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that gave me a hanker- | west. Very liberal man hickory, father. Spare the abd spoil the skin was his 'He used to make me strip to walst--phee-hew! Even a light rested heavy on my back when 1 don't think that's the to use & boy, do you?" said 'Miss Mattie. bis way Io the whole "But, d--n me, boy I wouldn't club the life to reason with him akes a boy as ugly the hide whaled nothing--once in Boy that's got any in him gety &e bg too much oc- then 4 garming is hing. LoAl, 57d "Thildren' 'ft Weald be full of valuable AMformation. How's that breakfast esiming on? "AD veady--ait-right down, WIL" "Go you!' . and incautious® fins Wimustt u 'Spon one of 'the kite. o ¥otihe floor. i ull ¥44@ you hurt?" cried «Mattie, rus Rorward, ft 7 "Try it! Just pushed through the top in the'same day." ch! This kind of time Jimmy Hen- from town and of the bluff in the Ww derneath 5 Xx fo tool of m #8 be went in. He sat to figure out what was trumps, come 150 feet too fast to do Scotty was a sleeper from way , but this woke him up. Heliol says he. "Was'er matter? saw. he wasn't more than half wet, so he says, "Why, 1 wis Td drop nr ty; '1 don't where I am, nor who I am, nor what's happened, 'mor who's it, nor nothing about this game. So far I ain't been Yurt, though, and I might just as well tle down and get a little more: rest. "It. was broad daylight when he woke Up agaln, and a man was look- 'ng into the box. 'Hello, pardner!' he says. 'I hope yom've had a pleasant journey. ; Do you always travel this way? "Scotty raised up and found his eraft was aground, high and dry--no water within a hundred feet of it. On, one side was quite a little town. " 'Say,' says he, 'conld I trouble you tg tell me where I am, friend? "You're at Placerville, answers the other. « Placerville yells Scotty. 'And 1 went to sleep at Cutters mill, sixty- five miles from here! What are you giving us, man? «I'm putting it to you straight,' says the stranger. 'Take a look around you. "Sdotty looked, and there was all kinds of wreckage, from a dead beef critter to a wheelbarrow. # 'What ip nation's all this? says he. # Washout,' says the man. burst up on the divide--worst we've ever bad--your box Is about high water mark--gyou see there was 'water enough for awhile--I reckon you're about the only thing that came through alive" «Well, Srouldn't that knock you? says Scotty. "While the vest of the fof at the mill was taking to the high ground for thelr lives, with the water roaring and tearing through the gulch, Scotty had 7 "What tn nation's all thisf® says he. peacefully gone off in hi§ little boat of going over the rapids, where hive been done, for all his luck, the Bex ambles through the flume they was building for the new will. Of course there was | the jounce over the tall Fage, but that '{pado't bort him much, after he tocked in the cradle of the deep until they made it two, for When back sgain he was in a condition that made everybody believe that he'd only guessed §t the story he fold: But they | It ¥ found out afterward it was a solemn fact. Mattie, give us some more cof- fee 2 ; know Fae a cautious New England boy to: | boot. "You don't know? retorted Red. hd wayt "Can I buy stuff to make with around here?" JP "Yes, sir; Mr. Pettigrew's got: all kiuds of buildin' material at his sto: --two mile over yonder," pointiag with the whip. ¢ x "You drive over there for me and get some--just like this here--pickets and posts and 'whatever you ¢all them long pieces, and you. "Yes, sir, How much will I get?" "Oh, tell him to fli agon with it, and I'll send back" don't want. Hustle, now, a boy; I want to get shut of this 1 liked it better before I begun." 'When bis" Mercury had speeded on the journey at a faster gait than Red would have given him credit for the architect 'strode down to the black- smith's shop, There was a larger crowd than usual around the forge, as the advent of the stranger had got foto the wind, and the village Vulcan was a person who not only looked the whole world in the face, but no one of the maiden ladies of Fairfield could have excelled his interest in looking the 'whole world as much in the inside pocket as possible. The blacksmith was emphatically a man of gossip, as well as 8 hardworking, God fearing man. i * "Say, there he comes now, Mr. Tut- tle!" eried one of the loungers, and nudged the smith to look. "Well, let him come!" retorted the smith testily, jamming a shoe in the fire with unnecessary -force; as a mat- ter of fact he was embarrassed. loungers huddled together for moral support as the big cowman loomed through the doorway. . "Good morning, friends! said .he. #Good morning, sir" replied the blacksmith, rubbing his hands on his apron. "Niece day, sir" . .. . "Por the sake of good fellowship I'll say 'yes' to that Red, "but if you want my honest opinion 00 $he subject it's d--n hot." A «Tig that," assented the smith, and a #lence followed. "Say, who's your crack fence bulld- er around here," asked Red--*the man that can make two pickets grow where only one grew before and do it ees that it's a pleasure to sit and a him?' "Hey?" inquired the smith, not pre- cisely getting the meaning of the ad- dress. "Why, I've got a fence to bulld," ex- claimed Red, "and now I want some help--want it so bad I'll produce to the extent of three a day and call it a day from now till 6 o'clock. Any takers here? Make your bets while the little ball rolls." Lhe lonngers understood the general drift of this and pricked up their ears, as did the blacksmith. "Guess one of the boys will help you," said the latter. "Well, who's it?' asked Red, glanc ing at the circle of faces. 'Three dol lars a flay Was enormous wages In that part of the. country. Nobody "Oh, well," erled Red, 'let's every: body run! 1 reckon I can find some thing te do for the five of you. Are you with me?" ¢ "Yes, sir," they said promptly. "Can 1 borrow 8 hammer or so off you, old man?' questioned Red of the smith . "Certainly, sir," returned the latter heartily, "Take what you want." "Much obliged. And the gute hinges are out of whack. Miss Saunders' place, you know. Come over and take a squint at 'em in the near by and by, will you? : May as well fix it up all at 711 meks ft right with | The | 0 shommiar of with naive whom oun : medicine? y N you Bch 8 Not the Custom, "No es costumbre" (which, being translated, means "It is not the cus. {i tom") has been described as the na- = tional motto of Mexico. All Mexiéams, I are slaves of habit, and if n thing is Hs "not the custom' then to them it seems unworthy of considerations If you ask the cook -to sweep a fi »" says W. BE. Carson in his "Mexico; she politely replied, "No es cos bre," or if you.complain when the soup and chop ordered in a restau- rant arrive at intervals of half an hour between and the chop preceding the soup the walter will merely re- mark, "No es coatumbre." If you ask for hurry and find dawdling you must be cheerful, for that ia "costumbre." ~--London Mail. TET EXPLORED FAR WEST, David Thompson, One'of Bi. O.'s Big Pioneer Travelers, One of the great waterways of the Central region of Southern British Columbia is the Thompson river-- 3% two waterways it may be called, be- cause the river has twa ranches, the one stream, pour i the Fraser at 1; ton The son river is oné of the arterd Eritish Columbia, and its narrow ley affords a route for bund miles for the first of our tran ental railways. The name of that waterw monument to one of the mos and usolul explorers of British umbla, Dayid Thompson, the mer and. pioneer, and one: most successful explorers of the who served t'e- old Northwest: pany. Many tributes to the. mani his work have been paid by torians of this continent, but none is more to the point tha written by the American Bacroft, who writes these praise of David Thompson, ish-Canadian explorer: "No m formed more valuable se: teemed his achievements destly." 2 Another tribute in few from high source, is that Begg, the historian-of B bia, who writes: "He (David SPOCLE = Bh ur» Thompson's éareer is because of the element of that runs throughout, | interesting, because It ac wards giving Canada accurate and com full information respecting region. which extends from hills, westward, to the sho; Pacific, and particularly o mineral and agricultural that to-day is kibown &s British Columbis. He 1770~--geven years after ada had been ceded by of. Paris, to the British Ci bi ate ae