British Columbia -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Revenge -- Fiction; Sawmills -- Fiction
It was no joke to Jenny presently that "Misder Guin" ran after her.
But then it is no joke at any time to be the acknowledged belle of
any place, even if it is a Saw-Mill Sawdust Town, and the truth is
that Jenny shone even among the white women, gorgeous in their pride
and occasional new frocks from San Francisco, the Paris of the Coast.
There wasn't a white "litty gal" in the City who was a patch on her:
she was the "slickest piece of caliker" within long miles. Folks who
were critical and travelled, said that there was her equal over at
Victoria, but that was far off, and much water lay between. From the
mighty white-peaked summit of the Rockies, and the wonders of the
Selkirks, down through the Landing and Kamloops and Yale at the end
of the Cañon away to Westminster, she was the prettiest.
Think of it and consider that she lived in a two-roomed shack with a
decent-looking wedger-off who was a Sitcum Siwash! She got
compliments on the street as she went up and down town.
"Great Scott, she's a daisy!"
"By the Great Horn Spoon, and also by the Tail of the Sacred Bull,
she knocks spots off of the hull crowd."
Such things said openly have their effect. But the tulips on the
dressing-gown did even more, and the high-heeled shoes. She hankered
after things in the streets to which the dressing-gown was but a
faded flower. Quin spoke to her once as she glared into a window.
"You like that, Jenny?"
"Oh, my," said little greedy Jenny.
Quin didn't care a hang if he spoke to the little klootchman in
public. He wasn't in society, for even in the River City there was
Society. They drew the line at squaw-men who went to dance-houses
and so on. But for that, the Manager and Owner of a Mill (or half
one or even a quarter) could have had entrance to the loftiest
gaieties and the dullest on earth. He didn't "give a damn," not a
"continental," for the "hull boiling," said Quin. Jenny was his
mark, you can take your oath.
She was worth it in looks only, that's the best and worst of it.
"Oh, my," said Jenny.
"I'll give it you: it's my potlatsh," said the Manager, who cared
little for dollars when the girls came in.
It was a "potlatsh," a gift indeed! To get Jenny, Quin would have
done "a big brave's potlatsh" and given away all he owned, horses,
mill, house, and all. That's a fact, and it must be remembered as
Papp said, that "dey also veels as if dey would braig somedings!"
She got the gorgeous silk of tartan stripes that flared in the window
like a light lightening the darkness, for Quin went in and bought
what is known as a dress length and sent it down to her by his
Chinese "boy." When he met Pete in the road at noon that day he
stopped him.
"Oh, Pete----"
"Sir," said Pete respectfully, for the Tyee was so big and strong
besides being a Tyee, which always counts.
"I have given your wife some stuff to make a dress. She was very
good to my brother and to Mary," said Quin. "She's a very good
little girl."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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