From Sand Hill to Pine | Page 6

other.
The old woman cast an uneasy glance on the fair giggler, but replied to
Frenshaw:
"That's it! 'injerdishus acquaintances!' But just because we might
happen to have friends, or even be sorter related to folks in another line
o' business that ain't none o' ours, the kempany hain't no call to
persecute US for it! S'pose we do happen to know some one like"--
"Spit it out, aunty, now you've started in! I don't mind," said the fair
giggler, now apparently casting off all restraint in an outburst of
laughter.
"Well," said the old woman, with dogged desperation, "suppose, then,
that that young girl thar is the niece of Snapshot Harry, who stopped
the coach the last time"--
"And ain't ashamed of it, either!" interrupted the young girl, rising and
disclosing in the firelight an audacious but wonderfully pretty face;
"and supposing he IS my uncle, that ain't any cause for their bedevilin'
my poor old cousins Hiram and Sophy thar!" For all the indignation of
her words, her little white teeth flashed mischievously in the dancing
light, as if she rather enjoyed the embarrassment of her audience, not
excluding her own relatives. Evidently cousin Sophy thought so too.
"It's all very well for you to laugh, Flo, you limb!" she retorted
querulously, yet with an admiring glance at the girl, "for ye know thar
ain't a man dare touch ye even with a word; but it's mighty hard on me

and Hiram, all the same."
"Never you mind, Sophy dear," said the girl, placing her hand half
affectionately, half humorously on the old woman's shoulder; "mebbe I
won't always be a discredit and a bother to you. Jest you hold your
hosses, and wait until uncle Harry 'holds up' the next Pioneer
Coach,"--the dancing devil in her eyes glanced as if accidentally on the
young expressman,--"and he'll make a big enough pile to send me to
Europe, and you'll be quit o' me."
The embarrassment, suspiciousness, and uneasiness of the coach party
here found relief in a half hysteric explosion of laughter, in which even
the dogged Hiram and Sophy joined. It seemed as impossible to
withstand the girl's invincible audacity as her beauty. She was quick to
perceive her advantage, and, with a responsive laugh and a picturesque
gesture of invitation, said:--
"Now that's all settled, ye'd better waltz in and have your whiskey and
coffee afore the stage starts. Ye kin comfort yourselves that it ain't
stolen or pizoned, even if it is served up to ye by Snapshot Harry's
niece!" With another easy gesture she swung the demijohn over her
arm, and, offering a tin cup to each of the men, filled them in turn.
The ice thus broken, or perhaps thus perilously skated over, the
passengers were as profuse in their thanks and apologies as they had
been constrained and artificial before. Heckshill and Frenshaw vied
with each other for a glance from the audacious Flo. If their
compliments partook of an extravagance that was at times ironical, the
girl was evidently not deceived by it, but replied in kind. Only the
expressman who seemed to have fallen under the spell of her audacious
glances, was uneasy at the license of the others, yet himself dumb
towards her. The lady discreetly drew nearer to the fire, the old woman,
and her coffee; Hiram subsided into his apathetic attitude by the fire.
A shout from the road at last proclaimed the return of Yuba Bill and his
helpers. It had the singular effect of startling the party into a vague and
uneasy consciousness of indiscretion, as if it had been the voice of the
outer world of law and order, and their manner again became
constrained. The leave-taking was hurried and perfunctory; the
diplomatic Heckshill again lapsed into glittering generalities about "the
best of friends parting." Only the expressman lingered for a moment on
the doorstep in the light of the fire and the girl's dancing eyes.

"I hope," he stammered, with a very youthful blush, "to come the next
time--with--with--a better introduction."
"Uncle Harry's," she said, with a quick laugh and a mock curtsey, as
she turned away.
Once out of hearing, the party broke into hurried comment and
criticism of the scene they had just witnessed, and particularly of the
fair actress who had played so important a part, averring their emphatic
intention of wresting the facts from Yuba Bill at once, and
cross-examining him closely; but oddly enough, reaching the coach and
that redoubted individual, no one seemed to care to take the initiative,
and they all scrambled hurriedly to their seats without a word. How far
Yuba Bill's irritability and imperious haste contributed to this, or a fear
that he might in turn catechise them kept them silent, no one knew. The
cynically