aal, that _is_ odd.
Why, she ran away with my team--that's what she did; and it's all a hoax
about the 'road-agents.' The passengers are back at the other station."

Sam had suddenly become "all things to all men," to a degree that
surprised himself. He was wrong about the horse, too, as was proven by
its return to its owner four days after. By the same hand came the
following letter to Mr. Samuel Rice:

"DEAR MR. RICE: It was so good of you! I thank you more than I
can say. I wish I could set myself right in your eyes, for I prize
your friendship dearly--dearly; but I know that I cannot. It has not
been all my fault. I was married to a bad, bad man, when I was only
fifteen. He has ruined my life; but now he is dead, and I need not
fear him. I _will_ hereafter live as a good woman should live. The
tears run down my cheeks as I write you this farewell--as they did
that day when I saw that sweet woman and her babe at the farm-house
gate; and knew what was in your thought. Heaven send you such a wife.
Good-bye, dear Mr. Rice, good-bye.

"DOLLY PAGE!"

There are some men, as well as women, in this world, who could figure in
the _role_ of _Evangeline_, who have tender, loyal, and constant hearts.
Such a one was the driver of the Lucky-dog stage. But, though he sat on
that box for two years longer, and scrutinized every dark-eyed,
sweet-voiced lady-passenger who rode in his coach during that time,
often with an intense longing for a sight of the face he craved--it
never came. Out of the heaven of his life that star had vanished
forever, and nothing was left him but a soiled photograph, and a
tear-stained letter, worn with frequent folding and unfolding.

EL TESORO.

"Wimmen nater is cur'us nater, that I'll allow. But a feller kind o'
hankers arter 'em, fur all that. They're a mighty handy thing to hev
about a house."

The above oracular statement proceeded from the parched and puckered
lips of Sandy-haired Jim--one of the many "hands" employed on the
immense Tesoro Rancho, which covered miles of valley, besides extending
up on to the eastern flank of the Coast Range, and taking in
considerable tracts of woodland and mountain pasture. Long before, when
it acquired its name, under Spanish occupancy, there had been a rumor of
the existence of the precious metals in the mountains which formed a
portion of the grant; hence, its name, Tesoro, signifying _treasure_.
All se