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Page: of 22
. December 26, 1963...The Nugget... Page 9
Page 9..
barked, welcoming the new dawn
coming down from the Browns
Valley hills, But Ella heard none
of them.
She stopped at the kitchen door
and looked far downthe lane road
tothe school house, and Gus following her gaze, too, to see a
little boy on a pony turn and
wave.
Ella Mead never really laughed
again. And now began the bitter
years, She went about the house
as usual cooking, waiting on
people, always pleasant andkind,
but there were no jokes or laughter
and soon trade began to fall off.
And, then one day, she found
Gus slumped in a chair unable to
speak.
Dr, Rodgers looked pityingly at
thewoman. “It's a stroke, a bad
one. The Rideout Hospital...”
"No, not Gus sick and among
strangers. Somehow I'll manage."
Andshe did manage until Prohibition came into being. After
that it was arrest after arrest, for
she still sold liquor; it was her
only way of living and caring for
Gus. After the first arrest Ella
asked for any kind of work she
might do at home but the farmer's wives curtly refused her.
When the last bottle of liquor
wassold, Ella ransacked the house
for forgotten money. Their savings had long since vanished.
There was still the furniture-Rosewood, Mahogany, Brussels
carpets, cut glass and solid silver,
all went.
Before the house was empty,
Gus slept quietly in death, Johnnie's bicycle that he had never
seen paid for the small marker
that Ella had placed on Gus' grave.
Ella closed her door on the
w orld and lived alone with her
memories. The farm people
watching her wander the fields in
all kinds of weather wondered
how she lived for none of them
saw the boxes that Ella‘s teamster boys left regularly on the
kitchen step.
Dr. Rodgers bent over the little
boy inthe free ward of the County
Hospital. He spoke to the nurse:
“He needs a bone specialist,
but as always, there’sno money."
The good doctor looked with
compassion into the pain-filled
dark eyes and memory stirred.
“What is your name, Sonny?”
"Johnnie," the little fellow
whispered, and the tired doctor
remembered at last that it was
Christmas Eve, forhis mind
flashed back to another Christmas
Eve--another Johnnie.
Home had never seemed so tormentingly desirable as it did that
night to the tired doctor, but he
turned his car up the levee road
toward Browns Valley and the
Mead's road house. The place
was without sound or light but Dr.
Rodgers finally found Ella Mead
huddled on a cot in Johnnie's
cabin.
The nurse viewed with alarm
the ragged, blanket wrapped
skeleton the doctor brought in
(Continued on Page 20)
_ Seasons Ce
Creetings and
Best Wishes
to everyone...
from all of us at
Motzer Lope BANK
MEMBER F.D.1.C.
PLACERVILLE, CALIFORNIA
BRANCHES IN: GRASS VALLEY » SONORA + FOLSOM
Seeman o arenes Ai ots