A'ter th' Pioneer's Picnic, I
reckons."
The Pioneer's Picnic seemed to limit many things.
Bennington shipped the ore East, tabulated the statistics, and wrote
his report. About two weeks later he received a letter from Bishop
saying that the assay of the samples had been very poor--not at all up
to expectations--and asking some further information. As to the latter,
Bennington consulted Old Mizzou. The miner said, "I told you so," and
helped on the answer. After this the young man heard nothing further
from his employer. As no more checks came from the East, he found
himself with nothing to do.
For four afternoons, as has been said, he fruitlessly haunted the Rock.
On the fifth morning he met the girl on horseback. She was quite the
same as at first, and they resumed their old relations as if the fatal
picnic had never taken place. In a very few days they were as intimate
as though they had known each other for years.
Bennington read to her certain rewritten parts of _Aliris: A Romance of
all Time,_ which would have been ridiculous to any but these two. They
saw it through the glamour of youth; for, in spite of her assertions of
great age, the girl, too, felt the whirl of that elixir in her veins.
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