LEON CHAPTER 9

 For Sale
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The events of the last few months seem to repeat themselves, miners discouraged and heading home.

Some having luck and losing their gold to the gamblers while waiting for the ship to arrive and men getting shot and killed for little or no reason.

Nellie's goods were arriving without any trouble with the captain. Wolf would go out with Leon now since they had become friends and Leon insisted Nellie take the dog along if Leon wasn't with her.

She had another birthday and Leon noticed that men of all ages were becoming very friendly and some were trying to be with her, and at the same time she seemed to enjoy all of the attention heaped upon her.

When he first met Nellie she wasn't like that for she wouldn't have even spoke to them except to sell them something.  He wasn't sure how to handle this or even if he should.

Then he had a strange thought and that was he wished Mrs. Loomis was around for she would know how to handle this situation.

Thomas had been gone for two years now and both Leon and Nellie were worried for he wasn't supposed to be gone that long.

Then one day there were three miners came into the store.  Nellie had met them before for they had bought equipment from them a couple of years ago.

They told Nellie they were bearers of some bad news concerning her father. 

 

Apparently Thomas had fallen and by the time they found him he had died. They would have come sooner but they had to finish out the season for they were not doing very well mining.

They brought Thomas' things and they also brought his pouches with quite a sum in gold. Their claims didn't pan out for them and after Thomas died they mined some gold from Thomas' claim which they included in the pouches.

 
They said they felt it was only right to bring her his gold but wondered if she could see her way clear to buy them tickets home for they were almost broke.

Nellie said she would like to be alone but asked Leon to give them whatever they needed.

She realized they could have kept it all and never said anything about it.

Leon gave them enough for their tickets and money to spend for food and some extras.

They were very grateful and said that Thomas' claim is worth quite a bit of money for it was producing a good amount of gold. Leon kept the store open until closing time and then went to where Nellie was still weeping.

He took her and held her close and stayed with her through the night. The next morning they went about their business as usual but their minds were on Thomas and the loss they felt.

Leon felt it was time to go back home or at least to San Francisco so he talked to Nellie about it and after thinking it over she concluded that this was her fathers dream, and not hers and agreed to return with Leon.

They had too much to do so they couldn't leave with the next ship but would depart in about two months when the ship returned again.

The next week the ship arrived with several loads of goods for the store.  This time Nellie had not made a list for things the store would need because the store would be sold “as is” which included Wolf, their guard dog.

They let it be known that Thomas' mining claim was for sale and it sold for a good price the very next day.  
 

During the next two months they sold the store including the building with all the remaining goods.  The new owner agreed to keep “Wolf the Dog” as he was good security to guard them by sleeping near the pot belly store.   

Now Leon and Nellie waited for the next ship to arrive.

Before the ship had docked they had bought two first class tickets and soon were on their way to San Francisco.    

 

To be Continued