| OCR Text |
Show put money into th;S well and if you gel drink out 01 here for man ot beast, vouM pav for it." I Sam would have knocked tlie mail ! d.iwn.but my liusbaml intciletred.'W'evei i mind, Sam. tie the horses behind the j wagon, and give them their o.its, I'll I go over and see him myself. It will I all 1 m In," and Sam giumhliugly obey- j To bt continued. but there is an egotism very P'fvdent, J 1 am Sony to say, kmung people piofej. I sing the nieakneM t, .Moses, that I cau't endure. Tis the proicuud ptI. i.onal eif..usm that wrp itself in i mock hum hty, ami seizes up JU eve, j in idvereut wold fur c!ie'icS c (rse ' still acts 111 eveiy t.jji igk ai.d ie$;u. : "1 am belter th.ui thyu and what pet. j fi-cily prtiper tot me 15 Urribly piesuni-tiotl piesuni-tiotl in you," oi "1 arll s,,ny fur yaui ignorance ig-norance winch I perceive Jots out re-coiiiv.se re-coiiiv.se my supetionty." 1 have met Sutra people, and tliry freeze the very springs of human imputes, and brunt to the surface all th;U is least desirable in humiuiiv. But surh con-cert con-cert as tis ni;m stiuued, coupled w 1 1 la - h.s fr.'.nk gooduesi, oi.ly made us sm le induluenlly, with a "l'dloW feeling" fj make us kind. Everylhini; w.is in readiness now, and Mr. Betkner jr nlitied up his lines, and without whip i.r oath, t jld tl'at mule to get down ai.d pull. The hUi'e creature s!o V Settled to the collar, and tindinj sure fo'iuis litre the horses Couldnoi, took a lun stc-ad,' pull until every muscle stood out like I a whip, and he s hihiosI fl it with the I mud. I At first we thought he would nut be ! able to pull it, even the owlet's l.i;;!i in I htm bejjan to weaken, but the mule never slackened ihe togs; and slowly j veiv slowl; lliewaj.ui moved, and alter one turn Babe walked nzht out with it. What shunt rent the an; and the mule. I think, knew she was the sul ject of the ovation. He bronchi the mule 'ack and took us over, one and two at tune, wading himself, and leading IrSabe backward and forward. He told us each a lonj story of li.ibe's wotideilul powers, and varied exploits. 1 have seen many a w.le, who miht have envied the mule the affectionate pride which the nnui took in her abilities and laithfulness. The parly of men doubled teams and come through all right, and fiihe's owner examined old Blond and pronounced pro-nounced his sickness a bad case ol "over work." We would not have been able lo go any further lh.it night but for the kindness kind-ness of Mr, lieckner, who concluded that he would hitch Babe in and take us as lar as the next stepping place. That was the tune aen we got even w it It Jones. Of course he balked. He did not emend to move a fool and sat down in the harness. He did not intend to sully his proud eiciitcleons hy pulling in harness '.villi a mile. - liut for all the good elT.tts to stand still did him he mihtis Well hav; been tied to a liainofcais H.ibe inarched straight alonj; with ffen sli des and paid no attention wMever to Jones. She evidently d j not know he was there. Alter being dialed a few rod to everybody's aisf.iion, Jones lushed lush-ed up in ihe colkr wilt the evident intention in-tention of milium' aav; but although Before the Advent of Railroads. BY MRS. F.LI.EN JAKKMAX. Written lor the Register. (CONTINUED,) Sam again approached the other ed;;e of the mud and looked over at us. "What is the nutter with old Blond?" I asked, "Oh, nothing! He's jest shamming." "Why, Sam!" said the mother-in law, "I never heard of such a thing as a horse shamming." . "Well, Mam, I can believe that, and may jest as well add, that ii'smy private, opinion that there are a lot more things you aint heard of yet." ' " Whereere we going to sleep to-night?'' piped in one of the little girls in an anxious way. ' That's one thing I don't know vet;" said Sam, "but ye shmt stay thar if 1 have to lloundei back through the mud and fetch ye." "That's a very nice arrangement.S.mi," 1 said, "for all the people on this side of that ugly slough, but me." Where's the man that can carry me over?'1 My husband, having satisfied himself about the horse, now came to talk over the situation. ' I guess I'll bring Jones over and let you i;de back one or two ata time" he announced v ith a confident air. "No thank you.l'd rather be excused," said the mother-in-law, and Miss Nellie bean to cry. Just at this pjin in our tribulation, theie came over a little swell of ground at the rear, a party of travelers. A man who was walking 111 advance of all the teams saw us fust and shouted he strained evmner. be did not succeed suc-ceed iu getting litlje change her long, even, dignified stideihe least little bit Nob.idy enjuytd ii'ie's superiority mole than her m.stet. We all laughed heartily, but Mr.liedtner's acid voice would i.Teak oiu hi.'fi note or a contin-ious contin-ious sound, solliaihis laugh was a succession i.f snjts. Well, we rtflctd the shelter shortly alter daik. Ii:e was a telegraph iliioe here, amine 6:tt haid work my husband d;J, is l' telegraph f it a team Irom huinjio start immediately to meet us, as l(ie was still twenty-six rnuts to traveK When siartifllne came r.ex; morning our Iriemls tin i their heads to the 1101th while it own road,, thai up to that time li!1' -it i" a gtueial way west-Jiy-smli I ntil al.nipfy south. WliciN.i'.u In I' y'iuly tostan, uiy 'huMwiIfl.t.i Cl.tici rrh.11 his biil was. . j "Noiliinj,"inaii in lie J way. "A'ell, ls:ian,t pay tt any thing but if" I choose! 1 nv.WeBloe a pieseut, w hu's to prevent ur and suit ng the action to the wotdk went over to the wairon and tiauledit two. two bushel sacks of oats, anil cued them over and laid them at the feuf the mule. We could all set at her owner was pleased, nut lor tlvprlce of the oats, I out. "Tnere's a wagon stuck in the mud!" Without pausing for reply or pailey he came striding towards us. He was ab ive the average height, and thin to gauntness, with the largest lightest, light-est, m ist prominent eyes I ever saw. His long thin legs were encased in heavy bouts, and be wore his hat on the back of his head, in order to give bis large Roman nose and prominent eyes a chance to be seen, 1 suppose, but it was not necessary. I rather resented the sonorous loud-voiced loud-voiced wav in which he announced our misfortune lo his c ompanions; but when he had woiked in our beha'f for an hour, in the same; 111 ilier-01-lact way, I saw it was just the peculiar angle of the man. There were several teams belonging to this party, ami they diove d wn near us and stopped. They als j had a small herd of cattle in tow and several head of hoises tied behind their wagons. His voice was rough and acid, and as he shouted over to the men, "You'ie stuck in the nv.id lsee!" it fairly seemed to rill space. "Thai's what we call it!" my husband shouted back. "iJo you want to get out?" Now wasn't that a bright question! "Well, if youdj, I'll hitch Babtonand have you out in two minutes." "I am very much obliged to you," said my husband, Irom across the Rubicon Rubi-con as W! called it,"but one of my horses is sick, and 1 wiil not be able to hitch him up again to-night." "Who's asked you anything; about your horses, I'd like to know? Say, Dick Sawyer, voti lazy pup, bring Babe here;" then addiessitig nie,"Babe'll show you how it's done, Babe's no slouch. Babe gsls there with both feet he does." I had divined that "Babe" must be a four footed quadruped, but was unprepared un-prepared for such huge proportions. As Uick Sawyer, so rudely spoken to by Adam Beckner, as we learned the man's name to be led ihe animal out 1 caught my breath in astonishmeut. A mule of s ch huge proportions that there came a suspicion into my mind that he was a cross between a horse and an elephant. "Come here, old eirl"said Mr. Beckner, "come here Babe, and see the lay-out. That wagon has got to come out ol there, and there aint a mule in the country can yuli it out bul you, Babe," and the lean Keutuckian patted the neck of the huge animal affectionately. "Dick Sawyer, you pup, biing me a spade." The boy flew to do his bidding with no shadow of resentment because of Ihe but lor the tribufether service. lie protested thithey didn't need them and that pefs "tte-TFomt,,"" buT my iiusband silenctim bv saying: "My friend, wew what kind of road we have twng over lor the last five or six uayst e don't know what sort of roadsahead ol us; it is a great weight oflnind and the wagon to iret rid of them. The children idly approached and patted llabe's slders, lor with all her immense strenshe was as gentle as a kitten, -; With many kind d-byi we parted and have never nifice. My husdandbytlime had received a reply to his lelegrthat a team would be on the road in Im hour. This was indeed irinj; news. My husbaitdtrieiiiir a learn of ; the propritturof Travelers' rest," and alih.ugh Iheiero hall a dozen fat te.inis standing the stalls, he would neither li MS one, nor say right out that hculdn't. He just hemmed.and hawed held off, like he wanted us to bid nfitil he could get about twice as niu he had cheek to ask. Of alltheemptable people in the world it ja ilk. We finally drove ofl while he elabontely explaining ex-plaining how maiundied dollars a year it cost him tiP his horses.and how very valuable services were. Hall a mile out, met a man in a cart. "How's the roatone of the men called. f Roads! There-" "one; and where they were iu-ou-re a blanket lor the next six rnilesd of you." That was njety reassuring but we pulledout f rod aud traveled trav-eled up.around bj foot hills, over rocks and biurlr, iai t very preferable prefer-able to the load. I At 11O111, wih' iiam bathed with sweat and com p (.given out.ieached a little waysidt rat where a childhood's child-hood's ftiemUHct! we had trveled just six niilti. , "I think I will bf" to ''ire a horse here, to takt old!,d place, said my husband, for porral was full of horses. We drove up ncf well and began taking ofl the team when a hired man can,,. nu toward us;"L)on't stop liiere, nt iunnt uo one camp-ing camp-ing no whereun itNer section, except ex-cept down tothai 'S bouse there" "He" (refeng tf owner of the place) "has tixerl ie ,or traveleis." T.ie place hid c.i'a4 some three hundred yaiis bar? ,he 'oad. the way we canufry,,, was situated in helaiie.whirj, wrlrirn up around the foot hills 10 at 't; would have been impossible fto ' have driven back to the loot jtad been willing loo, and ue were "Nonsens 'saj, husband, "here you take hiij t,js of paper" (writing (writ-ing his name anle' explanatory j sentences) "4n(j ,u I'd like to hire a team to uke us' nilcs.aller dinner." din-ner." But the ira,, s,jetween us and the well, riot olTeri K; and when Sam la d hi hand1' rol,e ' draw water, he ipatcn,ja way Irom him "saying; fiuyojt, lr. T has ' J-i -v-ff t. opprobrious name applied to him; and I descerned that the hobby of the man's life was his big intelligent pi ile. The shovel was brought and my husdand offered to use it, bui Beckner just waded out into the mud and made things fly. After shoveling all the stiff mud, sods, and the like from in-front of the wheels, he threw the necessary harness on to his mule, and was preparing to hitch her to the end of the tongue of the wagon. "He can't pull itouta!one!"exclaimed Sam. "Can't she! we'll show them what we can do, won't we Babe? Mr. What-ever your-name is, Babe can pull four tons 011 level ground, and I'm ready to bet marbles or money on it." "Well," said Sam gravely, leading ones to a most advantageous position "I want ones to see the performance, perhaps it will be a lesson to him." On our side of the mud hole, the moilier-iii-law leaned toward me and said: "Our dog Brag was a beauty, but got hung for talking too much!" The men that came with Mr, Beckner just stood around with their hands iu their pockets, and grinned. Tney were evidently acquainted w ith his peculiarities peculiari-ties and felt no call to interfere with him. "What do you think of such a braggart, brag-gart, any how?" the mother-in-law said in an aside tone tome, with a contempt-ous contempt-ous shrug of her shoulders. "Oh! 1 don't mind it, especially when the individual is doing so much to make ushappv," 1 answered. -' I don'tgettired easily ol hearing a woman praise her baby, or a man tell what fine stock he has raised, or what feats of strength or agility his son has performed, and I can listen ft. r some time to a man brag about how much his team can pull; for all such I have in them a spice of sweetest aflection, |
