Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1911-05-26

De selected as sympathetic.
Jeans aplomb gave way to a tenn
pest OF tears as he sought refuge in
the strong, shielding arms and buried
MS race against the broad ont
stretched shoulder whose blue shirt
piilo"ed his face. His ill-shapen peas
ant nat fell of UNDECIDED when he was
lllteo clear of the ground as his pro-
tector stood erect
Boys, the miner announced. I'm
goln' to take the little cuss. He looks
gooo to me, and I've got plenty of room
up at my place."
1t was so like a decision that thew
lelt called upon to nod acquiescence,
and opened out for him as he marched
away up the hillside to his cabin in
the dull of the evening, picking his
way around boulders and carrying the
boy who was sans famille. They stood
without a word until they saw his
door open and close, and then turned
again to each other.
We'll I'll be hanged!" the agent
said; and in this they concurred. find
Ing great poverty of expression in
such an unusual combination of cir
cumstances. Besides, they were not
men Of much speech.
The coming of Jean Guillot Lafay-
cite acted as damper on Holcomb
that night, and in the huge log dance
hall the singing of the fiddlers and
stunning Of the guitars failed to
evoke the usual hilarity. Even the
games beneath their shaded tin lamps
were poorly patronized, and the gen.
tlemen who dealt them and garnered
much thrift thereby joined the group
which listened to all the stage agent
had to impart.
1t was scant enough; merely that
the boy had been handed over by the
railway officials at Los Angeles, to-
gether with what was left of his tick
ct and letter of instruction which
had been passed from hand to hand
in the course of it's travels until it
was begrimed and stained by many
thumb and finger marks.
1t was from the village cure of
"Montigny sur Vingeanne," wherever
that might be.
1t was a kindly letter, in which the
good old priest barred a portion of his
heart in telling of the love he had
long felt for "the petit Jean, whom I
christened, and whose mother, a very
good femme of excellent family, l had
the pleasure of burying."
They couldn't quite understand the
use Of the word pleasure but passed
it by as slip of English. There was
an undernote of vanity also in the
naive statement that hes good Eng
lish speak, because have not l, the
cure on Montigny sur Vingeanne, him
taught? I who have Travelled far and
been to Angleterre?"
Up in the cabin on the hill the ar
rival had sobbed himself to sleep in
Kendalls arms long before the moon
came up, and the camp had lost some
of it's interest and turned back to old
er ways in response to the seductive
clicking of the roulette-balls and the
strident invitation Of the strings.
Even in the shadow of distress it was
neither fitting nor natural that every
thing should come to halt because of
an unwonted happening.
But Andy Kendall didn't come down
from his cabin that night, nor was
he thinking of the morrow's work and
his "diggings," the most prosperous
of all, where twenty men answered
his beck and call and tore for him
from the earth the scales Of potent
gold. He sat on his threshold, total
ly unconscious of the softened music
of the dance hall in the fiat below,
and in the wreaths of smoke from
his pipe built castles around Jean
Guillot Lafayette.
When the sun approached in the
morning and by its call awoke the
drumming life of the hills, Andy tip
toed from his bunk, and with stentori-
Gus splutterings washed his face in
the tin basin just outside the cabin
door.
He was interrupted by foreign sal
utation, Bon jour, monsieur" and on
peering up through the cascade OF
soapy water, which rivuleted from the
Drown mop VI hG&AA ASA JOS Ills ~ SA'
behold his guest.
Hello. young Teller" he returned,
with a kindly grin. "Feelin' better,
are YOU? That's a good boy
And then, his nose rubbed to shin
ing ruddiness by the aid of a coarse
towel, he refilled the basin and ex-
tended a homely invitation for its
use. He whistled as he busted himself
irving crisp the long slices of bacon
for their morning meal, and laughed
when he discovered Jean watching in
open-mouthed amazement the deft-
ness with which he threw huge nap
lacks into the air, turning and dex-
terously catching them in midnight
as they fell.
eEet ees vaire clevaire," remarked
lean in frank admiration. Monsieur
is un bon prestidigitator. He is what
YOU call a zhugglure. Eth. is 1t not
so? Tres bien!"
Once again Kendall broke into
great hearty laugh, but it failed to pro-
woke so much as a smile from the