The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1911-04-28

TWO old cusses don't get OF my MIND,
the Lord knows what other sneakin'
sort of crime I'll be committin'
| next"
There were three sleepless ones on
Mariposa Creek that night, and all
because they wanted to find way to
| make it easier for each other.
Mccarthy found the way. Bright
and early next morning he was az
their door. They were washing the
dishes, Ezra doing the drying with an
old salt sack, while Abner, with a
piece Of rubber blanket tied round
him for an apron, was loudly splash
Ing the soap and water, and both
were smoking industriously.
We'll, boys" said Mccarthy. care
fully letting his bulk settle down on
a spindly-legged, yellow-plush covered
chair which he dragged into the
kitchen with him, IL guess you're
right. This Is mighty rich claim,
and no mistake"
He wadded some freshly cut tobae-
CO in the palm of his hand, while
both the partners said: Yes, Hugh,
it's mighty rich"
Now, we all got to be fair and hon.
est with each other, amt we? Well,
thought it war no good till you
proved it up. II you went away I'd
have the cabin left, and I've come to
buy you out. I'll give you three thou.
sand for The Grand Reunion back,
and you keep the last cleanup"
That was "a powerful sight" of
money, and Hugh had to fairly bully
them into taking it. They didn't
want it because they didn't think il
fair, although it was enough to make
them independent, with what little
they could take from the Ahpalinc
and what they had saved, for the resa
of their lives.
And SO the Mariposa knew them no
more, but the partners don't know to
this day that The Grand Reunion has
never been considered worth working,
and that the cabin built with such
care is sealed with cobwebs.
The partners made two little packs
of the things brought with them when
they came, shook hands with and
babe a courteous good-by to every
man on Hugh's claim, and laboriously
climbed the other side of the gulch to
the crest of the divide, where twenty
men below spied them, and gave a
cheer that sounded out its farewell
above the roar of the waters They
waved their hands and disappeared.
1t was night when they came to
that other little cabin, which from it's
loneliness and desertion greeted them
in unchanged LONELINESS. Save for
the dust and the creaking voice of it's
stiffened hinges, it was all the same.
The time-worn stools with their shiny
faces, the hunks with their mats of
FIR boughs, and the wheezy little stove
with its long-dead ashes. They cropped
for the kindling stick, which was
where they had left 1t those many
months ago; found the candles on the
shelf as of old, and prepared their
evening meal.
Then, when the moon came up
through the same gap in the hillside,
where for so many years they had
watched it come before, and stared
at them with a smile of welcome, they
climbed the hill Climbed I'D to
where the flowers were now running
in unkempt wildness, and with trem.
bling hands patted the weather-beaten
cross above the grave of the only
woman they had ever claimed as their
own.
They looked out across the great
gulch, with it's splendid sentinel trees
silhouetted against the glory of the
night, over the singing stream which
threw silver sparks at the moon, and
then at the homely little cabin, with
its shaft of light streaming through
long-unused window.
With a great sigh of untold thank.
fulness and content they murmured to
each other, and to the night: 1T all
looks jest like it ulster. Yes, Jest like
it uster."
They were back with their hills,
their cabin, their flowers, and their
cross, where the God they knew
seemed a little closer than anywhere
else in all the wide, wide world,