The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-05-01
PART III.
fraT HETHER Mr.. Oakhurst had
IM cached his cards with thu
IVI whisky as something debar-
o red the free access of the com
PART II.

III cached his cards with thu
HI whisky as something debar-
60 red the free access of the COM
munity I cannot say. 1t was GER
tain that. in Mother Symptoms words.
he didn't say cards once" during that
evening. Eaply the time was beguiled
by an accordion produced somewhat
ostenta tiously by Tom Simson from
his pack. Notwithstanding some diff
culties attending the manipulation Of
this instrument. Piney Woods man.
aged to pluck several reluctant melo-
dies from its keys. to the accompani-
ment of the Innocent on Il pair of bone
castanets. But the browning festivity
of the evening was reached in rude
camp meeting hymn. which the lovers.
joining hands. sang with great earnest
ness and vociferation. | fear that Il
certain defiant tone and Covenanter's
swing to its chorus, rather than any
devotional quality. caused it speedily
to infect the others, who at last Joined
in the refrain:
I'm proud to live in the service OF the
Lord.
And I'm bound to die in his army.
The pines rocked. the storm eddied
and whirled above the miserable group
and the flames of their altar leaped
heavenward. as If III token of the vow.
At midnight the storm abated, the
rolling clouds parted and the stars
glittered keenly above the sleeping
camp. Mr.. OakhurSt. whose profess
sional habits had enabled him to live
ON the smallest possible amount of
sleep. in dividing the watch with Tom
SimSOn. somehow managed to take
upon himself the greater part of that
duty. He excused himself to the In
nocent by saying that he had 'often
been week without sleep" Doing
what?' asked Tom. Poker replied
Oakhurst sententiously. When a man
gets streak of luck-nigger luck-he
don't get tired. The luck gives in first.
Luck" continued the gambler refec-
lively. lis mighty queer thing. All
you know about it for certain is that
it's bound to change. And it's finding
out when it's going to change that
makes yOd. We've had streak Of
bad luck since we left Poker Flat-you
come along and. slap. you get into it
too If you can hold your cards right
along you're all right. For added
the gambler, with cheerful irrelevance.
I'm proud to live in the service of tbs
Lord.
And I'm bound to die in his army
The third day came. and the sun.
looking through the white curtained
valley. saw the outcasts divide their
slowly decreasing store of provisions
for the morning meal. 1t was one OF
the peculiarities of that mountain eli
mate that its rays diffused Il kindly
=,
if in regretful commiseration of the
past. But it revealed drift on drift
of snow piled high around the hut-a
hopeless, uncharted, trackless sea of
white lying below the rocky shores
to which the casta ways still chung.
Through the marvelously clear air the
smoke of the pastoral village of Poker
Flat rose miles away. Mother Shipton
saw it and from a remote pinnacle of
her rocky fastness hurled in that direc-
ton final malediction. 1t was her
last vituperative attempt. and perhaps
for that reason was invested with a
certain degree of sublimity. 1t did her
good. she privately informed the
Duchess. lust you go out there and
cuss and see" She then set herself to
the task of amusing the child as
she and the Duchess were pleased to
call Piney. Piney was no chicken, but
it was soothing and original theory
of the pair thus to account for the fact
that she didn't swear and wasn't i'm
proper.
When night crept up again through
the gorges the reedy notes of the ac-
Gordon rose and fell in fitful spasms
and long drawn gasps by the pickering
campfire. But music failed to fill en-
tirely the aching void left by INSULT
Gent food. and new diversion was
proposed by Piney-story telling. Mel
Their Mr.. Oakhurst nor his female COM
panions caring to relate their personal
experiences. this plan would have fail
ed. too. but for the Innocent. Some
months before he had CHANGED upon d
stray copy Of Mr.. Pope's ingenious
translation of the .'Iliad." He now
proposed to narrate the principal Incl
dents Of that poem-having thoroughly
mastered the argument and fairly for
gotten the words-in the current YER
nacuIar of Sandy Bar. And so for the
rest of that night the Homeric demi-
gods again walked the earth. Trojan
bully and willy Greek wrestled in the
winds. and the great pines in the can
yon seemed to bow to the wrath of the
son Of Peleus. Mr.. Oakhurst listened
with quiet satisfaction. Most especial
~ was he interested in the fate of
ash heels" as the Innocent persisted
in denominating the swift footed
Achilles
So with small food and much Of Ho-
mer and the accordion week passed
over the heads Of the outcasts. The
sun again forsook them. and again