Chapter XXXVI

MORE NEWS FROM LITTLE WOLF--TOM TINKNOR'S TESTIMONY.

Here again is news from Little Wolf. The postmark is San Francisco; a few hurried lines running thus:

"We arrived here last evening. Mr. Marsden has the Panama
fever. His sister and myself watch over him day and night.
His physician is hopeful, but says the disease is exceedingly
tedious. We shall probably be detained here for a long time.

Please write as soon as you receive this. I am anxious to
hear from Daddy and Fanny.

Your affectionate

LITTLE WOLF."

From Mrs. Tinknor's answer we extract the following:

"As we had not heard from Daddy for some time, I persuaded
Tom to go down and see how they were getting along. He has
just returned and stands ready to relieve your anxiety. I
will leave him to give an account of affairs in his own
language."

"I am requested to give my testimony which is this: The house
was in apple-pie order. Not a fly had the temerity to
approach the parlor. Miss Fanny had learned to knit, and had
constructed a pair of stockings. Mrs. Recta says if she
_lives_ she will make a good housekeeper. I shall marry her
when she is old enough. The old folks are sure she will die
'afore the year is out, 'cause a bird flew in at her winder.'
I told them the bird was after Daddy, and the superstitious
old man was instantly seized with a violent pain in his big
toe. I am afraid he will feel it is his duty to die. He and
Recta bill and coo like two old fools.

I am ready to swear to the above testimony. T. T.

P. S. Daddy saw six ghosts last evening in the pasture where
half a dozen sheep were grazing. TOM."

"I am afraid, my dear, that Tom's nonsense has illy prepared
your mind for the sad news I have to communicate concerning
your friends the Shermans. The elder and the younger Mrs.
Sherman are both dead. The elder died last week; it is said
of a broken heart. The other accidently put an end to her own
life several weeks ago. She had parted from her husband, he
having returned home several times intoxicated. Being in
a very unhappy frame of mind in her father's house, she
resorted to morphine to induce sleep, and, unaccustomed
to its effects, swallowed an over dose. The mistake was
discovered when too late to save her. It is said that
Edward's remorse is fearful, and he has solemly sworn never
to taste another drop of intoxicating drink. His home is
now with Dr. Goodrich and his sister, who have commenced
house-keeping in a nice little cottage."

Extract from Little Wolf's reply.

"Many thanks to Tom for his share of the letter. I hope he
will frequently repeat his visits to Chimney Rock, and
acquaint me with the results. It will discipline him for the
work I shall assign him in my orphan asylum, and moreover I
feel concerned about the pain in Daddy's big toe.

"All jesting aside, so many unforseen events have crowded
into the months of my absense that I feel prepared for almost
any change. It is well that I know that you will be a mother
to Fanny in the event of any change in Daddy's family.
According to Tom's account, he is to be her husband. I will
draw a picture of their courtship for him.

"A slender, fair haired girl and a gallant youth seated--let
me think--_three feet apart_ in the grape arbor at the old
brown house. Their eyes meet and speak a language quite
familiar to gallant youths and fair haired girls in general,
and to those two in particular. How prettily the white throat
of the beautiful blonde swells, and how the frill of lace
around it trembles, as if fanned by the passing breeze.

"They do not see the white haired old man who is silently
gathering grapes without the arbor, occasionally peering
cautiously through the vines and lattice work at them.

"He is a loquacious old fellow, (that Daddy) and he will
doubtless complete the picture for us by and by.

"Mr. Marsden's fever has left him broken in health and
spirits. His lungs have never been strong, having been
subject to occasional hemorrhages. He complains of constant
pain in his chest, and I fear it will be a long time before
he recovers. His physician thinks it will not be safe for him
to return home this fall, and we shall probably spend the
winter in this mild climate.

"We have formed quite a pleasant circle of acquaintances,
and our evenings are musical, conversational or _gamical_, as
best suits the invalid, who lies upon the sofa and dictates
the programme. Last evening we did nothing but talk. An
editor of one of our city journals was present, having just
returned from an extensive tour through the wine growing
districts of the State. He says that wine making is fraught
with dire evils to the producer and to the country. That it
has become almost as cheap as milk, and as freely drank, till
many once sober men are now habitually intoxicated. He was
told that in one neighborhood, young girls seventeen years of
age, reeled in the streets under the intoxication of pure
California wine. Men whom he once knew to be of worth he
found lost to society, and becoming a fear and disgrace to
their families. One leading man whom he met, enumerated five
of his acquaintances, who, once noble men, are now to be
called drunkards through wine. He thinks that the production
of the article, now fearfully on the increase, must become a
curse to the whole land if persevered in.

"In going through the wine growing regions he found it
expected, as an act of politeness, that wine must everywhere
be presented and drank, and if he consented at all to drink,
he would be compelled to drink many times a day, and would
become a wine toper with others. He declared that touch not,
taste not, handle not the accursed thing, was the only rule
of safety.

"He said if each grape grower would grow only the raisin
grape for sale, there would be no end to the profitable
disposal of all which he could ever produce without sin or
danger to any one.

"I remarked that European travellers told us that very few
drank to intoxication in those places where wine was made
from the pure juice of the grape, and it was generally
supposed that the manufacture of pure domestic wine in this
country would do away almost entirety with intemperance.

"In answer, he read us a letter which he had just received
from his friend, a well known resident of this city now in
France. It contained a flat contradiction of the statements
to which I had alluded, and drew a dark picture of the
intemperance in the wine producing districts of France and
Germany. In fact, it was a radical plea--as Daddy would
say--'agin the hull infarnel stuff.'"