away-gone with Ben
nett the night before, while | was
coughing blood from the powder
smoke; that they were married in the
front room and that the bride looked
beautiful. She had cried a bit on leav-
ing Chandon and-and-that was about
all. | counted the buttons on the
Scotchwoman's waist eight or ten
times, and by and by she asked If /
was sick. But | wasn't. She was q
kind hearted woman, and I'd peer to
her house a good deal, SO she asked me
to come In and rest. | wasn't tired. so
l went away and climbed back up to
the little shack and the mine that I
hated now.
II turned into a kind of hermit after
that, and l wasn't good to associate
with. Men got sc they summed me,
and l knew they told strange stories,
because I heard them whisper when l
went to the stores for grub once a
month.
From time to time l heard of her,
but the news, instead of gladdening
me, as it would have gladdened some
men, wrung out what bits of suffering
were left In me, and l fairly ached for
her. Nobody ZONES to see clearer than
a woman deceived, SO it didn't take
her long to find out the kind of man
Bennett was. He wasn't like her at
all, and the reason he had courted her
SO holly was just that he had had
everything that rightly belongs to a
man like him and had sickened of 1t,
SO he wanted her because she was
clean and pure and different. and, real
izing that he couldn't get her any other
way, he had married her. But she was
a treasure no bad man could appreci-
ate. and so he tired quickly, ven be-
fore the little one came.
when I heard that she had borne
him a daughter l wrote her a letter,
which took me a month to compose
and which l tore up. One day a story
came to me hat made me saddle my
horse to ride down and kill him-and,
mind you, l was a man who made pets
of little wild, trusting things. But l
knew she would surely send for me
wbau hnr main bpca mo foo praat So I