Miss Dennihan, sister of "Doc" Dennihan, was undeniably If-only Jim's
exact antithesis--a scrupulously tidy, exacting lady, so severe in her
virtues and so acrid in denunciations of the lack of down-east
circumspection that nearly every man in camp shied off from her abode
as he might have shied from a bath in nitric acid. Six months prior to
this time she had come to Borealis from the East, unexpectedly plumping
down upon her brother "Doc" with all her moral fixity of purpose, not
only to his great distress of mind, but also to that of all his
acquaintances as well. She had raided the ethical standing of miners,
teamsters, and men-about-town; she had outwardly and inwardly condemned
the loose and indecorous practices of the camp; she had made herself an
accusing hand, as it were, pointing out the road to perdition which all
and sundry of the citizens of Borealis, including "Doc," were
travelling. If-only Jim had promptly responded to her natural
antipathy to all that he represented, and the strained relations
between the pair had furnished much amusement for the male population
of the place.
It was now to this lady that Field and his friend proposed a visit.
The group of men broke up, and the news that each one had to tell of
the doings of Jim was widely spread; and the wonder increased till it
stretched to the farthest confines of the place. Then as fast as the
miners and other laborers, who were busy with work, could get away for
a time sufficiently long, they made the pilgrimage up the slope to the
cabin where the tiny foundling had domicile. They found the timid
little man seated, with his doll, on the floor, from which he watched
them gravely, in his baby way.
Half the honors of receiving the groups and showing off the quaint
little Skeezucks were assumed by Keno, with a grace that might have
been easy had he not been obliged to pull down his shirt-sleeves with
such exasperating frequency.
But Jim was the hero of the hour, as he very well knew. Time after
time, and ever with thrilling new detail and added incident, he
recounted the story of his find, gradually robbing even Tintoretto, the
pup, of such of the glory as he really had earned.
The pup, however, was recklessly indifferent. He could pile up fresh
glories every minute by bowling the little pilgrim on his back and
walking on his chest to lap his ear. This he proceeded to do, in his
clumsy way of being friendly, with a regularity only possible to an
enthusiast. And every time he did it anew, either Keno or Jim or a
visitor would shy something at him and call him names. This, however,
only served to incite him to livelier antics of licking everybody's
face, wagging himself against the furniture, and dragging the various
bombarding missiles between the legs of all the company.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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