United States or Luxembourg ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
His heart was starving; his grave, baby thought was far away, with the small red caps and the laughing voices of children. The fond Miss Doc and the gray old Jim alone knew what the end must be, inevitably, unless some change should speedily come to pass. Meantime, Keno had quietly opened up a mighty ledge of gold-bearing ore on the hill. It lay between walls of slate and granite.
"Well, personally," stated Wiley, his mind on the Widow, "I think I agree more with Plato. Let 'em keep in their place and not crush into business with their talk and their double-barreled shotguns." "I beg your pardon, sir," said the Colonel, drawing himself up gravely, "but did you happen to come through Keno?" "Never mind;" grumbled Wiley, "you might be the Sheriff.
They'll take to anything that looks real pretty and smells seasonable. What did I do with my pick?" "You must have left it behind," said Keno. "You ain't goin' to hit the pie with your pick?" "Wal, not till Christmas, anyway, Keno, and only then in case we've busted all the knives and saws trying to git it apart," said Jim, reassuringly.
In response to the miner's invitation the caller opened the door and entered. Jim and Keno had their heads thrust out of their bunks, but the two popped in abruptly at the sight of a tall female figure. She was homely, a little sharp as to features, and a little near together and piercing as to eyes.
Keno nodded knowingly. Then he came inside, and, addressing them all, but principally Jim, he said: "Say, before we open up, Miss Doc would like to know if she kin come." A silence fell on all the men. Webber went hurriedly and closed the ponderous door. "Wal, she wouldn't be apt to like it till we get a little practised up," said the diplomatic Jim, who knew the tenor of his auditors.
They were stumped for a moment. "Why you," said Keno. "Didn't you find little Skeezucks?" "Kerrect," said Bone. "Jim kin talk like a steam fire-engine squirtin' languages." "If only I had the application," said Jim, modestly, "I might git up somethin' passable. Where could we have it?" This was a stumper again. No building in the camp had ever been consecrated to the uses of religious worship.
"'I gave her to there of whisky, says Keno, indicatin' about four Swede fingers on a water tumbler. 'Do you think that'll bring her to ? "'Like a bear trap, says I. 'Do you mean to say you sluiced that much raw jump-and-holler into a woman that can't stand uncooked water? Well, you are an allotropic modification of the genus jackass, like Hadds says of the Major. "Keno got purple in the face.
They call her "Little Keno" now. A Boston girl sings: "What is home without a mother," while the old lady is mending her daughter's stockings. There is something sweet about those old songs. We are astonished to see that a Boston dealer in canned goods has failed.
On this evening the tiger was out with all its claws. Rouge et noir, roulette, faro, keno, and stud-poker were going in full blast.
Aware that the news would be spread like a sprinkle of rain, the lanky Jim put on his hat with a certain jaunty air of importance, and taking the grave little man on his arm, with the new-made doll and the pup for company, he followed, where Keno had just disappeared from view, down the slope.
Word Of The Day