From Sand Hill to Pine | Page 5

as if to bring his speech to the level of his hearers and give a
lazier and more deliberate effect to his long-drawn utterance.
"Well--no!" he said slowly. "I--didn't--go--with--no--Bill--to--
help--clear--the road! I--don't--reckon--TO go--with--no--Bill--
to--clear--ANY road! I've just whittled this thing down to a pint, and
it's this--I ain't no stage kempany's nigger! So far as turnin' out and
warnin' 'em agin goin' to smash over a fallen tree, and slap down into
the canyon with a passel of innercent passengers, I'm that much a white
man, but I ain't no NIGGER to work clearing things away for 'em, nor I
ain't no scrub to work beside 'em." He slowly straightened himself up
again, and, with his former apathetic air, looking down upon one of the
women who was setting a coffee-pot on the coals, added, "But I reckon
my old woman here kin give you some coffee and whiskey--of you
keer for it."
Unfortunately the young expressman was more loyal to Bill than
diplomatic. "If Bill's a little rough," he said, with a heightened color,
"perhaps he has some excuse for it. You forget it's only six months ago
that this coach was 'held up' not a hundred yards from this spot."
The woman with the coffee-pot here faced about, stood up, and, either
from design or some odd coincidence, fell into the same dogged
attitude that her husband had previously taken, except that she rested

her hands on her hips. She was prematurely aged, like many of her
class, and her black, snake-like locks, twisting loose from her comb as
she lifted her head, showed threads of white against the firelight. Then
with slow and implacable deliberation she said:
"We 'forget'! Well! not much, sonny! We ain't forgot it, and we ain't
goin' to forget it, neither! We ain't bin likely to forget it for any time the
last six months. What with visitations from the county constables,
snoopin's round from 'Frisco detectives, droppin's-in from newspaper
men, and yawpin's and starin's from tramps and strangers on the
road--we haven't had a chance to disremember MUCH! And when at
last Hiram tackled the head stage agent at Marysville, and allowed that
this yer pesterin' and persecutin' had got ter stop--what did that yer head
agent tell him? Told him to 'shet his head,' and be thankful that his
'thievin' old shanty wasn't burnt down around his ears!' Forget that six
months ago the coach was held up near here? Not much, sonny--not
much!"
The situation was embarrassing to the guests, as ordinary politeness
called for some expression of sympathy with their gloomy hostess, and
yet a selfish instinct of humanity warned them that there must be some
foundation for this general distrust of the public. The journalist was
troubled in his conscience; the expressman took refuge in an official
reticence; the lady coughed slightly, and drew nearer to the fire with a
vague but safe compliment to its brightness and comfort. It devolved
upon Mr. Heckshill, who felt the responsibility of his late airy
introduction of the party, to boldly keep up his role, with an equally
non-committal, light-hearted philosophy.
"Well, ma'am," he said, addressing his hostess, "it's a queer world, and
no man's got sabe enough to say what's the rights and wrongs o'
anything. Some folks believe one thing and act upon it, and other folks
think differently and act upon THAT! The only thing ye kin safely say
is that THINGS IS EZ THEY BE! My rule here and at the mill is jest to
take things ez I find 'em!"
It occurred to the journalist that Mr. Heckshill had the reputation, in his
earlier career, of "taking" such things as unoccupied lands and timber
"as he found them," without much reference to their actual owners.
Apparently he was acting upon the same principle now, as he reached
for the demijohn of whiskey with the ingenuous pleasantry, "Did

somebody say whiskey, or did I dream it?"
But this did not satisfy Frenshaw. "I suppose," he said, ignoring
Heckshill's diplomatic philosophy, "that you may have been the victim
of some misunderstanding or some unfortunate coincidence. Perhaps
the company may have confounded you with your neighbors, who are
believed to be friendly to the gang; or you may have made some
injudicious acquaintances. Perhaps"--
He was stopped by a suppressed but not unmusical giggle, which
appeared to come from the woman in the corner who had not yet
spoken, and whose face and figure in the shadow he had previously
overlooked. But he could now see that her outline was slim and
graceful, and the contour of her head charming,--facts that had
evidently not escaped the observation of the expressman and Mr.
Heckshill, and that might have accounted for the cautious reticence of
the one and the comfortable moralizing of the