The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1910-07-15
The New Leaf


John Henry Ellington walked slow
y along the dusty road. his prospect
Ing tools slung over his back. The
hot sun bsat down pitilessly and In
tensined the headache which he had
fairly earned the night before. The
dsbauch had not been his flrst. and he
was too experienced . hand to con-
slider Il his last. And yet he abused
himself roundly as he walked the un-
familiar road. He had shaken the
dust Of Jimtown from his feet. and
hidden goodby forever to that para
disc Of the Ubiquitous.
He stepped to one side Of the road.
at the sound of wheels. without look
Ing up.
Whoa" sounded CHEEKY voice.
as the brake grated on the wheel.
''Hev a lift, stranger?
John Henry smiled up out of a pair
of very honest blue eyes. wal. !
guess-rather," he answered, f4nging
his pack into the wagon and climbing
over the wheel
"All set?' queried the driver.
"No-hold on minute" said John
Henry. reaching his long arm for his
battered property. Thank you." he
said, cordially, as he clambered down.
The man drove on, mystifled, while
John Henry explained his reasons to
himself. 1T was kind of him to offer
it, an you didn't like to hurt his
feelings by gittin' down. Oh, moi
nor your own neither. That war the
principal tLing-your own. Now, you
lazy, drunken. worthless old repro
bate, hit the trail. You lost your
chance for lift last night. Foot it."
The John Henry who ordered John
Henry to foot 1t" smiled whimsically
at the feet OF the one who obeyed him.
The shoes. which had danced the
night before In Billy McGuire's sa-
loon az badly as they had been fitted
for 1t. were yet less fitted for travel.
Hard lines, old man." laughed John
Henry. But pay up, pay up square.
VIII ye be a coward as well az every
thing else?"
AZ he strobe along. he thought 1t
all over. What q middle he had made
Of things. Five years Of prospecting
and nothing to show for it-not even
q decent pair Of shoes. Well. he had
had some fun-rather!-eve IL 1t
had left bad taste In his mouth. and
made fool Of himself times without
number. What had started him on
his jaunt he hardly knew-the i'm
preston had been too vague. And his
wits had not been collected enough
to know that girls gray eyes. look
ing up at him through the smoke in
McGuire's saloon. were just the shade
Of another girls eyes, though the girls
were as different as light and dark
ness. thank God!
He laughed little as he recalled
the events Of the preceding night. A
big fool he had been-as usual. OF
what use had 1t been. emptying out
his hard-earned gold dust, into the lit.
tie soiled hand that closed greedily
over It? Imploring her with drunken.
maudlin tears and paternal embraces
to take 1t and return to her father"
Well. she would return-to Billy
McGuire's saloon. or some other-and
20 would ne. AZ least, a. soon as he
had seen Martha-his little Martha-
his little. brown Martha, with the
clear gray eyes, whose lips knew no
guile; who had believed in him when
the others had cast him OF ~ the too
plentiful crop Of wild oats flourished
and grew tall. Yes. he understood
quite ven now the longing that had
Deen on MIN. It was just to see Mar
tina that he had started out-not that
AZ had right or wish to seek her-
but Just to look ct her once more,
himself unseen. and remember forever
after that God had made some women