Year: 1872

!
making the khick-knacks oD the bracket
over his head dance madly to the Vi
brations of his big, rough voice. But
there he was, and how he got In and
established himself on that sofa as
though he owned the entire little estab-
| lishment and was considering whether
he should carry it off, [ cannot for the
life of me say There he was and pro-
tested that he chad just as soon wait
for Hank as n It." It was monstrous
lie, of course; he never knew my pre-


cious Harry, whom ne dared to call


C Hank, and he had come here to rob
the house, to carry off all my best
dresses and Harry's silver goblet, given
] him by grateful patient who never
paid his bill Was he burglar; or an
escaped lunatic or wicked murderer,
going about to kill people and burn
down their houses, just to make a SEN
sation in the newspapers L could not
tell; but as gave up all hopes of coax
ing him out of the house, / wildly
thought of batting him with cake and
wine while [ stole up stairs, rolled up
my silk dresses, and escaped by the back
door, to intercept the children and





Decatur street. But there was my
husbands precious goblet, on which
my agonized gaze rested whenever [
turned away from the horrible fas-
cination of the gentleman from Reno


He was plainly cunning man, and
was playing with me as a cat plays
with mouse He talked long aud
loud of the wonders of Reno, of it's
growth, its glories. its brilliant future
and its preselt greatness. EWhy,
marm," said he, 'Efour months ago
there wasn't a stick nor stake to show
where even the railroad was going to
run; not plank was set up, nor lot
run out-but to-day there's big town
doing nigh on to five thousand dollars
worth of trade, and lots are going off
like hot cakes; you can't get round
for the teams there is in the streets
goods sell for eighty-fve per cent.
profit, and last week we had right
peart race, q ball at the Ell Dorado,
four rupaways, tolerable lively shoot
ing scrape, new paper started, and
four funerals To this catalogue Of
attractions L listened mechanically,
knowing full we'll that the dreadful man
was making up everything he said,
amusing me with the fabricatioDs and
playing on my ignorance. had heard
of such a place as Reno, but I had not
been able to keep track of the new
towns that spring up along the line Of
the Pacific railroad, and really could
not say if Reno was in California or
Utah. But here was a red-faced man,
sunburnt and with sticking plaster on
his lips, who sad he was a citizen of
Reno Where was Reno? Was there
any such place? Was he not a base
impostor, pretending to know my nus
band in order to gratiate himself into
my esteem before he set fire to the
house and carried off my Bismarck silk
dress and our best China? Oh, would
Norah never come ? And when would
Harry be at home?


No sister Ann, of Blue Beard story,
ever gazed more anxiously from top of
a tower for the coming of the aveng1ng
brothers, than [ watched for the return
of that Norah. She came at length,
and seemed an angel of light as she
toiled through the sand, dragging one
child by either hand, while third
clung fast to her skirts in the rear. At
last [ had compan1onship in my ter
rors but [ found NOrah of no assist
ance, for as soon as [ communicated to
her the dreadful intelligence, and she
had gained through the crack of the
door one peep at the monster sitting
on my ruby plush sofa, she
threw her apron over head, and,
rocking herself to and fro, ex-
claimed. q Wirrah, wirrah, now, what
will become Of the poor children 2" L
had great difficulty in keeping her still
and restraining her from departing by
the back door with her prayer book,
Sunday bonnet, best boots, and a five
hundred dollar United States bond,
which she had sewed up iii her mat
tress. She finally quieted somewhat
and agreed to get supper-though la
menting that she had not a dose of
poison to put in buisciut for the
gentleman from Reno. Norah
was more skeptical than [, even, III re-
gard to the town from which our I'M
welcome visitor professed to have
come. C 'Rayno Rayno !" she ex-
claimed Indignantly, "Does he think
to play the like of us for Josh 3
There's no such place as Rayno in all
Cai1forny, shure, unless it's some dirty
hole that's lived in by the haythin
Chinee"


When returned to the parlor 7 found
little Minnie perched upon the mon
ster's knee, telling [ don't know what
about the wealth of Jewels and silver her
mamma had; while the others, older
and wiser, stood off at discreet dis
tance, and eyed the mysterious stran-
ger suspiciously. He pressed his
patched lips on the peachy cheeks of
my darling child in way that made
me culver With honest Indignation [
knew he was only playing on my ma
ternal weakness, and when he hypo-
critically forced a little drop Of moist
ure into the corner of his eye, he prob
ably thought he had, as Norah phras-
ed it, "played me for Josh" But I
was not to be deceived, and sweeping
the children away from him, waited
and watched for my husbands return.


The gentleman from Reno was not to
be kept from the children, and actual
ly succeeded i'll seducing Harry to his
side by displaying an enormous
ly heavy gold watch, which L no
ticed he carried in his trousers pocket
with only a strap of buckskin attached
to 1t. Harry, he declared, E'favored
his father nightly; had just such a
pug nose as Ha k had, and his eyes
had the same queer kind of squint
tat Hanks did" Scared though l
was at the stranger, I could not help
denying that my husbands eyes had a
cast IN them, or that his nose was a
pug. But my visitor coolly told me
that he couldn't see it.


Presently, I discovered a small boy
toiling over the waste of sandsin front
of the house; the door bell rang, and
Norah brought me in note, the mes
senger departing in rapid somersauIts
by way OF diversion, before I could
stop him and send out for help to the
city. He had brought me evil tid1ngs;
my husband wrote in hurry to say
that he had been called across the bay
to attend an old patient, and would not
be at home until the next morning
This was dreadful news, indeed. Alone
/ +l