I took a couple of cream-puffs where they were ripe, and
answered:
"That message to come and have that talk about matrimony.'
"Here a man's voice was heard calling: 'Rachel! Rachel!' and throwing
her arms around my neck, she gave me one more kiss, snatched up her pail
and answered:
"'Yes; I'm coming.'
"Then to me, hurriedly:
"'Good-by, dear; wait patiently, you shall hear from me.'
"I went back and put the dangerous dust on the stump and returned to the
bunk-car. The next morning when I turned out, the outlines of the wagon
were dimly discernible away on a hill in the road; it had been gone an
hour.
"I walked down past my stump--the gold was gone.
"Well, John, I settled down to work and to wait for that precious letter
that would summon me to the side of Rachel Rokesby, wherever she was;
but it never came. Uncle Sam never delivered a line to me from her from
that day to this."
Joe kicked the burning sticks in our fire closer together, lit his pipe
and then proceeded:
"I was hopeful for a month or two; then got impatient, and finally got
angry, but it ended in despair.
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