The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1912-08-01

ers were to them of a bright. sur
prising shortness. Playing solitaire |
against each other on either side of /
the fireplace was pastime at which /
hours slipped by. Quite unexpected |
" it would be midday, with Cora put
ting her head round the doorpost and /
calling them to dinner. In the euchre |
games of the afternoon the darkness |
crept upon them with the stealthy |
swiftness Of an enemy. It would |
gather in the corners Of the room |
while Cora was still heated and !
flushed from her efforts to instruct |
Willoughby in the intricacies Of the |
game, and yet preserve that respect |
full attitude which she felt should be
assumed in ones relations with a lord.
The twilight hour that followed was
to Dominick's mind the most delight
full of these days of fleeting enchant-
ment. The curtains were drawn, a
new log rolled on the fire, and the
lamp lit. Then their fellow prisoners
began dropping in-the old Judge
slowing himself away in one of the
horsehair arm-chairs. Willoughby and
Buford lounging in from the bar, and
Mrs. Perley with a basket of the
family mending, and the doctor all
snowy from his rounds The audience
! for Roses readings had expanded
from the original listener to this
| choice circle of Antelope's elect The
| book chosen had been Great Expec-
( tations," and the spell of that great
est tale Of a great romancer fell on
| the snow-bound group and held them
| entranced and motionless round the
| friendly hearth.
! The young mans eyes passed from
| face to face, avoiding only that Of
the reader bent over the lamp-illu-
| mined page. The old Judge, sunk
| comfortably into the depths of his
armchair, listened, and cracked the
joints of his lean, dry fingers. Will
| loughby, his dogs crouched about his
! feet, looked into the fire, his attentive
| gravity broken now and then by a
slow smile. Mrs. Perley, after hear
ing the chapter which describes Mrs.
| Gargery's methods of bringing up Pip
''by hand" attended regularly with
the remark that 'it was a queer sort
| VI OONh1 OuI COlA4O way vi OluSI SuO
liked it." When Cora was forced to
leave to attend to her duties in the
dining-room, she tore herself away
with murmurous reluctance. The doc
| tor slipped in at the third reading and
| asked Rose if she would lend him the
book in the morning ito read up what
he had missed" Even Perley's boy,
in his worn corduroys, his dirty,
chapped hands rubbing his cap against
his nose, was wont to side noiselessly
in and slip into a seat near the door.
The climax of the day was the long
evening round the fire. There was no
reading then. 1t was the mems hour,
and the smoke of their pipes and CT
CARS lay thick in the air. Cut off from
the world in this Granny of the noun
tains, with the hotel shaking to the
buffets of the wind and the snow blan-
ket pressing on the pane, their men,
cries swept back to the wild days Of
their youth, TO the epic times of from
tiersman and pioneer.
The judge told of his crossing the
plains in forty-seven and the first Nor
mon settlement on the barren shores
| VI SdIL LAKE. ne udu lldu
with the Indians, had heard the story
Of Olive Oatman from one who had
known her, and listened to the sinis-
ter tale Of the Bonner party from a
survivor. Bill Cannon had come by
the 1sthmus" in forty-eight, a half
starved, ragged lad who had run away
from uncongenial drudgery on a New
York farm. His "reminiscences went
back to the San Francisco that had
started up around Portsmouth Square,
to the days when the banks Of the
American River had swarmed with
miners, and the gold lay yellow in the
prospector's pan. He had worked
there shoulder to shoulder with men
who afterwards made the history of
the state and men who died with their
D names unknown. He had been an eye
{ witness of that blacklist of Californian
q tragedies, the lynching Of a Spanish
!, girl at Downieville, had stood pallid
5 and sick under a pine tree and
s watched her boldly face her murder
: ers and meet her death.
: The younger men, warmed to emu.
r lation, contributed their stories. Per
ley had "reminiscences bequeathed to
\ him by his father who had been an
{ alcalde in that transition year, when
/ California was neither state nor terri
: tory and stood in unadministered neg
g lect, waiting for Congress to take
4 some notice of her. Buford told sto
D ries Of the vicissitudes of a strolling
n Players life. He had been in the
Y klondike during the first gold rush
n and told tales of mining in the North
f to match those Of mining on the
y mother lode" Willoughby, thawed
:. out Of his original shyness, added tC
! the nights entertainments stories Of
: the Australian bush, grim legends OF
@ the days Of the penal settlements al
a Botany Bay. Young Ryan was the
' only man Of the group who contribut
r ed nothing TO these SieTran Nights
Entertainments. He sat silent in his
8 chair, apparently listening, and, under
}. the shadow of the hand arched over
! his ewes, looking at the girl opposite
: But the idyl had TO end. Their cap
: tivity passed into its third week, and
: signs that release was at hand cheereC
/ them. They could go out. The street:
? Of Antelope were beaten into foot
! paths, and the prisoners, with the en-
r thusiasm of children liberated from
: school, rushed into open-air diversion!
< and athletic exercise. The first worC
+. from the outside world came by re
a stored Geographic communication
a Consolatory messages poured in from