Geoffrey's Victory by Mrs Georgie Sheldon — page 178: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

174 JSACK’S STORY CONTINUED. tone, as if this was ground he hardly liked to trespass upon. “i As chipper as a bird,” Jack returned; “and she could sing lixe one, too. Many’s the night the boys have stolen to yonder house to listen while she sang and played to the cap; he had a pianer sent up from Santa Fe; and she was always bright and smilin’; she was like a streak o’ sunshine in a dark place, for there wasn’t anybody like her anywhere about.” Geoffrey felt his heart yearn wistfully for this sweet and gentle woman, who had been his mother, and who had brightened that wild and dreary place with her pres- ence for one short year. Still the mystery regarding his father, and her rela- tions to him, seemed as dark as ever. If he could not jearn whence they came, it would be im- possible to trace his history any farther, and a feeling of depression and discouragement began to settle upon him. It seemed as if those two lovers had hidden themselves there, cut themselves adrift from all previous associa- tions, and then lived simply for and in each other. “Did Captain Dale’s mine here pay him well?” he asked. “No, sir, if did not; and that is something that always seemed strange to me,” Jack said, reflectively. “He coulan’t much more’n paid expenses here, but he never seemed to care, and I’ve always had a notion that he had an interest in other mines.” “‘7hat other mines?” Geoffrey inquired, eagerly. “T couldn’t say, sir; he was very close, and never talked business afore his help.” ‘What made you think he had other claims?” ‘Well, after the first month or two he used to be away considerable—not long at a time; but he went often, and was always so chipper when he came back, I reasoned *twas only good luck could make him so.” “What arrangements did he make with you when he left me in your wife’s care?” | “There wa’n’t anv bargain,” Jack said. ‘‘Margery was that fond of ye she’d been willin’ to kep’ ye for nothin’ rather than let ye go; but the cap was always generous _—he gave her two hundred dollars to start with, besides a handsome present on her own account, for what she did for his wife while she lay dyin’. Then, for the first two years he came once in six months to see ye, and always left a good round sum for ye—there wa’n’t nothin’ mean comuicloookks.€