Withholder.
DICK SPINDLER'S FAMILY CHRISTMAS
There was surprise and sometimes disappointment in Rough and Ready, when
it was known that Dick Spindler intended to give a "family" Christmas
party at his own house. That he should take an early opportunity to
celebrate his good fortune and show hospitality was only expected from
the man who had just made a handsome "strike" on his claim; but that it
should assume so conservative, old-fashioned, and respectable a form was
quite unlooked-for by Rough and Ready, and was thought by some a trifle
pretentious. There were not half-a-dozen families in Rough and Ready;
nobody ever knew before that Spindler had any relations, and this
"ringing in" of strangers to the settlement seemed to indicate at least
a lack of public spirit. "He might," urged one of his critics, "hev
given the boys,--that had worked alongside o' him in the ditches by day,
and slung lies with him around the camp-fire by night,--he might hev
given them a square 'blow out,' and kep' the leavin's for his old
Spindler crew, just as other families do.
Pages:
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130