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Show the strange conduct o( the man in the roum above, uuiil me gray da-n stole iu at the windows; but imver once came ne ar the truth. To be continued. in trouble, and more than all, for going with the ear-punchers. I I cuntVss it was an unreasoning ansrer, , but just as strong for all of that. She j could not possibly have been of any as-' sistance, in fact she was in the way; and ! fiom the hour of her starting with us until this morning, I w ould have lu'led ' ith delight an oppoitumty to have sent j any one of our passengeis along wilhi another team, she, most of all; for her ; moessent gnef tor the daughier w ho j was ill, had mad so unusual a draft on! my stock of human kmdness, that the fountain was neatly diy. 1 had got so tar that I thought her grief and tears! weie dealer to her than the daughter j who lay ill, but now I was mad at her; forgoing. . j After re-arranging the wag an, I tiied ! to eat a lit tie bieaklast, and answeied : or parried the questions of the Mother-1 in-law , as best 1 could, while the t ine ! dragged by on leaden wings. : Teamsteis passed us going either way, louked us over compiehensivelv and compassionately, but said nothing. Thesuiing and trees d J not look half so enchanting in the e ld light of morning, morn-ing, the children grew 1 ,-;t!ess and fiet-till, fiet-till, and a breeze too cold to be pleasant sprang up and seemed to delight in an-' an-' lloV'illg us. I We wandered around, something I after the manner of chickens at dusk, whose roost has been pulled down during dur-ing the day. About tw o o'clock ,when we were beginning be-ginning to think the men were lost as well as the hoises, they rode into camp; having brought the horses fr.rn the stage station wheie we had met the "English Lord." Tliey had taken breakfast at the station, and after taking a hasty bite, and graining the horses, they hitched up, and we were once mote en route. "Where's the weeping woman?" asked Sam? J explained that she had recognized one of the men from the other camp, and had gone with them. "1 swun to goodness!" any woman as would go and leave a crowd when they wus in a fix, oughter have both her ears punched, and 1 hope they'll do it;" he said. The road was very bad. Alter traveling several miles we came to a small valley, Bituated but .1 few miles from a town. The road had once passed pass-ed through the center of this vale, but an enterprising man had fenced it in, dug around on the hill outside of his fence, enough to indicate where a road might be made at some future time, and then sat down in the door of his house to see his grain grow; but more especially especial-ly to see that nobody took down his fence and drove over the plainly visible road, As we neared the place a violent altercation was taking place between lEefore the Advent of; i Eailroads. j j BY MRS. KLLEN JAKKMAN. Written tt the KKt.is.tK. j ((.ONTlNlfcl),) I Sam looked about him, here, there, i and over his shoulder; with a face as expiessionless as a dough mask, aud lei hoed "What's the mittei?" , j j l ie seemed niteily unconscious of his 1 I appearance, or the cause thereof. j "vV'hy the blood on your clothes?" said one of the company, "Don't you know you're hurt?" j "Hurt!" he said, and walked across to : the other side of the tire, sat down on a j spring seat, folded his arms and gazed contemplatively and serenely into the hi e. "Hurt!" he said scornfully, "it's a pity a fellow can't have his eats pierced without with-out causing everybody to have a "ca-nip'.ion "ca-nip'.ion lit." "Your eais pierced!" we exclaimed in a breath, and such an uproar of laugh-Iter laugh-Iter as followed! "Why, man alive, you look more like you had had them cut off." said one man. "Chewed oil:" said another. "Who pierced them?" asked a thiid." "What were thev pierced with," said a fourth one, "a rack stake?" "More like the king bolt," said another; and through all this fusillade Sam sat seemingly utterly indifferent, alike lo the piercing itself or to the comments com-ments made on it. When we had talked ourselves out of breath, someone thought to ask him what he had had them pierced for. "For weak eyes," was the laconic reply. There was nothing irL the world the matter with his eves I near sighted-ness, sighted-ness, and I knew it. I went oyer to him aud took a look at his ear, fox only one had been pierced. "S:im," I said "what made you think piercing your ears would help your eyes?" " Them fellows over at the other fire said so." "Did vott believe them and give your consent to such nonsense?" "Yes'm." "tVell what on earth did they pierce them wiili?" I said, examining the wounded member as well as 1 could by the tlare of light made by the green cedar boughs thrown on to the embers, j ' A shoe punch, I believe," he anwer- etl calmly. "A shoe punch!" we all lepealed, a ud I'm sure no one will blame us for laughing, laugh-ing, although Sam did uot see any joke in t. "Sam," said one of the men, "if you get cold in that ear you'll have the. worst head on you of any man .in the United Stales. You'd better get this woman to do it up with some sticky gum as soon as possible. "All right," said Sam in a dogged in-; in-; different way, "I'm 'greeable." ' " I So I went and found a bandage, while ! some one else took a slick and-got a little stickv gum off an adjacent tiee. Wecouid hear the men ut the other camp fire l.ttigh ug uproariously. A little indignation swelled in my bosom against j them for what tliey had done. 1 could not understand how anyone who them-Belve them-Belve hnti eaismrttv-t-Builtji- 0im!(i ftr.Joy such wantonly cruel spoil, but I said nothing. ."1 took n wet rag and wiped the blood from th wound. The man who held the pine knot to give me light fur niv work, made several tmcomplimentaiy remarks about '.he fellows who did it. finally he became so indignant as the, wound was laid bate, and the sounds of mirth from the other camp fire came to us fitfully, that he said.. "Why don't you go and shoot the fellow who did it Sam? we'll every mother's son stand by yon; he deserves it the wretch!" Sam looked up slowly, and replied "The devil may slaughter his own pork for all of me;" and as I had finished dressing the ear, with this as a good , night, he started off to bed. j We all went to bed. We slept at! least I did, that deepsleep, that isso near akin to death. The sleep that is so daik an oblivian that no dream may break ils silence, uo muscular action stir the body, no throb of love or anguish thrill through it, the sleep that is death's own twin brother. And vet it is bred by the most favorable citctimstances that surround life a clear conscience, sound health, moderation and fresh pure air and water. We got up at daylight, and the men of our party, afier making a fire and bringing bring-ing water, went after the hoises; while we, the ladies of the parly, set about preparing breakfast. ; Most of our provisions were cooked, so the task of getting breakfast was comparatively com-paratively light. the owner of the ground anil the parly ol 'ear-puncheis,' w ho had got that far, and no farther. Two of the three wagons driven by them weie natrow-tracked, old fashioned Shuttler wagons, and their loads were high and bulky rather than heavy, and they were afraid to attempt the sloping rocky hillside, l'hey had taken down a pane) of fence, when the proprietor sallied out, a gun in his hand and a dog at his heels, and told them he would shoot the first man who attempted to diive ir; and assured them that the law would bear him out in it. I 1'he road brought us veiy near to the ! contestants, near enough to hear the , j law point advanced; and Sam teniarked I solo voce, "If them fellow s weie as smart I al law as they are at doct'.in sore tyes, I Ihey.'-J punch a holj in that argument;" and to Mrs-. Cloudy, who sat on a front seat, the Mother-in-law called out as we passed, "Good by, and good luck to you." We drove around the held, and all got out aud wall ed over the really dangerous danger-ous piece ol road. So sloping was it iu places, that while Sain sat in the wagon and drove at the risk of his neck, my husband rode on the brake-block 011 the upper-hill-side, to prevent the wagon Irom tipping over. That sort of things came to an end however as all things must, whether disagreeable disa-greeable or otherwise; and the shades of night found us in a town where we w ere all more or less acquainted. The Mother-in-law had a friend to stop with, and took Miss Nellie with hei; and we drove straight to the only hotel the place afl'oided, the keeper of which was" a distant relative. I did not like the wife of "mine host;" and under other circumstances would have peiferred doing almost any way rather than take up my abode under her roof, if only for a single night. However, I was so weary that I had no inclination to combat my husband's determination to go there, Mrs. Rapley, as we will call the hotel keeper, was a stingy woman. That seems a very small fault to dislike dis-like a person for, but when it is cultivated culti-vated lor long yeais.it crushes out all Che noble impulses of the heart, and fosteis every vice that may slain a human soul. 1 don't pretend to say she was so bad as that, but she would buy a small bed- niter u was reauy we arran;eu . me wagon for travel, putting away the bedding bed-ding and everything not needed about the breakfast, and then began waiting, and it is such hard work! J was tired in fifteen minutes, but had nothing to do but get rested again. Tue men who had been there when we arrived, came in with fheir horses, ate their breakfast, hitched up nnd rolled roll-ed out, telling us as they passed, that "Your 'bovs' are on the track of their horses and '11 soon be back;" which was not very comforting. The 'ear punchers' from the other fire were als ) ready for a start by this time, and as they drove past us they rather tucked their head) down and looked, I fancied, ashamed of their last night's corrduct. Just as they passed us, Mrs. Cloudy recognized one of them as an acquaintance acquain-tance from the very town where she desired to go, and where we were not going. She hailed him, and after a hurried talk, she came running over to our wagon, and scrambling into it, fairly made things flv. "You'r traveling so slow," she said as she threw her sack of clothes out, and made a dive among the bed clothes, "and he's willing to take me;" and she threw a quilt and a hair brush and a pair of shoes and a tin plate out after the sack; " and he's going right to Sadie's house and you ain't," and she seized her lunch basket and a pillow, and loading herself with the miscellany on the ground, trotted over to the wagon that was waiting, and shouted "Good bye; good luck," and was gone. "No apology necessary. Wouldn't have cared if you'd thought of it a week ago;" I said to myself, as I gazed into the wagon that looked like a vegetable vege-table garden does, when an energetic hen with one chicken has had a chance to scratch it over. The mother-in-law, the girl, whose name was Nellie, and the children had grown tired of waiting, and were eating their I reakfastand chattering pleasantly. pleasant-ly. Mrs. Cloudy ha i been a perfect wet b'a iset' all the way; but so contradictory is human nalure, that I was very angry with her for leaving us when we were stead, and make the under bed just a littie too small for it, the mattress would be one size smaller, the sheets would not quite cover the mattress, the blankets blank-ets would not quite reach the foot of ihe bed, aud the quilts were loo small to tuck in. All such things were homemade in those days, and this is a fair illustration of her career through life. Everything was small and pinched, aud clipped at the corners. Her husband was what is known as a sharp business man, buthe was also capable of a generous inpulse now and then. Mrs. Raply looked quite glum, until I found an opportunity to assure her in a casual way that we expected to pav for our occommodations, and then she was all smiles. I had observed a very fine looking man in the parlor as I came in, who did not come to supper when it was announced. an-nounced. , I asked my landlady if he were sick, he certainly looked pale and hollow eyed, but she said she did not know.as he had arrived only a few minutes before we put in an appearance. I "He ordered his horse put up and well fed; in fact he went out and saw to it 1 himself, as though he was afraid they ' would not do it properly." She turned up her nose with a little sniff of disdain, and continued; "There's something about the man I dont l.ke, anyhow, and I dout care whether he comes to supper or not." Iam glad to remember that her husband hus-band went and kindly urged him to come and eat, although lie as steadily and politely declined. Fate, in the person of Mrs. Rapley, gave us a room exactly under the one assigned to the meloncholy stranger. Contrary to my usual custom, I, had taken tea for supper, and this inclined me to wakefulness. Long after all other sounds were hushed, hush-ed, I could hear the man in the room above, walking about. There were other sounds, too, and although they are indescribable, through the common language lan-guage of humanity, 1 knew that the man was either sick, or suffering great mental distress. Unable to sleep, II y there conjecturing conject-uring a thousand things to account for |