Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1918-08-09

Poor old Spud!" he said. "He set
great store by this house, and more
comfortable one you couldn't find la
days travel. Why, 1t was TINT warm
last winter when everybody was frecz-
ing-for 1t gets mighty cold up here
roundabout New Years, even If It Is
the desert
He used to sit In that big chair
yonder and smoke his pipe and say,
This house-and that hole In the
ground back there-thats all I've
got, and that's all want; and when
I'm gone, pard, they're yourn, for I've
got no kith or kin, other
And when he died | had the pa
pers filed regular-but, pshaw! 1t
wouldn't pay to do any assessment
work. Spud worked at It long before
l came, and nobody ever saw anything
he got out of 1t. can't afford to hire
the required work done, and I'd have
to lay off to do 1t myself-and l guess
I'll be laid Off soon enough without
that"
And then" breathed Genevieve.
"Then-well have to GO somewhere
else"
Dad held on to his Job just another
fortnight, and then the Kangaroo
shut down altogether. Father and
daughter consoled each other the best
they could, and set about packing their
belongings together.
1t was no new experience to the
man. Well he recalled several pre-
vious occasions when he and the girls
mother-before Genevieve was old
enough to remember, yes, and before
she was born-turned the key in the
door behind them. leaving all their
possessions, excepting what they
could carry. and setting out for pms
lures new. Then, after the mother
died, he made these exoduses alone,
for the girl was always away Mt
school.
He didn't mind so much for him
self, but Genevleve couldn't be kept
at school forever even If he could af-
ford 1t. Poor girl, she had worked
so hard to make the bottle house a
home for both of them.
u
the Scrub-Bucket, but there were
twenty men for every job. He had
waited too long. There was moth
Ing newer than Scrub Bucket-Hlll SO
he decided to go back to TOnopah,
where some Of the old mines were be-
ginning to pick up, and take a chance
ut getting work there.
the flve-mile walk over to Beatty,
where they were to stay all night and
catch the train for Tonopah In the
morning.
The key had been turned in the
door, and Genevieve waited on the
porch.
How evenly the bottles were laid,
ends out, sometimes one, sometimes
the Observation-Disclosures the chlnks
filled In with mud.
Spud seemed to have been partial
to brown bottles.
She was the red-eyed, red-nosed
Genevleve when Johnny came along
on the wagon.
"Movin', kld?" he said.
She nodded and turned her face to
the bottles. and burst out crying
afresh.
"Ah. nowl" said Johnny.
"Geel" he said on the veranda, IL
wonder what the old geezer put In
those Notwithstanding his eye to
one Of them and trying to look
through It into the deserted house.
Nothing" SMILED Genevleve.
You're another" ungallantly re-
torted Johnny. "There's something In
this one. 1t looks like sand. You can
see II when you look kinda sideways
at IT,"
$50 there Is In this" gulped Gene
We've, wlping her eyes to peer through
the one she was crying against.
But, Of course, she argued there had
to be sand in them, Just like they put
sand In the tin cans they built Mother
Twins house out Of.
But Johnny couldn't see It that way.
Tin cans needed something to hold
them out.
lie took his pOcket-knlfe and tried
to dig around the bottle so as to
loosen 1t and see for himself But
the stuff 1t was caked In was as hard
as the bottle itself.
The walls of GenevIeve's bottle
house we're as solid as the walls Of
Jericho.
Still, even they fell. And Johnny,
putting the useless knife In his pocket.
picked up rock and smashed in the
bottom of the bottle
His cries brought the girls father
from around the house-and he helped
the boy sort out the particles Of gold
from the broken glass.
$50 poor old Spud," he sighed, nod
ding his head at handful OF the
shining things" knew what he was
talking about, after all. Here he was
digging this stuff out Of that hole back
there and storing II In these bottles.
7 oruooo tya'II camn right hara0