Can Such Things Be?

es are Fell

er used to ride through it without looking first to the one side and then to the other, to see if the time had arrived for the revelation. If I saw nothing — and I never did see anything — there was no feeling of disappointment, for I knew the disclo

e enterprise and constructed his present hermaphrodite habitation, half residence and half groggery, at the roadside, upo

was apparently about forty years of age, a long, shock-headed fellow, with a corded face, a gnarled arm and a knotty hand like a bu

herdsmen had permitted a travel-heated Asian to slake his thirst at the horse-trough in front of the saloon end of Jo.‘s establishment. I ventured faintly to remonstrate with Jo. for his unchristian spi

pproached the subject, when, greatly to my relief, the habitual austerity of

play. People who don’t know a Chileno from a Kanaka can afford to hang out liberal ideas about Chinese immigrat

id of a Chinese tobacco-box and with thumb and forefinger forked out a wad like a small haycoc

nd they’re going for everything green in

ch and when his gabble-gear was again di

are for my duty as a patriotic American citizen; so I took that pagan in, as a kind of cook. But when I got religion over at the Hill and they talked of running me for the Legislature it was given to me to see the light. But what was I to do?

who has solved a problem by a distrusted method. Presently he rose and swallo

m nay, but he muled it through on that line while he lasted; but after turning the other cheek seventy and s

not impress me, was duly and osten

e. I set Ah Wee and a little cuss named Gopher to cutting the timber. Of course I didn’t expect Ah Wee to help much, for

ot-hole in the thin board partition separating the bar from the living-room, as if that

stems, like a worm o’ the dust gnawing a radish. I pointed out his error as patiently as I knew how, and showed him how to cut them on two sides, so as to make them fall right; but no sooner would I turn my back on him, like this”— and he turned it on me, amplifying the illustration by taking some more liquor —“than h

ravest apprehension in any unarmed person incurring it; and as I had lost all interest in his pointless and interminable narrative, I ros

same direction, I saw that the knot-hole in the wall had indeed become a human eye — a full, black eye, that glared into my own with an entire lack of expression more awful than the most devilish glitter. I think I must have covered my face with my hands to shut out the horrible illusion, if such it was, and Jo.‘

ought a great deal, and to little purpose. The only reflection that seemed at all satisfactory, w

t of the parched fields to the cool gloom, heavy with pungency of cedars and vocal with twittering of the birds that had been driven to its leafy asylum, was exquisitely refreshing. I looked for

ble conclusions and a great noise of chariots and general intellectual shouting. Then, when my big mental guns had overturned all opposition, and were growling almost inaudibly away on the horizon of pure speculation, the routed enemy straggled in upon their rear, massed silently int

bowlders, which had detached themselves from the sides of the depression to set up an independent existence at the bottom, had dammed up the pathway, here and there, but their stony repose had noth

mall trees did I have the revelation. This was the site of the abandoned “shack.” The discovery was verified by noting that some of the rotting stumps were hacked all roun

e was a little knoll — a natural hillock, bare of shrubbery but covered with

st have had when he saw the hills and headlands of the new world. Before approaching it I leisurely completed my survey of the surroundings. I wa

my eyes, I dare say, widened a trifle at a clump of unmistakable garden flowers showing evidence of recent watering. The

E— CH

. Worked fo

memory green. Likewise as a warning to Celestials no

ema; the ludicrous change of sex and sentiment — all marked this record as the work of one who must have been at least as much demented as bereaved. I felt that any further disclosur

Sane Oxen Should

ere, old Fu

o effect on us, and the queer little man removed his eyes from mine long enough to spear Fuddy and Duddy alternately with a long pole, remarking, quietly but with feeling: “Dern your skin,” as if they enjoyed that integument in common. Observing that my request for a ride took no attention, and finding myself falling slowly astern, I placed one foot upon the inner circumference of a hind wheel and was slowly elevated to the level of the hub, whence I boarded the concern, sans ceremonie, and scrambling forward seated myself beside the driver — who took no notice

ce, and something about the man that did not invite a shallow jest. And so, having no other answer ready, I merely held my t

I felt like one to whom a friend has made some sorrowing confession of crime long past, and who has basely deserted him in consequence. The old memories of Jo. Dunfer, his fragmentary revelation, and the unsatisfying explanator

p the gulch. Like to see it? They always come ba

he ravine had folded up all his eight legs and lain down in the dusty road, regardless of the effect upon his derned skin. The queer

with weeds. When we came out into the “clearing,” however, there was change enough. Among the stumps and trunks of the fallen saplings, those that had been hacked “China fashion” were no longer distinguishable from those that were cut “‘Melican way.” It was as if the Old–World barbarism and the New–World civilization had reconciled their differences by the arbitration of an impartial decay — as is the way of civilizations. The knoll was there, but the Hunnish brambles had overrun and all but obliterated its

FER. DO

ain pathos. My guide, too, appeared to take on an added seriousness as he read it, and I fancied that I could detect beneath his whimsical manner something of manliness, almost of dignity. But w

to the smaller grave, “did Jo.

into the top of another, or into the blue sky beyond. He neither

justifiably h

eally did

nd a verdict of ‘Came to ‘is death by a wholesome Christian sentiment workin’ in the Caucasian breast’? An’ didn’t the church at the Hill turn W’isk

naman did not, or would n’ot, learn

neral and I wasn’t invited to deliver an oration. But the fact is, W’isky was jealous o’ ME”— and the little wretch actually swelled out like a tur

repeated with ill-ma

d. Why not? — don’

wrinkles out of his threadbare waistcoat. Then, suddenly droppi

my axe and let us have it, good an’ hard! I dodged just then, for the spider bit me, but Ah Wee got it bad in the side an’ tumbled about like anything. W’isky was just weigh-in’ me out one w’en ‘e saw the spider fastened on my finger; then ‘e knew he’d made a jack ass of ‘imself. He threw away the axe a

strange scene it was with difficulty that I kept my composure. And this consummate actor had somehow so managed me that the sympathy due to his dramatis pers

air was towsled and his face — what I could see of it — was whiter than the ace of lilies. ‘E stared once at me, and looked away as if I didn’t count; an’

old your tongue af

he replied, and not anothe

dispelled Ah Wee. He didn’t put on so much dog about it w’en we were alone as w’en he had the ear of a derned Spectacular Extravaganza like you. ‘E pu

sked rather absently. T

gh that knot-hole, w’en you had put some

audacious accuser, but was restrained by a sudden conviction that came to me in the light of a rev

on ‘er at draw poker! — me who had watched over ‘er for years w’en the scoundrel she belonged to was ashamed to acknowledge ‘er and treat ‘er white! — me who for her sake kept ‘is cussed secret till it ate ’im up

opher, my poor fe

y I’m afra

od there at the roadside in the deepening gloom, watching the blank outlines of the receding wagon, a sound was

e, you derned