kin' on inside, and, listenin' I fell
asleep."--"You dear, old simple-minded baby!" said Jenny, looking
past her father's eyes, and lifting his grizzled locks one by one with
meditative fingers: "what should I be takin' on for? Look how much
taller I am than you!" she said, suddenly lifting herself up to the
extreme of her superb figure. Then rubbing his head rapidly with both
hands, as if she were anointing his hair with some rare unguent, she
patted him on the back, and returned to her room. The result of this and
one or two other equally sympathetic interviews was to produce a
change in Mr. McClosky's manner, which was, if possible, still more
discomposing. He grew unjustifiably hilarious, cracked jokes with the
servants, and repeated to Jenny humorous stories, with the attitude of
facetiousness carefully preserved throughout the entire narration, and
the point utterly ignored and forgotten. Certain incidents reminded him
of funny things, which invariably turned out to have not the slightest
relevancy or application. He occasionally brought home with him
practical humorists, with a sanguine hope of setting them going, like
the music-box, for his daughter's edification. He essayed the singing of
melodies with great freedom of style, and singular limitation of note.
He sang "Come haste to the Wedding, Ye Lasses and Maidens," of which he
knew a single line, and that incorrectly, as being peculiarly apt and
appropriate. Yet away from the house and his daughter's presence, he was
silent and distraught. His absence of mind was particularly noted by his
workmen at the Empire Quartz Mill. "Ef the old man don't look out and
wake up," said his foreman, "he'll hev them feet of his yet under the
stamps. When he ain't givin' his mind to 'em, they is altogether too
promiskuss."

A few nights later, Miss Jenny recognized her father's hand in a timid
tap at the door. She opened it, and he stood before her, with a valise
in his hand, equipped as for a journey. "I takes the stage to-night,
Jinny dear, from Four Forks to 'Frisco. Maybe I may drop in on Jack
afore I go. I'll be back in a week. Good-by."

"Good-by." He still held her hand. Presently he drew her back into the
room, closing the door carefully, and glancing around. There was a look
of profound cunning in his eye as he said slowly,--

"Bear up, and keep dark, Jinny dear, and trust to the old man. Various
men has various ways. Thar is ways as is common, and ways as is
unco