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Harte, Bret, 1836-1902

"Drift from Two Shores"

"
Why did the Boy Chief turn pale, and clutch at the tent-pole for
support? Why, indeed!
"Eliza J. Sniffen," gasped Jenkins, "aged fourteen, red-haired,
with a slight tendency to strabismus?"
"The same."
"Heaven help me! She died by my mandate!"
"Traitor!" shrieked Chitterlings, rushing at Jenkins with a drawn
poniard.
But a figure interposed. The slight girlish form of Mushymush with
outstretched hands stood between the exasperated Pirate Prodigy and
the Boy Chief.
"Forbear," she said sternly to Chitterlings; "you know not what you
do."
The two youths paused.
"Hear me," she said rapidly. "When captured in a confectioner's
shop at New Rochelle, E. J. Sniffen was taken back to poverty. She
resolved to become a schoolmistress. Hearing of an opening in the
West, she proceeded to Colorado to take exclusive charge of the
pensionnat of Mad. Choflie, late of Paris. On the way thither she
was captured by the emissaries of the Boy Chief--"
"In consummation of a fatal vow I made never to spare educational
instructors," interrupted Jenkins.


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