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Show I A Belated Vacation By. JACK GRENVILLE H The city was hot and dusty. July had come in blazing, and it was H now nearly August. The Greys, next door, had Closed up their home Hj three weeks before and started for the mountains, and the Wilcox Hi family, great and small, had bundled themselves, bag and baggage, for the coast. H Mary Mahan sat in the front of her little cottage with a wistful look in her eyes as one by one the families on the avenue took their departure for the vacation. But this morning there was a touch of i rebellion in her thoughts as Mrs. Reidall called to her across the Hi narrow street that John had got his vacation and that they were to go up the river on a two-weeks' camping trip. Hj The reason for this touch of rebellion was that during the winter the two families had settled upon this very vacation, and no later than the first of June the women had everything planned for the outing, even to the making of strong gingham dresses for the girls to wear during the excursion. And now she was obliged to sit with H all the patience she could muster and know that she would have no H surcease from the kitchen, and she was so tired of it all. H "And to think," she said to herself, in a very petulant tone, "it H might have been all right if that dreadful assessment had not come H1 just as it did to take all the money we had saved up for the summer H outing." Of course, they might have gone anyhow, as Frank would have his two weeks, but Jack Vane, who worked in the same office, was taken sick, and the manager had offered Frank double pay to stop on, as he felt he could not spare them both from the books at the same time. "You can go, little girl," Frank said to her when the assessment and the offer of. double pay came along at the same time. "You can go with the Reidalls and enjoy yourself, even though I am not with you. Besides, little Mildred is looking fagged after the close of school l and it will do her a heap of good, and John, too." But Mrs. Mahan would have none of it. A vacation would not H be a vacation if she had to be conscious all the time that Frank was shut up in the hot office, with no one to prepare his meals or take H care of him. No, she would go without her vacation forever before H she would take it on terms like that. But, oh! how she hated the H' name of the Gold King Consolidated Mining and Milling company. H and the one pleasure of the contemplated trip up the river was that H Frank would have no chance, or at least there would be a lack of m. opportunity, to locate any more mining claims. Hi It all happened five years before. Johnnie was a baby then, and Hi Frank had taken her to the mountains for the hot summer months. H I spending part of the time with her and part in the city. H J On one of their excursions over the hills the men had picked up H n rich piece of float, and at once started searching for the ledge from H which it had been broken. At last they discovered a contact vein H I high up on the mountain and located a group of claims. H Thev were all poor men and unable to work their mine further H than to do the assessment work required by law. There was always H just enough promise in the rock to keep them at it. but not enough H to justify shipping. If they could only reach a cross fissure with their H tunnel, which cut the ledge almost at right angles and dipped into the Hi I mountain, they were sure a great body of ore would be uncovered. By depriving themselves of all pleasure the partners had succeeded Hffl in reaching the spot where the fissure should have been, and found 1 the vein had faulted. HE An expert went over the ground and said that there had been a H slip, but by sinking from the tunnel level and drifting at intervals he H Jj felt sure they would pick up the vein again. All good lodes were H more or less faulty, he told them, and then went on to -speak of the H i fineness of the prospect -looking at it from the surface, 'and a dozen H more opinions of the same character. H I Suffice it to say they did as he directed and only succeeded in Hli opening up a small body of ore. which made in a blind fissure, but u which, though rich in itself, was too ephemeral in character to raise Hp the prospect to the dignity of a mine. Hli At last the owners of the Go1d King Consolidated came to a point HI I h.re they couId no further. All but Frank Mahan were thorough- Hl i disu,sted wth the whole thing and sold out, congratulating them- I selves that they were able to get out a little where they had put in I so much. Hi Tt WIs the new owners who had insisted upon incorporation. Then Hi came assessments at intervals, which had to be met or lose the stock. , Lne last one came just in time to prove a bar to the long-planned H excursion up the river. fa 1 As Mary turned into the door she found little Johnnie lying on the floor asleep. He had been fretful all the day before, but she attributed at-tributed it to the heat. As she bent over him to take him in her arms and carry him to a couch where he would be more comfortable, she noticed he was very hot and feverish. By noon the fever had increased, and when Frank came home to lunch she requested him to call on the doctor on his way up town. The doctor called during the course of the afternoon and declared de-clared it to be scarlet fever, quarantining her and the child in one portion of the house. Frank was allowed to remain at home, but was . forbidden to enter the room where the mother and the little sufferer were shut up. A servant girl was installed outside to look after the ! house and little Mildred, who had not contracted the disease. . i So this was to be her vacation 1 She was not even allowed to leave the house and the extra expense would more than make up for the double pay Frank was to receive. She did not complain, however. She loved her children too dearly dear-ly for that. She soon forgtft there ever was such a thing as a vacation, vaca-tion, as clay by day she sat by the little bed, taking care of its occupant occu-pant and doing the thousand and one things that only a mother can do for those she loves. Left alone Frank began to doubt if he had done just right in holding on to his interest in the mine after his old associates gave up. He held, however, an abiding faith in the ground. Besides, his was one of those hopeful natures which kept on when others lost faith. He half wished he had sold before that last assessment. In- -stead of doing this, however, he attended the sale of delinquent stock and bid in a big block, guaranteeing for it half of his wages and putting up his own stock as security for the remainder. This, however, he had not told Mary, and he felt more guilty than ever now that she was shut up in the house for weeks with no prospects of getting out of the city for another year. Thus the time went on. July passed and August was nearly over. It had been a bitter fight for little Johnnie's life, but the tender, loving care of his mother won. The quarantine was raised, and just when the leaves were turning yellow Mary once more came out into the world. "I do not seem to have had any summer," she told Frank, as she saw the box elders were turning crimson, "and now it is nearly winter." "Would you like a real strange summer vacation?" he asked her, as she was sitting on the steps looking off down the valley. "No," she said, a little petulantly, "there would be another assessment assess-ment to spoil it if I did. Besides, there is a year to wait before summer sum-mer will come again." "There is a land, they tell us more than one of them, too where it is always summer. We could go there." "Frank Mahan, have you gone crazy?" she said, looking up. 'How, pray, could we go? You would have to sell that stock." "I have sold it; at least, a part of it," he answered, with a curious smile lighting up his features. "Sold it?" she asked, surprise and incredulity in her voice. Yes, little woman," he replied. "A thousand shares out of the sixty thousand." 'And you talk of Mexico or Honolulu on that money?" , Yes, girl. The ledge has been found and the fault overcome. I sold a thousand shares this morning at $10 a share. We ought to afford a vacation on that." For answer she threw her arms around his neck. In two weeks a happy, bright-eyed little woman, with her bus- s band and two children, was on the ocean bound for Honolulu. Johnny Chapman announces that as a result of his recent trip to Denver he will next spring build a bicycle track in that city, and will be in charge of the racing game in Colorado's capital next sum-i?CIW sum-i?CIW .fPr?" aild Dlck Dreyfuss have signed a five-year lease with the White City Amusement company for a piece of ground at the resort, upon which they will build the track. This means that Saltair will have a new manager for its track next season. M T" It is now definitely settled that the Reach Ail-American Baseball club will play a series of at least nhi ?amcs in Tokio, Japan, between November 1 and December 3. ,d teams will represent Japan. As the Japs arc great imitators and have been practicing faithfully, it is probable that they will be able to give the Americans a run for their money. |