The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1922-03-24
CHAPTER VII.
Honorable Scars.

tl0faOt dOtG O@dIS-
If I had been what had invited
Jeanne TwOmbIy to imagine me: mere
y an ordinary drifting tourist set
afOOt in the wilds by circumstances
over which I had no control, my cue
to be on my way the following morning
couldn't have been delayed much be
yond the appetizing breakfast to which
] sat down a little after seven o'clock.
But once I had reached the end of
the rainbow, and had no intention of
moving on before | could have my
chance to dig for the pot of gold which
Is said to be the reward of successful
rainbow chasers, was casting about
for an excuse to prolong my stay when
TwOmbly, in accordance with the bit
Of talk which had overheard in the
loft chamber, took the matter out of
my hands.
when we was talkin' about auter-
mobiles and such, las night. you let
on to me that you knOwed something
about machinery" was the way he be
gan. eff you amt in a tearin' hurry
10 be gOin' somewheres, maybe l could
get you TO hang round for a spell and
show me how to take a steam engine
to pieces so t I could clean it up and
keep it from goin' to rack and ruin"
with all the pleasure imaginable"
I fastened to say, before he could have
time to change his mind.
While the cerulean-eyed maiden was
carrying the dishes out of the kitchen,
the old man donned overalls and a
jumper, and few minutes later / was
introduced to the mine-my mine, if
you please-or rather to so much of it
as was open to any visitor other than
a submarine diver.
My heart went hot in sympathy for
good old Grandfather Jasper The
scOundrels who had done him up had
not been content with merely selling
him the gold brick; they had let him
spend thousands more for the pump
lng machinery. after they, themselves,
were well assured that he was merely
throwing money away.
asked Daddy what he wished to
do with the machinery. He said he
was afraid it might be rusting inside
standing unused so long and he want
ed to take it apart; especially the
steam engine. So 1 told him how to
begin, and he fell to work; but in just
a few minutes his awkwardness with
abe tools gave me a fit of the willies
See here" / said; IF you've got
another pair of oyeralls and a jumper
n
Sure pop, I have" he admitted !;
and that was how 1 discovered my first
real job of honest-t o-goodness work.
SIN Of -
sembling, and scraping rust, and pol
fishing and Oiling, and incidentally find
ing the machinery in a great deal bet
ter condition than it had any right to
be after standing idle for so long a
time. Of course, l bunged my soft
hands all up, and got as dirty as a
pig and all that; but that first fore
noon is written down in my life as one
of the most enjoyable I've ever known.
And when Daddy Hiram called the
noon halt, and we went across TO the
cabin TO wash up for dinner, / was
hungry. 1 think that forenoon meas
ured about the only useful half-day's
work I'd ever done; and the afternoon
made it a full day. Say, peOple-it
was great For the first time in an
idle, happy-go-lucky life / had a job
with concrete object in view, and
keen ambition to see it through. l was
1hirstily eager TO get that machinery
in shape and TO start those old he
pumps, and this in spite of Daddy Hi
rams repeated assurances that it
wouldn't do no good a-tall."
During a Woodworking interval of
two weeks a number of things had
happened One was a visit from the
esperadoish-looking Anglican who
had impressed me with the fact that
he belonged to the Ancient and Honor
able Order of the Silver Star. I'll have
to tell about that visit, because it
proved what a tremendously lucky
thing it was for me that I had fallen
among friends.
It was this way. On the second day
of my stay in the bosom of the Twom-
bly, family I noticed that battered
surveying instruments transit which
was probably leftover from the time
when the Cinnabar was a working
proposition, with an engineer to figure