The $30,000 Bequest, and Other Stories

and there, always expecting to make a rich strike, and never doing it. It was a lovely region, woodsy, balmy, delicious, and had once been populo

were deserted homes, forsaken years ago by defeated and disappointed families who could neither sell them nor give them away. Now and then, half an hour apart, one came across solitary log cabins of the earliest mining days, built by the first gold-miners, the predecessors of the cottage-builders. In some few cases these cabins were still occupied; and when this was so, you could depend upon it that the occupant was the very pioneer who had built the cabin; and you could depend on another thing, too-that he was there because he had

caught sight of a human creature, I felt a most grateful uplift. This person was a man about forty-five years old, and he was standing at the gate of one of those cozy little rose-clad cottages of the sort already referred to. However, this one hadn't a deserted loo

nd refresh that something in one's nature which, after long fasting, recognizes, when confronted by the belongings of art, howsoever cheap and modest they may be, that it has unconsciously been famishing and now has found nourishment. I could not have believed that a rag carpet could feast me so, and so content me; or that there could be such solace to the soul in wall-paper and framed lithographs, and bright-colored tidies and lamp-mats, an

epping back several times to gauge the effect before he got it to suit him. Then he gave it a light finishing pat or two with his hand, and said: "She always does that. You can't tell just what it lacks, but it does lack something until you've done that-you can see it yourself after it's done, but that is all you know; you can't find out the law

ng-table, with mirror and pin-cushion and dainty toilet things; and in the corner a wash-stand, with real china-ware bowl and pitcher, and with soap in a china dish, and on a rack mo

othing here that hasn't felt the touch of her hand

know, that there was something there somewhere that the man wanted me to discover for myself. I knew it perfectly, and I knew he was trying to help me by furtive indications with his eye, so I tried hard to get on the right track, being eager to gratify him. I failed se

und it. I knew you wo

noticed-a daguerreotype-case. It contained the sweetest girlish face, and the most beautiful, as it s

e picture back; "and that was the day we were marri

e? When will

people. They live forty or fifty miles fr

ou expect

back Saturday, in the evenin

p sense of di

I'll be gone then,"

you go? Don't go. She

lessed me more. I was feeling a deep, strong longing to see her-a longing so supplicating, so insistent, that

elights in it; for she knows-oh, she knows nearly everything herself, and can talk, oh, like a bird-and the books sh

and strugglings. He left me, but I didn't know. Presently he was back, w

face you could have stayed

ngs, but mainly about her; and certainly I had had no such pleasant and restful time for many a day. The Thursday followed and slipped comfortably away. Toward t

out the little madam, and when is s

r. Would you like

nk I would, if you

e went on and read the bulk of it-a loving, sedate, and altogether charming and gracious piece of handiwork, with a po

hed, he glanced at

d let me see your eyes. You always do that when I

any little disappointment makes me want to cry. I thought

r head? I thought everybody knew

with me lately? Certainly I knew it. Ain't we all getting ready for her

o away, and said the boys wanted to have a little gaiety and a good time Saturday

an! Joe, you know she'd sit up si

in it for him broke the old fellow all up; but he said he was such an old wreck that tha

g out my watch pretty often. Henry not

she ought to be h

he didn't seem quite satisfied; and from that time on he began to show uneasiness. Four times he walked me up the road to a point

till about nine o'clock, and yet something seems to be trying to warn me

ivel him up and cow him; and he looked so wounded and so humble after that, that I detested myself for having done the cruel and unnecessary thing. And so I was glad when Charley, another veteran, arrived toward the edge of the e

say? Said she was well, didn't it? And said she'd be here by nine o'clock, didn't it? Did you ever know her to fail of her word? Why, you know you never did.

nstruments they might as well tune up, for the boys and girls would soon be arriving now, and hungry for a good, old-fashioned break-down. A fiddle, a banjo, and

rected up the road, his body swaying to the torture of his mental distress. He had

by! One more drin

d the party. I reached for one of the two rema

t! Take t

his drink when the clock began to strike. He listened till

th fear. Help me-I

owse, but presently spoke like one talking in his slee

e to say the party got delayed, but they're right up the road a piece, a

ankful nothing

d had tucked him into his bed in the chamber where I had washed my hands. They closed the door and came back. Th

t each other.

, she's been dea

ea

ied, and on her way back, on a Saturday evening, the Indians captured he

his mind in

ith flowers, and get everything ready for a dance. We've done it every year for nineteen years. The first Saturday there was twenty-seven of us, without counting the girls; there's only three of us now, and the girls are gone. We drug him to sleep, or h