The incident of the bear did not add anything in Miggless favor to the opinions of those of her own sex who were present. In fact, the repast over, a chillness radiated from the two lady passengers that no pine boughs brought in by Yuba Bill and cast as a sacrifice upon the hearth could wholly overcome. Miggles felt it; and suddenly declaring that it was time to turn in, offered to show the ladies to their bed in an adjoining room. You, boys, will have to camp out here by the fire as well as you can, she added, for thar aint but the one room.
Our sexby which, my dear sir, I allude of course to the stronger portion of humanityhas been generally relieved from the imputation of curiosity or a fondness for gossip. Yet I am constrained to say, that hardly had the door closed on Miggles than we crowded together, whispering, snickering, smiling, and exchanging suspicions, surmises, and a thousand speculations in regard to our pretty hostess and her singular companion. I fear that we even hustled that imbecile paralytic, who sat like a voiceless Memnon in our midst, gazing with the serene indifference of the Past in his passionless eyes upon our wordy counsels. In the midst of an exciting discussion the door opened again and Miggles reentered.
But not, apparently, the same Miggles who a few hours before had flashed upon us. Her eyes were downcast, and as she hesitated for a moment on the threshold, with a blanket on her arm, she seemed to have left behind her the frank fearlessness which had charmed us a moment before. Coming into the room, she drew a low stool beside the paralytics chair, sat down, drew the blanket over her shoulders, and saying, If its all the same to you, boys, as were rather crowded, Ill stop here to-night, took the invalids withered hand in her own, and turned her eyes upon the dying fire. An instinctive feeling that this was only premonitory to more confidential relations, and perhaps some shame at our previous curiosity, kept us silent. The rain still heat upon the roof, wandering gusts of wind stirred the embers into momentary brightness, until, in a lull of the elements, Miggles suddenly lifted up her head, and, throwing her hair over her shoulder, turned her face upon the group and asked,
Is there any of you that knows me?
There was no reply.
Think again! I lived at Marysville in 53. Everybody knew me there, and everybody had the right to know me. I kept the Polka Saloon until I came to live with Jim. Thats six years ago. Perhaps Ive changed some.
The absence of recognition may have disconcerted her. She turned her head to the fire again, and it was some seconds before she again spoke, and then more rapidly
Well, you see I thought some of you must have known me. Theres no great harm done anyway. What I was going to say was this: Jim hereshe took his hand in both of hers as she spokeused to know me, if you didnt, and spent a heap of money upon me. I reckon he spent all he had. And one dayits six years ago this winterJim came into my back room, sat down on my sofy, like as you see him in that chair, and never moved again without help. He was struck all of a heap, and never seemed to know what ailed him. The doctors came and said as how it was caused all along of his way of life,for Jim was mighty free and wild-like,and that he would never get better, and couldnt last long anyway. They advised me to send him to Frisco to the hospital, for he was no good to any one and would be a baby all his life. Perhaps it was something in Jims eye, perhaps it was that I never had a baby, but I said No. I was rich then, for I was popular with everybody,gentlemen like yourself, sir, came to see me,and I sold out my business and bought this yer place, because it was sort of out of the way of travel, you see, and I brought my baby here.
With a womans intuitive tact and poetry, she had, as she spoke, slowly shifted her position so as to bring the mute figure of the ruined man between her and her audience, hiding in the shadow behind it, as if she offered it as a tacit apology for her actions. Silent and expressionless, it yet spoke for her; helpless, crushed, and smitten with the Divine thunderbolt, it still stretched an invisible arm around her.
Hidden in the darkness, but still holding his hand, she went on:
It was a long time before I could get the hang of things about yer, for I was used to company and excitement. I couldnt get any woman to help me, and a man I dursnt trust; but what with the Indians hereabout, whod do odd jobs for me, and having everything sent from the North Fork, Jim and I managed to worry through. The Doctor would run up from Sacramento once in a while. Hed ask to see Miggless baby as he called Jim, and when hed go away, hed say, Miggles, youre a trump,God bless you, and it didnt seem so lonely after that. But the last time he was here he said, as he opened the door to go, Do you know, Miggles, your baby will grow up to be a man yet and an honor to his mother; but not here, Miggles, not here! And I thought he went away sad,andandand here Miggless voice and head were somehow both lost completely in the shadow.
The folks about here are very kind, said Miggles, after a pause, coming a little into the light again. The men from the Fork used to hang around here, until they found they wasnt wanted, and the women are kind, and dont call. I was pretty lonely until I picked up Joaquin in the woods yonder one day, when he wasnt so high, and taught him to beg for his dinner; and then thars Pollythats the magpieshe knows no end of tricks, and makes it quite sociable of evenings with her talk, and so I dont feel like as I was the only living being about the ranch. And Jim here, said Miggles, with her old laugh again, and coming out quite into the firelight,JimWhy, boys, you would admire to see how much he knows for a man like him. Sometimes I bring him flowers, and he looks at em just as natural as if he knew em; and times, when were sitting alone, I read him those things on the wall. Why, Lord! said Miggles, with her frank laugh, Ive read him that whole side of the house this winter. There never was such a man for reading as Jim.
Why, asked the Judge, do you not marry this man to whom you have devoted your youthful life?
Well, you see, said Miggles, it would be playing it rather low down on Jim to take advantage of his being so helpless. And then, too, if we were man and wife, now, wed both know that I was bound to do what I do now of my own accord.
But you are young yet and attractive
Its getting late, said Miggles gravely, and youd better all turn in. Good-night, boys; and throwing the blanket over her head, Miggles laid herself down beside Jims chair, her head pillowed on the low stool that held his feet, and spoke no more. The fire slowly faded from the hearth; we each sought our blankets in silence; and presently there was no sound in the long room but the pattering of the rain upon the roof and the heavy breathing of the sleepers.
It was nearly morning when I awoke from a troubled dream. The storm had passed, the stars were shining, and through the shutterless window the full moon, lifting itself over the solemn pines without, looked into the room. It touched the lonely figure in the chair with an infinite compassion, and seemed to baptize with a shining flood the lowly head of the woman whose hair, as in the sweet old story, bathed the feet of him she loved. It even lent a kindly poetry to the rugged outline of Yuba Bill, half reclining on his elbow between them and his passengers, with savagely patient eyes keeping watch and ward. And then I fell asleep and only woke at broad day, with Yuba Bill standing over me, and All aboard ringing in my ears.
Coffee was waiting for us on the table, but Miggles was gone. We wandered about the house and lingered long after the horses were harnessed, but she did not return. It was evident that she wished to avoid a formal leave-taking, and had so left us to depart as we had come. After we had helped the ladies into the coach, we returned to the house and solemnly shook hands with the paralytic Jim, as solemnly setting him back into position after each handshake. Then we looked for the last time around the long low room, at the stool where Miggles had sat, and slowly took our seats in the waiting coach. The whip cracked, and we were off!
But as we reached the highroad, Bills dexterous hand laid the six horses back on their haunches, and the stage stopped with a jerk. For there, on a little eminence beside the road, stood Miggles, her hair flying, her eyes sparkling, her white handkerchief waving, and her white teeth flashing a last good-by. We waved our hats in return. And then Yuba Bill, as if fearful of further fascination, madly lashed his horses forward, and we sank back in our seats.
We exchanged not a word until we reached the North Fork and the stage drew up at the Independence House. Then, the Judge leading, we walked into the bar-room and took our places gravely at the bar.
Are your glasses charged, gentlemen? said the Judge, solemnly taking off his white hat.
They were.
Well, then, heres to MigglesGOD BLESS HER!
Perhaps He had. Who knows?
TENNESSEES PARTNER
I do not think that we ever knew his real name. Our ignorance of it certainly never gave us any social inconvenience, for at Sandy Bar in 1854 most men were christened anew. Sometimes these appellatives were derived from some distinctiveness of dress, as in the case of Dungaree Jack; or from some peculiarity of habit, as shown in Saleratus Bill, so called from an undue proportion of that chemical in his daily bread; or from some unlucky slip, as exhibited in The Iron Pirate, a mild, inoffensive man, who earned that baleful title by his unfortunate mispronunciation of the term iron pyrites. Perhaps this may have been the beginning of a rude heraldry; but I am constrained to think that it was because a mans real name in that day rested solely upon his own unsupported statement. Call yourself Clifford, do you? said Boston, addressing a timid newcomer with infinite scorn; hell is full of such Cliffords! He then introduced the unfortunate man, whose name happened to be really Clifford, as Jaybird Charley,an unhallowed inspiration of the moment that clung to him ever after.
But to return to Tennessees Partner, whom we never knew by any other than this relative title. That he had ever existed as a separate and distinct individuality we only learned later. It seems that in 1853 he left Poker Flat to go to San Francisco, ostensibly to procure a wife. He never got any farther than Stockton. At that place he was attracted by a young person who waited upon the table at the hotel where he took his meals. One morning he said something to her which caused her to smile not unkindly, to somewhat coquettishly break a plate of toast over his upturned, serious, simple face, and to retreat to the kitchen. He followed her, and emerged a few moments later, covered with more toast and victory. That day week they were married by a justice of the peace, and returned to Poker Flat. I am aware that something more might be made of this episode, but I prefer to tell it as it was current at Sandy Bar,in the gulches and bar-rooms,where all sentiment was modified by a strong sense of humor.
Of their married felicity but little is known, perhaps for the reason that Tennessee, then living with his partner, one day took occasion to say something to the bride on his own account, at which, it is said, she smiled not unkindly and chastely retreated,this time as far as Marysville, where Tennessee followed her, and where they went to housekeeping without the aid of a justice of the peace. Tennessees Partner took the loss of his wife simply and seriously, as was his fashion. But to everybodys surprise, when Tennessee one day returned from Marysville, without his partners wife,she having smiled and retreated with somebody else,Tennessees Partner was the first man to shake his hand and greet him with affection. The boys who had gathered in the canon to see the shooting were naturally indignant. Their indignation might have found vent in sarcasm but for a certain look in Tennessees Partners eye that indicated a lack of humorous appreciation. In fact, he was a grave man, with a steady application to practical detail which was unpleasant in a difficulty.
Meanwhile a popular feeling against Tennessee had grown up on the Bar. He was known to be a gambler; he was suspected to be a thief. In these suspicions Tennessees Partner was equally compromised; his continued intimacy with Tennessee after the affair above quoted could only be accounted for on the hypothesis of a copartnership of crime. At last Tennessees guilt became flagrant. One day he overtook a stranger on his way to Red Dog. The stranger afterward related that Tennessee beguiled the time with interesting anecdote and reminiscence, but illogically concluded the interview in the following words: And now, young man, Ill trouble you for your knife, your pistols, and your money. You see your weppings might get you into trouble at Red Dog, and your moneys a temptation to the evilly disposed. I think you said your address was San Francisco. I shall endeavor to call. It may be stated here that Tennessee had a fine flow of humor, which no business preoccupation could wholly subdue.
This exploit was his last. Red Dog and Sandy Bar made common cause against the highwayman. Tennessee was hunted in very much the same fashion as his prototype, the grizzly. As the toils closed around him, he made a desperate dash through the Bar, emptying his revolver at the crowd before the Arcade Saloon, and so on up Grizzly Canon; but at its farther extremity he was stopped by a small man on a gray horse. The men looked at each other a moment in silence. Both were fearless, both self-possessed and independent, and both types of a civilization that in the seventeenth century would have been called heroic, but in the nineteenth simply reckless.
What have you got there?I call, said Tennessee quietly.
Two bowers and an ace, said the stranger as quietly, showing two revolvers and a bowie-knife.
That takes me, returned Tennessee; and, with this gamblers epigram, he threw away his useless pistol and rode back with his captor.
It was a warm night. The cool breeze which usually sprang up with the going down of the sun behind the chaparral-crested mountain was that evening withheld from Sandy Bar. The little canon was stifling with heated resinous odors, and the decaying driftwood on the Bar sent forth faint sickening exhalations. The feverishness of day and its fierce passions still filled the camp. Lights moved restlessly along the bank of the river, striking no answering reflection from its tawny current. Against the blackness of the pines the windows of the old loft above the express-office stood out staringly bright; and through their curtainless panes the loungers below could see the forms of those who were even then deciding the fate of Tennessee. And above all this, etched on the dark firmament, rose the Sierra, remote and passionless, crowned with remoter passionless stars.
The trial of Tennessee was conducted as fairly as was consistent with a judge and jury who felt themselves to some extent obliged to justify, in their verdict, the previous irregularities of arrest and indictment. The law of Sandy Bar was implacable, but not vengeful. The excitement and personal feeling of the chase were over; with Tennessee safe in their hands, they were ready to listen patiently to any defense, which they were already satisfied was insufficient. There being no doubt in their own minds, they were willing to give the prisoner the benefit of any that might exist. Secure in the hypothesis that he ought to be hanged on general principles, they indulged him with more latitude of defense than his reckless hardihood seemed to ask. The Judge appeared to be more anxious than the prisoner, who, otherwise unconcerned, evidently took a grim pleasure in the responsibility he had created. I dont take any hand in this yer game, had been his invariable but good-humored reply to all questions. The Judgewho was also his captorfor a moment vaguely regretted that he had not shot him on sight that morning, but presently dismissed this human weakness as unworthy of the judicial mind. Nevertheless, when there was a tap at the door, and it was said that Tennessees Partner was there on behalf of the prisoner, he was admitted at once without question. Perhaps the younger members of the jury, to whom the proceedings were becoming irksomely thoughtful, hailed him as a relief.