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Show DAILYi SHORT STORY, wVWWAMWVWMAAAMMVwwVVwM , V ELIZA'S LUCK. . Twice a year the Columbia river rises above Its banks In the vaBey below the mouth of the Willamette and changes the property right of a tribe o ecow dweller who skirt Its shores.' -Thaa arbitrary transpositions by the resistless stream of the liver leads to many com- plications1, sometimes1 to bloodshed In ,one case to a solution of a problem that had vexed the tender hearts of two young; people. ' ' ' On Wild Man's Island, which Ilea below be-low Kalama and 1s tucked under the high shores of the Washington side, there lived in comparative state a rancher named Walker, with his dog a raj his son. He was a proud man, and his house, originally a scow, was surrounded sur-rounded by a fence painted yellow. He also possessed a chicken yard and raised potatoes in a patch of ground elevated slightly above the water mark. The dog drawled most of the time in the muddy foreyard and the eon fished on the welling river andi cut cordwood for the steamers. Six miles above a gayly painted houseboat had come ashore during an unutually high need, and the master of .it, a lonely Miseourlan, had slid skids under it, put out a gangplank and accepted, ac-cepted, the adjoining land as a perquisite per-quisite of discovery. His daughter tad grown up until she was an efficient aid to her father in handling his net. and the two of thm called the tiny strip of bar home. Thir one grievance was that the water wa not low enough to Justify a fence. They were simply squatters no more. It was the ' difference In the roclal standing of these two men Walker and Stowler, that , caused much anguish to the children. Hennery and Eliza. Hennery Hen-nery tried to blind himself to the "fact that his father was a proper" rancher, - while Eliza was simply the daughter ot a oeow dweller. But Eliza knew very ' well that old man Walker would never forget. And is sh was proud she as pumed disdain of Hennery's clumsy ef- fort to obliterate the dividing- line between be-tween respectability and. shiftlee poverty. pov-erty. In the spring of a new year, when the alder on the bank were thickening with foliage and the clouds on the hills were worn thin and rifted with summer. sum-mer. Hennery nnet Ellxa by the Elk Rock, am) told her many things that had little reference to anybody but themselves. Ellxa responded; slowly and with, tears. Womanlike, she was unable to see bow aha was to be made happier by Hennery's love unless the entire world acquiesced. But she kissed him passionately, and saw the towering peak of. the Cascade, range a In a dream. Driven beyond himself by Eliza's kiseesi Hennery went, lata in the spring, and told hi father that be was going to marry the scow dweller's daughter. Walker stroked hi scrawny beard, and railed the dog for an executive seaeion. When he had introduced his measure i bly. and said: "Yes. Come in. Walker, and hev some chuck." "I believe I will." answered Walker, humbly, "if Miss Kliaa will allow me." Half an hour later Hennery kissed Eliza In the presence of the elders, and Stowler said to Walker: "I reckon we kin make out to let you have a quarter of our place here." And Walker thankfully thank-fully accepted the offer. Max McNeill, in The Argonaut. una cameQ i vy n u one, ce turned his back on Hennery. Two days later the eklds washed Away from under the house of Stowler. and his six years' residence was changed. Elisa and ha ate their bacon unconcernedly and went to bed. to wake up with the sound of running water in their ears; After a few moments of Inspection In-spection Stowler summed up the situation situa-tion In one remark: "The eddy's gone; place's gone; we're going'." Stowlcr'p house was landed with a Jar en an unknown point of land. After an hour"e scraping about It settled firmly firm-ly on the'r.ew foundation, and father and daughter waited for the morning to take possession of their newly acquired territory. Two days luter Stowler had "veach-combed" "veach-combed" sufficient lumber to make everything secure, and in a fit of pride he went to far as to build a fence cutting cut-ting the point off from the tree-grown mainland. There was one trouble with the fence. It couldn't be painted. It was made of small branches and saplings bent basket-wise. But the general effect was pretty good, and Eliza and her father j rejoiced exceedingly her father because be-cause he was now a householder, Eliza became fhe was equal in station to her Hennery. Late that night. Jurt as Stowler was trying up at the landing place andell-ing andell-ing that he was hungry as a bear, a I huge shadow loomed, up in the mist and proceeded calmly to nose against the Stowler rcow. With beachcomber instinct, Stowler dived inside for pome rope, swung the bulky newcomer Into an eddy and fled it up good and fast by the aide of his own scow. "It'll be a good thing to use for a woodshed. Reckon we'll make a littla money by sellliV to the steamers' now." But Eliza did not hear. She was staring star-ing at the houseboat with wide-open j eyes, and her father's attention was quickly awakened to her attitude. "For the land sakes." he commenced, "what's got inter yer head Te look as though ye'd seen a ghaost." "It's Walker's!" she cried. The words had hardly left her Hps before a head waa thrust out of the window and Stowler shouted: "Hello, Walker, how did yer get here?" Walker surveyed the scene In silence. Then he withdrew his head for a moment, mo-ment, ayid called. "Hennery!" Hennery appeared at the door, and his face, when ha saw the situation, drove Elisa Into convulsions of unwilling unwill-ing laughter. Old man Walker got out, and poked around with a stick a while In speechless amazement. Stowler followed fol-lowed him without a word. Finally Walker stopped and climbed back on to his own, boat. "Pretty little place, Stswler." "Yes. All fenced In." ' "So-o-o-o." There was a longer silence, and the two enemies watched each other narrowly. nar-rowly. Suddenly Stowler looked around In anger, and yelled, "Eliza! Where are you? Ye ain't with that ornery lummox of a Walker? We ain't consortln and holdin' conversation with a scow dweller? dwell-er? I want to know!" As he. turned to rush Into the .house. Walker followed him at his shoulder. In front of the stove, now burning cheerily to the tune of a boiling kettle, stood Eliza, and a little to one side sat Hennery, toasting some bread. The two old. men gased in bewilderment for a moment, and then turned on each other dumbly. "Bring Mr. Walker in, dad." said Eliza, without turning around, "and we'll give them some supper." There was a long pause, during which Elisa kept ber eyes steadily on the stove. The sUsnce was broken by Stowler, who held out his hand hosplta- i |