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 Tennessee; I must put Jinny in the cart”; and would have risen from his bed but for the restraint of his attendant.  Struggling, he still pursued his singular fancy:  “There, now, steady, Jinny,—­steady, old 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,—­coming this way, too,—­all by himself, sober, and his face a-shining.  Tennessee!  Pardner!”

And so they met.

NOTES

=Sandy Bar=:—­The imaginary mining-camp in which Bret Harte laid the scenes of many of his stories.

=dungaree=:—­A coarse kind of unbleached cotton cloth.

=I call=:—­An expression used in the game of euchre.

=bowers=:—­Bower is from the German word bauer, meaning a peasant,—­so called from the jack or knave; the right bower, in the game of euchre, is the jack of trumps, and the left bower is the other jack of the same color.

=chaparral=:—­A thicket of scrub-oaks or thorny shrubs.

=euchred=:—­Defeated, as in the game of euchre.

=Judge Lynch=:—­A name used for the hurried judging and executing of a suspected person, by private citizens, without due process of law.  A Virginian named Lynch is said to have been connected with the origin of the expression.

“=diseased=":—­Tennessee’s Partner means deceased.

=sluicing=:—­A trough for water, fitted with gates and valves; it is used in washing out gold from the soil.

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

Why is the first sentence a good introduction?  Compare it with the first sentence of Quite So, page 21.  In this selection, why does the author say so much about names?  Of what value is the first paragraph?  Why is it necessary to tell about Tennessee’s Partner’s earlier experiences?  Who were “the boys” who gathered to see the shooting?  Why did they think there would be shooting?  Why was there not?  Why does the author not give us a fuller picture of Tennessee?  What is the proof that he had “a fine flow of humor”?  Try in a few words to sum up his character.  Read carefully the paragraph beginning “It was a warm night”:  How does the author give us a good picture of Sandy Bar?  Tell in your own words the feelings of the judge, the prisoner, and the jury, as explained in the paragraph beginning “The trial of Tennessee.”  What does the author gain by such expressions as “a less ambitious covering,” “meteorological recollection”?