That Girl of Johnson's — page 55: what you’re looking at

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

44 \ WHAT GIRL OF JOHNSON’S. Did Johnson go? No, not that she knew of, and she would know. He went over to the opposite mountain last night to hunt his cow; Jenkins had seen her there, and he told Johnson so at the tavern; Johnson went right over to ~ hunt her; he took his gun in case he came across game, but that was useless unless he were luckier than usual, for Johnson was too shiftless to have luck. Yes, the cow came back; she had lost her bell; he would — expect to find her by that; doubtless he would keep on hunting; he hadn’t sense enough to know she would most likely come home by herself. But if he did not wish to re- turn for reasons best known to himself—Johnson was shiftless, but he was no fool about some things. His girl now had about as little sense as was possible. She did not even know when she was well off; she was like her mother for all the world, only worse. In what direction did Johnson go? She was not sure; she believed he went right down the road across the valley. There was a bridge across the river if one fol- lowed the road along the foot of the mountain a bit. Up the other mountain was a bridle path narrow and rough. If she remembered rightly that was where Jenkins said he saw the cow. Johnson’s girl was away at the time; she went up the mountain that afternoon and did not return ~ until late; no one saw her come back, but one of the men met young Green on the road pretty late in the evening. What did she go for? Well, folks said a good many things, and had their suspicions The judge’s son had been . to Johnson’s shop two or three times lately to have his mare shod, and on these occasions he went up to the house to see the girl. Johnson said so himself. And he brought her books. That girl of Johnson’s was set on reading; she cared for nothing else. Young Green talked considerably to her; he seemed struck with her; he asked Johnson if she were his daughter—as though it were likely she were any one else’s daughter. He said she was an uncommon girl. GComicbooks com