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Page 68
"No," she interrupted sharply, "not Elizabeth, but Libby, short for
Lib'rty."
"Liberty?"
"Yes."
"Liberty Jones, then. Well, Waya, this is Miss Jones, who will
look after the cows and calves--and the dairy." Then glancing at
her torn dress, he added: "You'll find some clean things in there,
until I can send up something from San Jose. Waya will show you."
Without further speech he turned away with the other man. When
they were some distance from the cabin, the younger remarked:--
"More like a boy than a girl, ain't she?"
"So much the better for her work," returned the elder grimly.
"I reckon! I was only thinkin' she didn't han'some much either as
a boy or girl, eh, doctor?" he pursued.
"Well! as THAT won't make much difference to the cows, calves, or
the dairy, it needn't trouble US," returned the doctor dryly. But
here a sudden outburst of laughter from the cabin made them both
turn in that direction. They were in time to see Liberty Jones
dancing out of the cabin door in a large cotton pinafore, evidently
belonging to the squaw, who was following her with half-laughing,
half-frightened expostulations. The two men stopped and gazed at
the spectacle.
"Don't seem to be takin' the old man's death very pow'fully," said
the younger, with a laugh.
"Quite as much as he deserved, I daresay," said the doctor curtly.
"If the accident had happened to HER, he would have whined and
whimpered to us for the sake of getting something, but have been as
much relieved, you may be certain. SHE'S too young and too natural
to be a hypocrite yet."
Suddenly the laughter ceased and Liberty Jones's voice arose,
shrill but masterful: "Thar, that'll do! Quit now! You jest get
back to your scrubbin'--d'ye hear? I'm boss o' this shanty, you
bet!"
The doctor turned with a grim smile to his companion. "That's the
only thing that bothered me, and I've been waiting for. She's
settled it. She'll do. Come."
They turned away briskly through the wood. At the end of half an
hour's walk they found the team that had brought them there in
waiting, and drove towards San Jose. It was nearly ten miles
before they passed another habitation or trace of clearing. And by
this time night had fallen upon the cabin they had left, and upon
the newly made orphan and her Indian companion, alone and contented
in that trackless solitude.
. . . . . .
Liberty Jones had been a year at the cabin. In that time she had
learned that her employer's name was Doctor Ruysdael, that he had a
lucrative practice in San Jose, but had also "taken up" a league or
two of wild forest land in the Santa Cruz range, which he preserved
and held after a fashion of his own, which gave him the reputation
of being a "crank" among the very few neighbors his vast possessions
permitted, and the equally few friends his singular tastes allowed
him. It was believed that a man owning such an enormous quantity of
timber land, who should refuse to set up a sawmill and absolutely
forbid the felling of trees; who should decline to connect it with
the highway to Santa Cruz, and close it against improvement and
speculation, had given sufficient evidence of his insanity; but when
to this was added the rumor that he himself was not only devoid of
the human instinct of hunting the wild animals with which his domain
abounded, but that he held it so sacred to their use as to forbid
the firing of a gun within his limits, and that these restrictions
were further preserved and "policed" by the scattered remnants of a
band of aborigines,--known as "digger Injins,"--it was seriously
hinted that his eccentricity had acquired a political and moral
significance, and demanded legislative interference. But the doctor
was a rich man, a necessity to his patients, a good marksman, and,
it was rumored, did not include his fellow men among the animals he
had a distaste for killing.
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