men, but when an old man's heart is broken, and his gray hairs brought
down in sorrow to the grave, so to speak, we're bound to attend the
funeral--sabe?"
When Mr. Twiggs had departed again, accompanied by a partner to guide
him past the dangerous shoals of Tomlinson's grocery, Rice clapped his
hand on Wells's shoulder. "If it hadn't been for me, sonny, that shark
would have landed you into some compromise with that red-haired gal! I
saw you weakenin', and then I chipped in. I may have piled up the agony
a little on your love for old Quince, but if you aren't an ungrateful
cub, that's how you ought to hev been feein', anyhow!"
Nevertheless, the youthful Wells, although touched by his elder
partner's loyalty, and convinced of his own disinterestedness, felt a
painful sense of lost chivalrous opportunity.
*****
On mature consideration it was finally settled that Jackson Wells should
make his preliminary examination of his inheritance alone, as it might
seem inconsistent with the previous indifferent attitude of his
partners if they accompanied him. But he was implored to yield to no
blandishments of the enemy, and to even make his visit a secret.
He went. The familiar flower-spiked trees which had given their name
to Buckeye Hollow had never yielded entirely to improvements and the
incursions of mining enterprise, and many of them had even survived the
disused ditches, the scarred flats, the discarded levels, ruined flumes,
and roofless cabins of the earlier occupation, so that when Jackson
Wells entered the wide, straggling street of Buckeye, that summer
morning was filled with the radiance of its blossoms and fragrant with
their incense. His first visit there, ten years ago, had been a purely
perfunctory and hasty one, yet he remembered the ostentatious hotel,
built in the "flush time" of its prosperity, and already in a green
premature decay; he recalled the Express Office and Town Hall, also
passing away in a kind of similar green deliquescence; the little zinc
church, now overgrown with fern and brambles, and the two or three fine
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