y lifted his abstracted eyes from the current, still pouring
its unreturning gold into the sinking sun, and said, with a deprecatory
smile, "Never!"

Nor even in the days of prosperity that visited the Great Wheat Ranch of
"Fall and Foster" did he ever tell his secret to his partner.

SEE YUP

I don't suppose that his progenitors ever gave him that name, or,
indeed, that it was a NAME at all; but it was currently believed
that--as pronounced "See UP"--it meant that lifting of the outer angle
of the eye common to the Mongolian. On the other hand, I had been told
that there was an old Chinese custom of affixing some motto or legend,
or even a sentence from Confucius, as a sign above their shops, and that
two or more words, which might be merely equivalent to "Virtue is its
own reward," or "Riches are deceitful," were believed by the simple
Californian miner to be the name of the occupant himself. Howbeit, "See
Yup" accepted it with the smiling patience of his race, and never
went by any other. If one of the tunnelmen always addressed him as
"Brigadier-General," "Judge," or "Commodore," it was understood to be
only the American fondness for ironic title, and was never used except
in personal conversation. In appearance he looked like any other
Chinaman, wore the ordinary blue cotton blouse and white drawers of the
Sampan coolie, and, in spite of the apparent cleanliness and freshness
of these garments, always exhaled that singular medicated odor--half
opium, half ginger--which we recognized as the common "Chinese smell."

Our first interview was characteristic of his patient quality. He had
done my washing for several months, but I had never yet seen him.
A meeting at last had become necessary to correct his impressions
regarding "buttons"--which he had seemed to consider as mere
excrescences, to be removed like superfluous dirt from soiled linen.
I had expected him to call at my lodgings, but he had not yet made his
appearance. One day, during the noontide recess of the little frontier
school over which I presided, I returned rather early. Two or three of
the smaller boys, who were loitering about the school-yard, disappeared
with a certain guilty precipitation that I suspected for the moment,
but which I presently dismissed from my mind. I passed through the
empty school-room to my desk, sat down, and began to prepare the coming
lessons. Presently I heard a faint sigh. Looking up, to my intense
concern, I dis