Newspapers / The Caucasian (Clinton, N.C.) / Nov. 23, 1911, edition 1 / Page 6
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Tttn CAUCASIA 0 f, (CflvrrUtit. 1119. by Ut Nw Tone llsrl4 Compay.J (OoprrithU 1316, fey th UcUlUa Cons pur. SYNOPSIS. CHAETEIt J. Flam lUrnfsh. known rtt Ibrourti Alaska as "tiumtn? Iv lUt." crlebratea t.la 2th birthday with st lYtdry crowd of miner at the Circle CHj TtToU. Ha la a general favorite, a trTO mail a pioneer In the new gold flfd. Th dance lead to heavy frambiin in Wlhlofi over tlOO.GOQ U stake. HurnUu feasts bis money and hla m'rte but win faa mall contract of the district. CUXPTER II. Durnlnc Daylight start mt Its trier to deliver the mail with doss Udse, lie tells hla mends that th YtAttm gold strike will aoon be on and ne intend to b in it at tne Miu.ru VI th Indian attendant and dot? he Sp over the bank and down the frozen Yukon and In the amy lig-nt la gone. OIAPTKR III. Harnlsh makes a sen r a tin n 1 1 y rapid j-un across country with tke riwil. apyeafs at the Tlvoll and there 9 another characteristic celebration. He It4 made a record against cold and ex haustion and la now ready to join his trleada In a dash to the new gold fields. CHAPTER IV.-Harnlsh decides where t5i 0Okl T.ill be found In the up-river dls- Cct and buys two tons of flour, which declares will be worth Its weight In CSid before the season Is over. CHAPTER V. When Daylight arrives WUl Iris heavy outfit of flour he finds tttm big flat desolate. A comrade dls- sapvara goM and Harnlsh reaps a rich kArrost. He gos to Dawson, begins ln readag tn corner lots and staking other v&uema and becomes the moat prominent Kjpe in the Klondike. CBd'PrER VI. Harnlsh makes fortune after tartun?. One lucky Investment en- . . , ... ' , ioles bfcn to d.-feat a great combination Into Daylight s life came Dede Ma trf caigmiista in a va.-t mining-deal. ll Bon. Sne cam rather Imperceptibly. atrakip to return to civilization ajid ..... . . . , srfves a tnrewi-u 'lebratinn to his friends . He had accepted her Impersonally ttattB renembcred as a kind cf blaze of j along with the office furnishing, the CHAPTER VII. The pnpers nre full ef Th Kin; of the Klondike." and D-iy-Sgtot ls Caed by the money masrnatrs nf the country. They take him into a hi" fttVer deal and the Alaskan pioneer Undo hlms;lf amJd the bewildering com iSisatincs of high finance. eilAlTER vni.-Daviieht is buncoed ! y th moneyed mm and finds that he i Jba feewi led to Invest his eleven millions fcx a manipulated Hrheme. He jjoes to t xnet mm tltajoyal business partners at theor fe&ices in New York City. . CHAPTHR IX.-Confrontinsr his part ners with a revolver in characteristic frwmtler style, he threatens to lr!il them If Bis mowy la not returned. They are cpwed Into submission, return their uteal- cIhcq with his unimpaired fortune. CHAPTER X. Daylight meets his fate in Dede Maaon. a pretty stenographer xwrth a. crlpoled brother, whom she cares Cpr. Hrn1sh Is much attracted towards her and Interested In her family affairs. CHAPTER X. Back In San Francisco, Daylight j rate. He watched her leaving one aft rotckly added to his reputation. In j ernoon, and was aware for the first vtays It was not ai. enviable reputa- j time that she waa well-formed, and tlon. Men were afraid of him. He be- j tnat her manner of dress was satis eame. known as a fighter, a fiend, a fying. He knew none of the details of tiger. His play was a ripping and woman's dress, and he saw, none of azaafinfng one, and no one knew where the details of her neat shirt waist r. how his next blow would fall. The and well-cut tailor suit. He saw only eflement of surprise was large. He the, effect in a general, sketchy way. talked on tha unexpected, and, fresh ghe looked right. This was In the ab from the wild North, h'.3 mind not op- sence of anything wrong or out of the erailng In stereotyped channels, he -way. vraa able In unusual degree to devise j "She's a trim little good-looker," was tferw tricks and stratagems. And once his verdict, when the outer office door Le mm. the advantage, he pressed it closed on her. remorselessly. "As relentless as a j The next morning, dictating, he con fled. Indian," was said of him, and It eluded that he liked the way she did was said truly. her hair, though for the life of him Ha was a free lance, and had he could have given no description cf bo friendly business . associations. ' it. The impression was pleasing, that Boca alliances as were formed was all. She sat between him and from time to time were purely af- the window, and he noted that her fairs of expediency, and he regarded hair was light brown, with hints of 14a allies aa men who would give him golden bronze. A pale sun, shining in, the double-cross or ruin him If a touched the golden bronze Into smoul profitable chance presented. In spite dering fires that were very pleasing. t&.thla point of view. he was faithful He discovered that in the Intervals, to. bia allies. But he was faithful Just j when she had nothing to do, she read ata loag as they were and no longer, j books and magazines, or worked on Tha treason had to come from them, ! some sort of feminine fancy work. ad. then it was 'Ware Daylight Passing her desk, once, he picked up a The. business men and financiers of volume of Kipling's poems and glanoed that Pacific coast never forgot the lea-; bepuzzled through the pages. oa of Charles Kllnkner and the Call- "you like reading, Miss Mason?" he fornla &. Altamont Trust Company.; said, laying the book down. KUnknec was the president In part-j "Oh, yes," was the answer; "very nersnip wren uayugnt, tne pair raided the.. San Jose Interurban. The power ol Lake Power & Electric Lighting corporation came to the rescue, and rlOlnkner, seeing what ne thought was ifha . opportunity, went over to the en emy in. the thick of the pitched battle. 33ayilght lost three millions before he was- done with it and before he was 4fene with, it he saw the California & wAltamont Trust Company hopelessly 'Wrecked, and- Charles Kllnkner a sul Etae in a felon's cell. So, It waa that Daylight became a successful, financier. He did not go .in. for swindling the workers. Not (only did. he not have the heart for it 3mt .lt did not strika him as a sporting proposition. The workers were so easy; so stupid. It was more like .slaughtering fat hand-reared pheas nta onthe English preserves he had read about The sport, to him, was ln -waylaying, the successful robbers and . taking their spoils . from them. The. grfm Yukon life had failed to iznsfce Daylight hard. It required civ ilization . to produce this result. In the fierce, savage game he now play ed, his habitual geniality imper 'eprJbly slipped away from him, as did hla lazy Western drawL - He still had recrudescences of genial tty, but they were largely periodical ainXforced, and they were usually due txx the cocktails he took prior to meal time. In the North he had drunk deeply and at frreealar Intervals; but faow.tfs rtnfcfcasr became systematic HAW IKTf by Jack London Aunw Of The Call OrTtteVuC Illustoations By dmbomllmnL and disciplined. It wag aa unconacious development, bat It wag based upon physical tnd mental conditions. The cocktails rerved aa tn Inhibition. Without reasoning or thinking about it, the strain of the office, which was essentially doe to the daring and au dacity of his ventures, required check or cessation; and he found, through the weeks and months, that the cock tails supplied this Tery thing. Thty constituted a atone wall. He never drank during the morning, nor In of fice hours; but the Instant he left the office he proceeded to rear this wall of alcoholic Inhibition athwart hla consciousness. The office became Im mediately a closed affair. It ceaaed to exist. In the afternoon, after lunch. It lived again for one or two hours, when, leaving it, be rebuilt the wall of Inhibition. Of course, there were, ex ceptions to this; and, such waa the rig or of his discipline, that if he had a dinner or a conference before him Jn which, in a business way, he encoun tered enemies or allies and planned or prosecuted campaigns, he abstained from drinking. But the Instant the business was settled, his everlasting call went out for a Martini, and for a double-Martini at that, in a long glass lan . office boy, Morrison, the chief, confl- dentlal, and only clerk, and all the rest of the accessories of a super man's gambling place of business. Had ho been asked any time during the first months she' was in his employ, he wou!d have been unable to tell the color of her eyes. From the fact that she was a demi-blonde, there resid ed dimly in his subconsciousness a conception that she was a brunette. Likewise he had an idea that she was not thin, while there was an absence in his mind of any idea that she was fat. And how she dressed, he had no idea at all. He had no trained eye In such matters, nor was he interested. He took it for granted, in the lack of any impression to the contrary, that she was dressed somehow. He knew her as "Miss Mason," and that was all, though he was aware that as a stenographer she was quick and accu- much." Another time it was a book of Wells', "The Wheels of Chance." -"What's lt all aboutr Daylight asked. "Oh, it's Just a neveL a love-story. She stopped, but he still stood wait ing, and the felt it incumbent to go on. It's about a little Cockney draper's assistant who takes a vacation on his bicycle, and falls in with a young girl very much above him. Her moth er is a popular writer and all that And the situation la very curious, and sad, too, and tragic Would yon care to read ItT" "Does he get herr Daylight de manded. "No; that's the point of it He wasn't" "And he doesn't get her, and you've read all themages, hundreds of them, to find that out?" Daylight muttered in amazement . Miss Mason was nettled as well as amused. "But you read the mining and finan cial news by the hour," she re torted. "But I sure get something out of that It's business, and it's differ ent I get money out of it What do you get put of books r . "Points of view, new Ideas, life." . "Not' worth a cent cash." "But life's worth more than cash," she argued. " 1 "Oh. well." he said, with easy mas culine tolerance., "ga long aa youren- jey ft. Ttsr wfcat eossta. I tntpom: UitTa bo accu&ttgg for ttsaiej" Dtapiie h!a own tTspertcr pclzt c? view, he t4 m& t4m tLat m kaw a, lot, as4 xpricned ft Statist feti.'Rg Ilk rksii erf a barHtriaa tttm to face wttk A rrUraoe ct aot fcre cesdooa caltsare. To Dayllsht ctsV ture wis a woritlcis Lhlsg. and ytt, soashow, he waa vaguely uosMe4 by a sense that there waa cscre la culture than be Iffiiced. Again, on her desk, la pait:sg, he noticed a bock with which he waa fa miliar. This time he did cot atop, for he had recogslied the cover. It was a roagfcgic correspondent's book on the Klondike, and he knew that he cd his photograph figured Jc It. and he knev, a!o. of & certain sensational chapter concerned with a woman's The Cocktails Served aa an Inhibition. suicide, and with one "To Much Day light." After that he did not talk with ker again about books. He Imagined what erroneous conclusions she had drawn from that particular chapter, and It stung him the more In that they were undeserved. He pumped Morri soa, the clerk, who had first to vent few heads were broken, a score of ar hls persoaeJ grievance against Miss rests made, and the baggage was de Mason before he could tell What little ; livered. No one would have guessed he knew of her. "She comes from Siskiyou County. She's very nice to work with in the office, of course, but she's rather stuck j on herself exclusive, you know." "How do you make that out?" Day light queried. "Well, she thinks too much of herself to associate with those she works with, in the office here, for in- stance. She won't have anything to do with a fellow, you see. I've ask- ed her out repeatedly, to the theater 1 and the chutes and such things. But nothing doing. Says she likes plenty of sleep, and can't stay up late, and ; has to go all the way to Berkeley i that's where she lives. But that's all hot air. She's running with the Uni- versity boys that's what she's doing. '' She needs lots of sleeD and can't eo to the theater with me, but she can dance all hours with the'm,-.I've heard it pretty straight that she goes to all their hops and such things. Rather j stylish and high-toned for a stenog-l rapher, I'd say. And she keeps a ; hnrR tnn Rh rlrfM aatrMa nil nvor J , --- - ' 1 those hills out there. I saw her one, Sunday myself. Oh, she's a high flyer, and I wonder how she does it Sixty-five a month don't go far. Then she has a sick brother, too." "Live with her people?" Daylight asked. "No; hasn't got any. They were well to do, I've heard. They must have been, or that brother or hers couldn't have gone to the University of Cali fornia. Her father had a big cattle ranch, but he got to fooling with mines or something, and went broke before he died. Her mother died long before that Her brother must cost a lot of money. He was a husky once, played football, was great on hunting and be ing out in the mountains and such things. He got his accident break ing horses, and then rheumatism or something got into him. One leg is shorter than the other, and withered tin pnmp T-Ta ha a tn vllr nn oviitiVita T flaw riftf nnt with n!m nn s4ksTrtacL Ing the ferry. The doctors have been experimenting on him for years, and he's In the French Hospital now, I think." All of which side-lights on Miss Ma son went to Increase Daylight's Inter- j est in her. Yet much as he desired. y,n f . .n . . . "T. t ' He had thnM f luncheon, but his was the Innate chiv - airy of the frontiersman and the alrv of tha front! y thonehts never r.am tn unvthncr H knew a self-respecting, square-dealing man was not supposed to take his stenographer to luncheon. Such things did happen, he knew, for he heard the chaffing gossip of the club; but he did not think much of such men aard felt sorry for the girls. CHAPTER XI. Daylight was in the thick of hit spectacular and intensely bitter fight with the Coastwise Steam Navigation Company, and the Hawaiian, Nlca raguan, and Pacific-Mexican Steam ehlp Company. He stirred up a big ger muss than he had anticipated, and even he was astounded at the wide ramifications of the struggle and at the unexpected and Incongruous in terests that were drawn into It. Every newspaper in San Francisco turned upon him. It was true, one or two of them had first intimated that they were open to subsidization, but Day light's judgment was that the situa tion did not warrant such expenditure. Up to this time the press had : been amusingly tolerant and good-naturedly sensational about him, but now heras to learn what virulent Bcurrllousness a& rTjtfTt.'.r2 rraa was c;V cl. Every ep44e Ill w r rr to nr at forsds'Jc&j fr ssa Hciccs fatrk-atlooa. . Dty!U-t waa frackJy tatt4 at lie tew Ister?? xsMrta430rpto4 Ssto ta Alaskan ad Bsaa." The whele aSalr sack dn tte 2err df? cf rtaccr asd tartgt ca. The poor wotsaa who had killed herself wsj dragged cmt of her grmve a&d prade4 ca thosaasda d rwass cf rrr as a tsartyr sd ft tlctta tc Daylight's fcrodotis trntallyr. He waa like ft hfg bear raiding a bee-hive, and, regardless of the stlngm, he obstinately persisted la pftwiag fot the honey. He gnUed hla teeth and struck back. Begtscteg with ft raid os two ateacaahlp com pax let. It develop ed into a pitched battle with a city, state and continental coast line. Al lied with hla, cm a splendid salary, with princely pickings thrown In. was a lawyer, Larry Hegan, a yemng Irish man with a 'reputation to make, and whose peculiar genius had been un recognized until Daylight had picked up with him. It was Hegan who guided Daylight through the Intricacies of modern politics, labor organization, and commercial and corporation law. It was Hegan. prolific of resource and suggestion, who opened Daylight's eyes to undreamed-of possibilities In twentieth-century warfare; and It waa Daylight, rejecting, accepting, and elaborating, who planned the cam paigns and prosecuted them. With the Pacific coast, from Puget Sound to Panama, buzzing and humming, and with San Francisco furloualy about his ears, the two big steamship companies had all the appearance of winning. It looked as if Burning Daylight was be ing beaten slowly to his knees. And then he struck at the steamship com panies, at San Francisco, at the whole Pacific coast. It was not much of a blow at first A Christian Endeavor convention waa being held In San Francisco, a row was started by Express Drivers' Union No. 927 over the handling of a small heap of baggage at Ferry Building. A that behind this petty wrangle was the fine Irish hand of Hegan, made potent by the Klondike gold of Burn- ing Daylight. It was an insignificant affair at best or so it seemed. But the Teamsters' Union took up the quarrel, backed by the whole Water Front Federation. Step by step, the ' i.ti i e.. l bU1 uaiuo mvuiveu. a ieiu&i ui cooks an waiters to serve scab team- stecs or teamsters' employers brought out the cooks and waiters, The butchers and meat cutters refused to handle meat destined for unfair restaurants. The combined Employ- ers' Associations put up a solid front, and Iound facing them the 40,000 or- ganlzed laborers of San Francisco, The restaurant bakers and the bakery wagon drivers struck, followed by the milkers, milk drivers and chicken Pikers. The building trades asserted lts Position in unambiguous terms, and all San Francisco was In turmoil. KUl SUil n was om &an TanciBcu. Hegan's intrigues were masterly, and i-fc a i in m r t-"s 11ul cdiupaigu siwuiv uvi Pd. The powerful fighting Organ! r 1 1 i-1 i a. in j 1 "It Sure Beats Country Places and Bungalows at Menlo Park," He Com - munedAloud. ' . zation known as the Pacific Slope Sea : man's Union refused to work vessels i ?he .fa5ses oK Wf lch JeTe to - , ,v? ""V 71 l freight nanaiers. Tne union presentea Handled by scab longshoremen ana its ultimatum, and then called a atrike. This had been Dayugnra objective an the time. Every incoming coastwise vessel was boarded by the union offi cials and ita crew sent aahore. And with the seamen went the firemen, the en&ineers and tha se&. cook and waiters. Dally the number of idle steamers increased. It was Impossi ble to get scab crews, for the men of the Seamen's Union were fighters trained in the hard school of the sea, and when they went out it meant blood and death to scabs. This phase of the strike spread np and down tht entire Pacific coast, until all the porta were filled with idle ships, and sea transportation was at a standstill. The days and weeks dragged out and the strike held. The Coastwise . Steam Navigation Company and the Hawaii an, Nlcaraguan, and Pacific-Mexican Steamship Company were tied up com pletely. The expenses of combating Lthe strike were tremendous, and they were earning nothing, while daily the situation went from bad to worse, un til "peace at an price! became the cry. And still there was no peace, I un11 Daylight and his allies played out I tnelr nana- raKea wumicss. ana ' 1 - I -p ' s I WTm - ssW ftM T 1 Jg- I 'to ) zwzv t& rtrssB feasts j DajneU'ft csstsf ta cfTSUftUca M f ttfer c3f&. t4 imr&4 alltty i rEiaJ.iiT a.virs a-iw ..-" cvrUty. Evva ftU eft wr dtice&dlcg- PUytsgft tcae Lasd, eetstts03S e escort cf I2e SHra wttl wbra he f ttyrd Uekts ta tytsraihy; or csderstandlcg cf them a4 certala ly lsd?ts4st cf thea. he fst4 IH tie In cyrasrton with VLmm to be a- countrr. say it the AlUTsdSc la! relet cf ra ct. when Xm battle with the teacahlp ccTz?izt was at Its height and his raid was laSlctlng lacakula hie damage on H hcataeta latmets, he had bn asked to raatga frota the Alta-PaclSc The Idea had brea rath er ta hla liking, and ha had femsd new quarters la clubs like the R!vrttd. organised acd practically zaatatalned by the city boat. One wknd. feeling heavy and de p rested ted tired of the city tad Its wsys, be obeyed the Impulse of a whim that was later to play aa Impor tant part In his life. The desire to get out of th city for a whiff of coun try air and for a change of scene was the cause. Yet. Vt himself, he made the eicate of going to Olen Ellen for the purr of Inspecting a br!-:kyard which Hold wort by had sold him. He spent the night In the little country hotel, and on Sunday morning, astride a saddle horse rented from the G'en Ellen butch r. rode out of the village. The brickyard was close at hand onl the flat beside the Sonoma Creek. Revolving to have hla fun first, and to look over 'the brickyard afterward, he rode up the hill, prospecting for a way crops country to get to the knolls. He left the country road at the first gate he came to and cantrred thresh a hay field. The grain was walsthfgh on either side the wsjhl road, acd be sniffed the wrm aroinf of it with delighted nostrils. At the base of the knolls he encountered a tumble-down stake-and-rlder fencv. He tethered the horse and wan dered on foot among the knolls. Their tops were, crowned with century-o'.d spruce trees, and their sides clothed with oaks and madronos and native holly. But to the perfect redwoods be longed the small but deep canyon that threaded Its way among the knolls. Here he found no passage out for his horse, and leading the animal, he forced his way up the hillside. On the crest he came through an amazing thicket of velvet-trunked young ma dronos, and emerged on an open hill side that led down inta a tiny valley. m j s mi . . . . me sunsnine was at nrst dazzling in its brightness, and he paused and rested, fcr he was panting from the exertion. Not of old had he knawn ghortness of breath such as this, and roubles that so ea?l!y tired at a stiff climb. A tiny stream ran down the tiny valley through a tiny meadow that was carpeted knee-high with grass and blue and white nemophila. ; Crossing the stream. Daylight fol- lowed a faint cattle trail over a low. rocky hill and through a wine-wooded forest of manzanita, and emerged upon another tiny valley, down which j filtered another spring-fed, meadow- . ooraerea streamlet, j "it EUre beats country places and j uuugaiuws at ivzeuio rarn, tie com 1 r t v .. muned aloud; "and If ever I get the hankering for country life. It's me for this every time." An old wood-road led him to a clear ing, where - a dozen acres of grapes grew on wine-red soil. A cow-path, more trees and thickets, and he dropped dnwn n htllsiriA in thtk cnuthaact I w " -wv I posure. Here, poised above a big for : ested canyon, and looking out upon Sonoma Valley, was a small farm- : house. With its barn and outhouses it snuggled Into a nook In the hill- side, which protected It from the west 1 snil ,.Y. T. V I u this hillside, he judged, that had formed the little level stretch of vege table garden. The soil was fat and black, and there was water in plenty, for he saw several faucets running wide open. Forgotten was the brick yard. Nobody was at home, but Day light dismounted and ranged the vege table garden, eating strawberries and green peas, inspecting the old adobe barn and rusty plow and harrow, and rolling and smoking cigarettes while he watched the antics of several broods of young chicks and the xnoth- r hens. ' Nothing could satisfy his holiday spir- it now but the ascent of Sonoma Moun tain. And here on the crest three hours afterward, he emerged, tired and sweaty, garments torn and face and hands scratched, but with sparkling J , aa "awcniea zestiuiness or exprejsion. He felt the illicit Dleaa- eyes and an unwonted zestfulness of nre of a, schoolboy playing truant. The j big gaming table of San Francisco Beemea very iar away. But there waa more than illicit pleasure In his mood. It was as though he were going through a sort of cleansing bath. No room here for all the sordidaesa, meanness and vidonzness that filled the dirty pool of city existence. He waa loath to depart, and it waa not for an hour that he was able to tear himself away and take the descent of the1 mountain. Working out anew route just for the fun of It late after noon was upon him when he arrived back at the wooded knolls. "TJrylight cast about for a trail, and found one leading down the side opposite to his ascent : Circling the base of the knoll, he picked up with his horse and rode on to the farm house. Smoke was rising from the chimney, and he waa quickly in con versation with a nervous, slender young man, who, he learned, was only a tenant on the ranch. How large vas It? A matter of one hundred and eighty acres; though It seemed much larger. This was because It was so irregularly shaped. Yes, It Included the clay-pit and all the knolls, and Ita i i 7tm ft crer ft tsSe c "i 111 Sr V -v "JLl VMk ft V , B , ryv. A Sudden Envy ef This Yois rt Came Over OaHgH. a living without workiag u.1 They didn't have to pay tz-t HI Hard, the owner, depe&4! c u Income from the day-pit HUUrj j well off and had big ranch &4 nt yards down on the fiat of tt yvj The brickyard paid tn ctt & cUt yard for the clay. Aa fcr tfc rt tt tu ranch, the land waa good la ::cit, where It waa cleared, like lt tt. table garden and the t1bt trd. tt U rest of It was too much u.r.ddctrx fTou're not a farcier." Dj$ said. The young roan laughed sr; his bead. "No; I'm a telegraph Pirt!or U the wife and I decided to lake years' vacation, and . . . fcr:f are. But the time'a about up la going back into the ofSce ttu ?5 after I get the grapes off." As Daylight listened, there car ta him a sudden envy of this rente Ui low living right In the mid it cf sU thla which Daylight hid tr,e:d through the last few hours. "What In thunder are you t?itt back to the telegraph odce forT" I demanded. The young man smiled !th t cer tain wilfulness. "Because we can't get ahead fcer . . ." (he hesitated an Icstasti. "and because there are adJe4 ex penses coming. The rent, sr.all si U Is, counts; and besides, I'm col nt:r,g enough to effectually farm the p'sct. If I owned it, or if I were t ml husky like you, I'd && noihlctr better. Nor would the wife." Again the ful smile hovered on his face. "Yw see. we're couatry bora, and afif? bucking with cities for a t?v ycn. we kind of feel we like the coyt'ry best. We've planned to pt ahesa. though, and then some day e'Il buy a patch of land and stay llh it" Daylight could not perruade hla self to keep to the traveled roads that day, and another cut across coaa try to Glen Ellen brought hla epen a canyon that 80 blocked hts ay ttit he waa glad to follow a friendly cow path. This led him to a small fract cabin. The doora and windows vert open, and a cat waa nursing a Biter of kittens In the doorway, but no ost seemed at home. He descended tha trail that evidentiy crossed the can yon. Part way down, he met aa old man coming up through the tutiet In hla hand he carried a pail cf foat7 milk. He wore no hat Ic tJl face, framed with snow-white hair asi beard, was the ruddy glow and con tent of the passing summer !7 Daylight thought that he had nefer seen so contented looking a befrg "How old are you, daddy?" he esp ied. "Eighty-four," was the reply. "Ti. sirree. eighty-four, and ipryer thaa most" "You must a' taken good care of yourself," Daylight suggested. "I don't know about that I loafed none. I walked acroes th plains with an ox team and fit IcJs- In '51, and I was a family maa iia seven youngsters. I reckon I was a old then as you are now, or pretty nigh on to it" "Don't you find It lonely here. The old man shifted the pall of mH acd reflected. , "That all depends." he said oracul arly. "I ain't never been lonely ef cept when the old wife died. Soa fellers are lonely In a crowd, and one of them. That's the only I'm lonely, is when I go to 'Friica But I don't go no more, thank joa 'most to death. This is good enou fori me. I've been right here la yaHey since '54 one cf the first 1 tiers after the Spaniards." The old man chuckled, and Day light rode on, singularly at peace himself and all the world. It that the old contentment of trail a-a camp he had known on the J0 ' had come back to him. He could aoj ahake from his eyes the PlnreJ, the old pioneer coming up the through the sunset light He was c tainly going some for elghty-fcur. i thought of following his example e tered Daylight's mind, but the game of San Francisco vetoed Idea. ' (TO BE CONTINUED WANTED. Position by y3 married man, aged 22. as hardware clerk; three years' eK ence; can "furnish best of , goodreason for wishing o change; only those looking for class man answer this ad verUse Apply to Lock Drawer 132. Koaau la' pid. North Carolina. v
The Caucasian (Clinton, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Nov. 23, 1911, edition 1
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