rned, and going up to Plunkett put his
hand upon his shoulder, and said,--

"I want you to answer one question fairly and squarely."

The liquor seemed to have warmed the torpid blood in the old man's
veins, and softened his acerbity; for the face he turned up to York was
mellowed in its rugged outline, and more thoughtful in expression, as he
said,--

"Go on, my boy."

"Have you a wife and--daughter?"

"Before God I have!"

The two men were silent for a moment, both gazing at the fire. Then
Plunkett began rubbing his knees slowly.

"The wife, if it comes to that, ain't much," he began cautiously, "being
a little on the shoulder, you know, and wantin', so to speak a liberal
California education, which makes, you know, a bad combination. It's
always been my opinion, that there ain't any worse. Why, she's as
ready with her tongue as Abner Dean is with his revolver, only with
the difference that she shoots from principle, as she calls it; and the
consequence is, she's always layin' for you. It's the effete East, my
boy, that's ruinin' her. It's them ideas she gets in New York and Boston
that's made her and me what we are. I don't mind her havin' 'em, if she
didn't shoot. But, havin' that propensity, them principles oughtn't to
be lying round loose no more'n firearms."

"But your daughter?" said York.

The old man's hands went up to his eyes here, and then both hands and
head dropped forward on the table. "Don't say any thing 'bout her, my
boy, don't ask me now." With one hand concealing his eyes, he fumbled
about with the other in his pockets for his handkerchief--but vainly.
Perhaps it was owing to this fact, that he repressed his tears; for,
when he removed his hand from his eyes, they were quite dry. Then he
found his voice.

"She's a beautiful girl, beautiful, though I say it; and you shall see
her, my boy,--you shall see her sure. I've got things about fixed now.
I shall have my plan for reducin' ores perfected a day or two; and
I've got proposals from all the smeltin' works here" (here he hastily
produced a bundle of papers that fell upon the floor), "and I'm goin'
to send for 'em. I've got the papers here as will give me ten thousand
dollars clear in the next month," he added, as he strove to collect the
valuable documents again. "I'll have 'em here by Christmas, if I live;
and you shall eat your Christmas dinner with me, York, my boy,--you
shall sure."

With his tongue now fairly loosened by liquor a