THG UNIY6RS1TY Of CALIFORNIA LIBRARY H ?- ! I WESTERN CLASSICS N THREE TENNESSEE S PARTNER Both were fearless types of a civiliza tion that in the seventeenth century would have been called heroic, but in the nineteenth simply reckless. TENNESSEE S PARTNER BY BRET HARTE, INCLUDING AN INTRODUCTION BY WILLIAM DAI .1. AM ARMES, THE FRONTISPIECE IN PHOTOGRAVURE FROM A PAINTING BY ALBERTINE RANDALL WHEELAN PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY SAN FRANCISCO AND NEW YORK Copyright, 1907 by PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY Copyright, 1899 by BRET HARTE This Edition of TENNESSEE S PARTNER is published in the series of Western Classics by special arrangement with Houghton, Mifflin and Company authorized publishers of Bret Harte s works THE INTRODUCTION [i J When Marshall s discovery caused a sudden influx of thousands of ad venturers from all classes and almost all countries, the conditions of govern ment in California were almost the worst possible. Though the Mexican system was unpopular and the Mexi can law practically unknown, until other provision was made by congress, they had to continue in force. But the free and slave states were equal in number; California would turn the scale; there was a battle royal as to which pan should descend, a battle that the congresses of 1848 and 1849 left unsettled on adjourn ing. J Under these circumstances, it 395586 ii] THE INTRODUCTION might be supposed that the worst elements would get the upper hand, crime become common, and anarchy result. Precisely the opposite hap pened. The de fadlo government Was accepted as a necessity, and under its direction "alcaldes" and " ayuntamientos " were elected. But the mining-camps, which were in a part of the country that had not been settled by the Mexicans and Were occupied by men who knew nothing of their system or laws, were left to work out their own salvation. The preponderating element was the Anglo-Saxon, and its genius for law and order asserted itself. Each THE INTRODUCTION [iii camp elected its own officers, recog nized the customary laws and adopted special ones, and punished law- breafars. Naturally theft Was con sidered a more serious crime than it is in ordinary communities. As there were no jails or jailors, flogging and expulsion were the usual punishment, but in aggravated cases it Was death. Even after the state government had been organized, indeed, the law for a short while permitted a jury to pre scribe the death penalty for grand larceny, and, infal, several notorious thieves were legally executed. | The testimony of all observers is that the camps were surprisingly orderly, that iv] THE INTRODUCTION crime was infrequent, and that its punishment, though swift and cer tain, leaned to mercy rather than rigor. Bayard Taylor, for example, who was in the mines in 50 and 51 , writes: "In a region five hun dred miles long, inhabited by a hundred thousand people, who had neither locks, bolts, regular laws of government, military or civil protec tion, there Was as much security to life and property as in any state of the Union/ ^As these "miners courts" were allowed after the or ganization of the state to retain jurisdi&ion in all questions that con cerned the appropriation of claims, THE INTRODUCTION [v the miners but slowly appreciated that they had been shorn of their criminal jurisdiction. But that they did come to recognize that "the old order changeth, yielding place to new, " is, in fat, shown by the very incident on which Harte based his story of a lynching. J Spite of the autobiographic method that leads the casual reader to think that Harte Was intimately conne&ed with this early pioneer life and derived the material for his sketches from per sonal observation and experience, his is, in truth, only hearsay evidence. The heroic age Was with Iram and all his rose ere he landed in 1854, vi] THE INTRODUCTION a lad of eighteen. With no especial equipment for battling with the world, he had to turn his hand to many things, and naturally tried mining. But finding the returns in commensurate with the labor, he soon gave it up and sought more con genial occupations, mainly in the towns of the valleys and the sea- coast. Before he was twenty-three, he had been school-teacher, express- messenger, deputy tax-colleEtor, and druggist s assistant; and had risen from "printer s devil" to assistant editor of a country newspaper. In 1859 he was back fa $ an Francisco, utilizing the trade he had picked THE INTRODUCTION [vii up, as a compositor on The Golden Era. To this he contributed poems and local sketches that soon led to his appointment as assistant editor. His writings made him friends, one of whom, Thomas Starr King, in 1864, obtained for him the position of secretary to the superintendent of the Mint. His duties Were not ar duous, and his rooms became the resort of his literary associates and of men from " the diggings, " whose mines, life the meadows of Concord, yielded a two-fold crop: gold-dust for the superintendent to turn into bullion, and stories for his young sec retary later to turn into literature. By viii] THE INTRODUCTION 1868 his reputation was so great that when Mr. A . Roman established The Overland Monthly, he was made its first editor. JMr. Roman impressed upon him the literary possibilities of the life of the miners, and furnished him with incidents, tales, and pictures. The Luck f Roaring Camp/ his first venture in this hitherto al most untouched field, proved that Bret Harte had come into his own. His local sketches and Mexican legends had been imitative of Irving, his stories of Dickens; but for this he had evolved a method and a style distinctly personal. His first success was followed up by " The Outcasts THE INTRODUCTION [ix of Poker Flat" and (in Odober, 1869) by the tale here reprinted; and when, in 1870, an Eastern house published his sketches in book form, his fame was secure. In 1871 he left California, and after a few years in the East that added little to his reputation as a writer, or as a man, secured a consulate in Germany. In 1878 he left America forever. Till his death in 1902 he wrote on, frequently recurring to the claim where he first "got the color," but never equaling his work during the year and a half that he was editor of the Overland. J/n 7566 Harte heard, from one who had been pres- x] THE INTRODUCTION ent, the incident that inspired " Ten nessee s Partner. Eleven years before, at Second Garrote, a new comer had committed a capital crime. The miners organized a court, ap- pointed counsel, and gave the mis creant a trial. He confessed his guilt, and the cry arose, "Hang him!" But "Old Man Chaffee stepped forward, drew a bag of gold- dust from his bosom, and said that he Would give his "pile* rather than have a lynching occur in a camp that, spite its name, had never been so disgraced. He begged the crowd to turn the prisoner over to the authorities and let the law THE INTRODUCTION [xi its course. Such was the fervor of his appeal and so great Were the re- sped and affection for the old man that his proposal Was adopted with a cheer for the advocate of law and order, and the culprit taken to the jail at Columbia. f^Chaffee s part ner, Chamberlain, seems to have had no part in this affair; but the two Were united by a love Iffye that of his partner for Tennessee. And long after the Second Garrote had become but a memory, the two octogenarians lived on in their little cabin, Chaffee seeding with primitive pick, shovel, and pan the more and more elusive gold, and Chamberlain contributing xii] THE INTRODUCTION to the common purse by cultivating a small "ranch/ the best crop of which was the campers who came to chat of bygone days with " the origi nal of Tennessee s Partner. " At last, in 1903, their partnership of fifty - four years was ended by the death of Chaffee. Within eight weeks he was followed by Chamberlain. Their last days were made easy by the bounty of Professor W. E. Magee, of the State University, to whom I am indebted for the authority for some of these statements, Cham berlain s journal. CJFrom this sim ple material the imagination of Bret Harte spun the characters, incidents, THE INTRODUCTION [xiii and motives that his genius wove into an exquisite fabric, an idyl of blind, unreasoning love of man for man. He was not writing history ; and the complaint of those who Were part of the life he depi&ed, that he mis stated the fa&s, rests on the same failure to appreciate his purpose and method that leads Eastern and Eng lish critics to consider his realism reality and to mistake his verisimili tude for the truth itself. The faCt is that Bret Harte was a consummate literary artist, who used fa&s with all an artist s freedom. His genius " imbalm d and treasur d up on pur pose to a life beyond life, " however, xiv] THE INTRODUCTION many an a5tual incident that other wise would lie buried 9 neath the poppy that the iniquity of oblivion blindly scattereth. WM. DALLAM ARMES. TENNESSEE S PARTNER TENNESSEE S PARTNER [ 1 IJ I do not think that we ever knew his real name. Our ignorance of it certainly never gave us any social inconvenience, for at Sandy Bar in 1854 most men were christened anew. Sometimes these appella tives were derived from some dis- tinc5tiveness of dress, as in the case of " Dungaree Jack "; or from some peculiarity of habit, as shown in "Saleratus Bill," so called from an undue proportion of that chemical in his daily bread ; or from some unlucky slip, as exhibited in "The Iron Pirate," a mild, inoffensive man, who earned that baleful title by his unfortunate mispronuncia- 2 ] TENNESSEE S PARTNER tion of the term "iron pyrites. * Perhaps this may have been the beginning of a rude heraldry ; but I am constrained to think that it was because a man s real name in that day rested solely upon his own unsupported statement. "Call yourself Clifford, do you?" said Boston, addressing a timid new comer with infinite scorn ; " hell is full of such Cliffords!" He then introduced the unfortunate man, whose name happened to be really Clifford, as "Jaybird Charley," an unhallowed inspiration of the moment that clung to him ever after. tJBut to return to Tennes- TENNESSEE S PARTNER [3 see s Partner, whom we never knew by any other than this rela tive title ; that he had ever existed as a separate and distindt indi viduality we only learned later. It seems that in 1853 he left Poker Flat to go to San Francisco, osten sibly to procure a wife. He never got any farther than Stockton. At that place he was attracted by a young person who waited upon the table at the hotel where he took his meals. One morning he said something to her which caused her to smile not unkindly, to some what coquettishly break a plate of toast over his upturned, serious, 4] TENNESSEE S PARTNER simple face, and to retreat to the kitchen. He followed her, and emerged a few moments later, covered with more toast and vic tory. That day week they were married by a Justice of the Peace, and returned to Poker Flat. I am aware that something more might be made of this episode, but I prefer to tell it as it was current at Sandy Bar, in the gulches and barrooms, where all sentiment was modified by a strong sense of humor, ^f Of their married felicity but little is known, perhaps for the reason that Tennessee, then living with his partner, one day TENNESSEE S PARTNER [ 5 took occasion to say something to the bride on his own account, at which, it is said, she smiled not unkindly, and chastely retreated, this time as far as Marysville, where Tennessee followed her, and where they went to house keeping without the aid of a Jus tice of the Peace. Tennessee s Partner took the loss of his wife simply and seriously, as "was his fashion. But to everybody s sur prise, when Tennessee one day returned from Marysville, without his partner s wife, she having smiled and retreated with some body else, Tennessee s Partner 6] TENNESSEE S PARTNER was the first man to shake his hand and greet him with affecftion. The boys who had gathered in the canon to see the shooting were naturally indignant. Their indig nation might have found vent in sarcasm but for a certain look in Tennessee s Partner s eye that in dicated a lack of humorous appre ciation. In fadl, he was a grave man, with a steady application to pradical detail which was unpleas ant in a difficulty, tj Meanwhile a popular feeling against Tennessee had grown up on the Bar. He was known to be a gambler; he was suspedted to be a thief. In TENNESSEE S PARTNER [ 7 these suspicions Tennessee s Part ner was equally compromised ; his continued intimacy with Tennes see after the affair above quoted could only be accounted for on the hypothesis of a copartnership of crime. At last Tennessee s guilt became flagrant. One day he overtook a stranger on his way to Red Dog. The stranger afterward related that Tennessee beguiled the time with interesting anecdote and reminiscence, but illogically concluded the interview in the fol lowing wordsj "And now, young man, I ll trouble you for your knife,your pistols, and your money. 8] TENNESSEE S PARTNER You see your weppings might get you into trouble at Red Dog, and your money s a temptation to the evilly disposed. I think you said your address was San Francisco. I shall endeavor to call." It may be stated here that Tennessee had a fine flow of humor, which no busi ness preoccupation could wholly subdue. <JThis exploit was his last. Red Dog and Sandy Bar made common cause against the highwayman. Tennessee was hunted in very much the same fashion as his prototype, the grizzly. As the toils closed around him, he made a desperate dash TENNESSEE S PARTNER [ 9 through the Bar, emptying his re volver at the crowd before the Arcade Saloon, and so on up Grizzly Canon; but at its farther extremity he was stopped by a small man on a gray horse. The men looked at each other a mo ment in silence. Both were fear less, both self-possessed and inde pendent, and both types of a civilization that in the seventeenth century would have been called heroic, but in the nineteenth sim ply "reckless." What have you got there? I call," said Tennes see, quietly. Two bowers and an ace," said the stranger, as 1 ] TENNESSEE S PARTNER quietly, showing two revolvers and a bowie-knife. That takes me," returned Tennessee ; and, with this gambler s epigram, he threw away his useless pistol, and rode back with his captor. <JIt was a warm night. The cool breeze which usually sprang up with the going down of the sun behind the chaparral-crested mountain was that evening withheld from Sandy Bar. The little canon was stifling with heated resinous odors, and the decaying driftwood on the Bar sent forth faint, sickening ex halations. The feverishness of day and its fierce passions still filled TENNESSEE S PARTNER [ 1 1 the camp. Lights moved restlessly along the bank of the river, strik ing no answering reflection from its tawny current. Against the blackness of the pines the win dows of the old loft above the express-office stood out staringly bright; and through their curtain- less panes, the loungers below could see the forms of those who were even then deciding the fate of Tennessee. And above all this, etched on the dark firmament, rose the Sierra, remote and pas sionless, crowned with remoter passionless stars. <|The trial of Tennessee was conducted as fairly 12] TENNESSEE S PARTNER as was consistent with a judge and jury who felt themselves to some extent obliged to justify, in their verdidt, the previous irregularities of arrest and indidlment. The law of Sandy Bar was implacable, but not vengeful. The excitement and personal feeling of the chase were over; with Tennessee safe in their hands they were ready to listen patiently to any defense, which they were already satisfied was insufficient. There being no doubt in their own minds, they were willing to give the prisoner the benefit of any that might exist. Secure in the hypothesis that he TENNESSEE S PARTNER [ 1 3 ought to be hanged, on general principles, they indulged him with more latitude of defense than his reckless hardihood seemed to ask. The Judge appeared to be more anxious than the prisoner, who, otherwise unconcerned, evidently took a grim pleasure in the re sponsibility he had created. "1 don t take any hand in this yer game," had been his invariable but good-humored reply to all questions. The Judge who was also his captor for a moment vaguely regretted that he had not shot him " on sight," that morning, but presently dismissed this human 14] TENNESSEE S PARTNER weakness as unworthy of the judicial mind. Nevertheless, when there was a tap at the door, and it was said that Tennessee s Part ner was there on behalf of the prisoner, he was admitted at once without question. Perhaps the younger members of the jury, to whom the proceedings were becoming irksomely thoughtful, hailed him as a relief. ^|For he was not, certainly, an imposing figure. Short and stout, with a square face, sunburned into a preternatural redness, clad in a loose duck" jumper" and trousers streaked and splashed with red TENNESSEE S PARTNER [ 1 5 soil, his aspedt under any circum stances would have been quaint, and was now even ridiculous. As he stooped to deposit at his feet a heavy carpet-bag he was carrying, it became obvious, from partially developed legends and inscriptions, that the material with which his trousers had been patched had been originally in tended for a less ambitious cover ing. Yet he advanced with great gravity, and after shaking the hand of each person in the room with labored cordiality, he wiped his serious, perplexed face on a red bandanna handkerchief, a 16] TENNESSEE S PARTNER shade lighter than his complexion, laid his powerful hand upon the table to steady himself, and thus addressed the Judge: "I was passin by," he began, by way of apology, " and I thought I d just step in and see how things was gittin on with Tennessee thar, my pardner. It s a hot night. I disremember any sich weather before on the Bar." flHe paused a moment, but nobody volunteer ing any other meteorological recol- ledtion, he again had recourse to his pocket-handkerchief, and for some moments mopped his face diligently. J " Have you anything TENNESSEE S PARTNER [ 1 7 to say on behalf of the prisoner?" said the Judge, finally. J " Thet s it," said Tennessee s Partner, in a tone of relief. "I come yar as Tennessee s pardner, knowing him nigh on four year, off and on, wet and dry, in luck and out o* luck. His ways ain t allers my ways, but thar ain t any p ints in that young man, thar ain t any liveliness as he s been up to, as I don t know. And you sez to me, sez you, confidential-like, and be tween man and man, sez you, Do you know anything in his be half? and I sez to you, sez I, confidential-like, as between man 18] TENNESSEE S PARTNER and man, What should a man know of his pardner ? <][ " Is this all you have to say?" asked the Judge impatiently, feeling, per haps, that a dangerous sympathy of humor was beginning to hu manize the court. <J"Thet s so," continued Tennessee s Partner. "It ain t for me to say anything agin him. And now, what s the case? Here s Tennessee wants money, wants it bad, and doesn t like to ask it of his old pardner. Well, what does Tennessee do ? He lays for a stranger, and he fetches that stranger; and you lays for him, and you fetches him; and the TENNESSEE S PARTNER [ 19 honors is easy. And I put it to you, bein a far-minded man, and to you, gentlemen all, as far-minded men, ef this isn t so." <[[" Pris oner," said the Judge, interrupt ing, "have you any questions to ask this man ? " fj " No ! no ! " con tinued Tennessee s Partner hastily. "I play this yer hand alone. To come down to the bed-rock, it s just this: Tennessee, thar, has played it pretty rough and expen- sive-like on a stranger, and on this yer camp. And now, what s the fair thing ? Some would say more ; some would say less. Here s sev enteen hundred dollars in coarse 20 ] TENNESSEE S PARTNER gold and a watch, it s about all my pile, and call it square!" And before a hand could be raised to prevent him, he had emptied the contents of the carpet-bag upon the table. ^[For a moment his life was in jeopardy. One or two men sprang to their feet, several hands groped for hidden weapons, and a suggestion to " throw him from the window," was only overridden by a gesture from the Judge. Ten nessee laughed. And apparently oblivious of the excitement,Tennes- see s Partner improved the oppor tunity to mop his face again with his handkerchief. <JWhen order TENNESSEE S PARTNER [21 was restored, and the man was made to understand, by the use of forcible figures and rhetoric, that Tennessee s offense could not be condoned by money, his face took a more serious and sanguinary hue, and those who were nearest to him noticed that his rough hand trembled slightly on the table. He hesitated a moment as he slowly returned the gold to the carpet bag, as if he had not yet entirely caught the elevated sense of justice which swayed the tribunal, and was perplexed with the belief that he had not offered enough. Then he turned to the Judge, and say- 22 ] TENNESSEE S PARTNER ing, "This yer is a lone hand, played alone, and without my pardner," he bowed to the jury and was about to withdraw, when the Judge called him back. "If you have anything to say to Ten nessee, you had better say it now." For the first time that evening the eyes of the prisoner and his strange advocate met. Tennessee smiled, showed his white teeth, and say ing, "Euchred, old man!" held out his hand. Tennessee s Partner took it in his own, and saying, " I just dropped in as I was passin to see how things was gettin on," let the hand passively fall, and TENNESSEE S PARTNER [ 23 adding that " it was a warm night," again mopped his face with his handkerchief, and without another word withdrew. JThe two men never again met each other alive. For the unparalleled insult of a bribe offered to Judge Lynch who, whether bigoted, weak, or narrow, was at least incorrupti ble firmly fixed in the mind of that mythical personage any wav ering determination of Tennessee s fate; and at the break of day he was marched, closely guarded, to meet it at the top of Marley s Hill. fJHow he met it, how cool he was, how he refused to say any- 24] TENNESSEE S PARTNER thing, how perfedt were the ar rangements of the committee, were all duly reported, with the addition of a warning moral and example to all future evil-doers, in the Red Dog Clarion, by its editor, who was present, and to whose vigor ous English I cheerfully refer the reader. But the beauty of that midsummer morning, the blessed amity of earth and air and sky, the awakened life of the free woods and hills, the joyous re newal and promise of Nature, and, above all, the infinite serenity that thrilled through each, was not re ported, as not being a part of the TENNESSEE S PARTNER [ 25 social lesson. And yet, when the weak and foolish deed was done, and a life, with its possibilities and responsibilities, had passed out of the misshapen thing that dangled between earth and sky, the birds sang, the flowers bloomed, the sun shone, as cheerily as before; and possibly the Red Dog Clarion was right. <J Tennessee s Partner was not in the group that surrounded the ominous tree. But as they turned to disperse, attention was drawn to the singular appearance of a motionless donkey-cart halted at the side of the road. As they approached, they at once recog- 26 ] TENNESSEE S PARTNER nized the venerable Jenny and the two-wheeled cart as the property of Tennessee s Partner, used by him in carrying dirt from his claim ; and a few paces distant, the owner of the equipage himself, sitting under a buckeye tree, wiping the perspiration from his glowing face. In answer to an inquiry, he said he had come for the body of the " diseased," " if it was all the same to the committee." He did n t wish to "hurry anything"; he could wait. He was not working that day; and when the gentlemen were done with the "diseased" he would take him. "Ef thar is TENNESSEE S PARTNER [27 any present," he added, in his simple, serious way, "as would care to jine in the fun l, they kin come." Perhaps it was from a sense of humor, which I have al ready intimated was a feature of Sandy Bar, perhaps it was from something even better than that; but two-thirds of the loungers ac cepted the invitation at once. | It was noon when the body of Ten nessee was delivered into the hands of his partner. As the cart drew up to the fatal tree, we noticed that it contained a rough oblong box, apparently made from a sedtion of sluicing, and 28] TENNESSEE S PARTNER half filled with bark and the tas sels of pine. The cart was further decorated with slips of willow, and made fragrant with buckeye- blossoms. When the body was deposited in the box, Tennessee s Partner drew over it a piece of tarred canvas, and gravely mount ing the narrow seat in front, with his feet upon the shafts, urged the little donkey forward. The equi page moved slowly on, at that de corous pace which was habitual with Jenny even under less solemn circumstances. The men half curiously, have jestingly, but all good-humoredly strolled along TENNESSEE S PARTNER [ 29 beside the cart ; some in advance, some a little in the rear, of the homely catafalque. But, whether from the narrowing of the road or some present sense of decorum, as the cart passed on, the company fell to the rear in couples, keeping step, and otherwise assuming the external show of a formal proces sion. Jack Folinsbee, who had at the outset played a funeral march in dumb show upon an imaginary trombone, desisted, from a lack of sympathy and appreciation, not having, perhaps, your true humor ist s capacity to be content with the enjoyment of his own fun. 30] TENNESSEE S PARTNER <JThe way led through Grizzly Canon, by this time clothed in fu nereal drapery and shadows. The redwoods, burying their mocca- sined feet in the red soil, stood in Indian-file along the track, trailing an uncouth benedidion from their bending boughs upon the passing bier. A hare, surprised into help less inadtivity, sat upright and pul sating in the ferns by the roadside, as the cortege went by. Squirrels hastened to gain a secure outlook from higher boughs ; and the blue- jays, spreading their wings, flut tered before them like outriders, until the outskirts of Sandy Bar TENNESSEE S PARTNER [31 were reached, and the solitary cabin of Tennessee s Partner. <I Viewed under more favorable circumstances, it would not have been a cheerful place. The un- pidturesque site, the rude and unlovely outlines, the unsavory details, which distinguish the nest- building of the California miner, were all here, with the dreariness of decay superadded. A few paces from the cabin there was a rough enclosure, which, in the brief days of Tennessee s Partner s matri monial felicity, had been used as a garden, but was now overgrown with fern. As we approached it 32 ] TENNESSEE S PARTNER we were surprised to find that what we had taken for a recent attempt at cultivation was the broken soil about an open grave. tJThe cart was halted before the enclosure; and rejecting the offers of assistance with the same air of simple self-reliance he had dis played throughout, Tennessee s Partner lifted the rough coffin on his back, and deposited it, unaided, within the shallow grave. He then nailed down the board which served as a lid, and, mounting the little mound of earth beside it, took off his hat, and slowly mopped his face with his hand- TENNESSEE S PARTNER [33 kerchief. This the crowd felt was a preliminary to speech ; and they disposed themselves variously on stumps and boulders, and sat ex- pedtant. <J " When a man," began Tennessee s Partner slowly, "has been running free all day, what s the natural thing for him to do? Why, to come home. And if he ain t in a condition to go home, what can his best friend do? Why, bring him home ! And here s Ten nessee has been running free, and we brings him home from his wandering." He paused, and picked up a fragment of quartz, rubbed it thoughtfully on his 34 ] TENNESSEE S PARTNER sleeve, and went on : " It ain t the first time that I ve packed him on my back, as you see d me now. It ain t the first time that I brought him to this yer cabin when he couldn t help himself; it ain t the first time that I and Jinny have waited for him on yon hill, and picked him up and so fetched him home, when he couldn t speak, and didn t know me. And now that it s the last time, why" he paused, and rubbed the quartz gently on his sleeve "you see it s sort of rough on his pardner. And now, gentlemen," he added abruptly, picking up his long- TENNESSEE S PARTNER [35 handled shovel, "the fun l s over; and my thanks, and Tennessee s thanks, to you for your trouble." ^[Resisting any proffers of assist ance, he began to fill in the grave, turning his back upon the crowd, that, after a few moments hesita tion, gradually withdrew. As they crossed the little ridge that hid Sandy Bar from view, some, look ing back, thought they could see Tennessee s Partner, his work done, sitting upon the grave, his shovel between his knees, and his face buried in his red bandanna handkerchief. But it was argued by others that you could n t tell his 36] TENNESSEE S PARTNER face from his handkerchief at that distance ; and this point remained undecided, ^f In the reaction that followed the feverish excitement of that day, Tennessee s Partner was not forgotten. A secret inves tigation had cleared him of any complicity in Tennessee s guilt, and left only a suspicion of his general sanity. Sandy Bar made a point of calling on him, and proffering various uncouth but well-meant kindnesses. But from that day his rude health and great strength seemed visibly to decline; and when the rainy season fairly set in, and the tiny grass-blades TENNESSEE S PARTNER [37 were beginning to peep from the rocky mound above Tennessee s grave, he took to his bed. J One night, when the pines beside the cabin were swaying in the storm, and trailing their slender fingers over the roof, and the roar and rush of the swollen river were heard below, Tennessee s Partner lifted his head from the pillow, saying, "It is time to go for Ten nessee; I must put Jinny in the cart;" and would have risen from his bed but for the restraint of his attendant. Struggling, he still pur sued his singular fancy: " There, now, steady, Jinny, steady, old 38 ] TENNESSEE S PARTNER girl. How dark it is! Look out for the ruts, and look out for him, too, old gal. Sometimes, you know, when he s blind drunk, he drops down right in the trail. Keep on straight up to the pine on the top of the hill. Thar! I told you so! thar he is, com ing this way, too, all by himself, sober, and his face a-shining. Ten nessee! Pardner!" | And so they met. HERE ENDS N9 THREE OF THE WESTERN CLASSICS. BEING TENNESSEE S PARTNER BY BRET HARTE, THE INTRODUCTION BY WILLIAM DALLAMARMES. THE PHOTO- GRAVURE FRONTISPIECE BY ALBERTINE RANDALL WHEELAN. OF THIS FIRST EDITION ONE THOUSAND COPIES HAVE BEEN ISSUED, PRINTED UPON FABRIANO HANDMADE PAPER. THE TYPOGRAPHY DESIGNED BY J. H. NASH. PUBLISHED BY PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY, AND DONE INTO A BOOK FOR THEM AT THE TOMOYE PRESS, NEW YORK CITY. IN THE YEAR NINETEEN HUNDRED AND SEVEN THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $I.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY OVERDUE. DEC 1932 $& IB 1933 AUG 29 1934 18 1935 MAY 8 1S42E AUG 12 1942 I70ec FEB 1 1 1955 LU 25Nov 64LM rtEC D LD 10/9S5 35 REC D LD 21-50m-63i 395586 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY