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Show &s~ 280-THE MAENAD IN THE CATARACT verge of my manhood, and yet I was innocent. What I mean is, all me odier young men I know, by the time they were sixteen and standing upon me verge of manhood, all without exception had lain with a woman. There are probably fewer girls out here in the wide open spaces man in your wicked city of San Francisco; but, nevertheless, a few dancehall girls can go a long ways. Naturally, diough, we have die other kind of girls too, nice girls, seven of diem, all of whom I have danced with enough in the school house so mat I have at one time or another, on separate occasions of course, gotten familiar with each one. Invariably the girl said NO, or DON'T, and so of course I immediately desisted, whereupon the girl would look disappointed and fall into a funk. Strangely, I felt relief. Much gayer, you may be sure, are the bad girls, the dancehall girls, for one of which I had been saving my pocket money since I was fourteen. But on the day when I had at last amassed the sum required, and was prepared to step off the verge into manhood, there barring my way stood Mr. Absalom Wade, owner of Fecundo's only saloon and hotel, to tell me that the bad girls were forbidden to me! Naturally I wanted to know why, when any other sixteen-year-old standing on the verge of manhood could go upstairs with a dancehall girl, why could not I? After much palaver, Mr. Wade informed me that my own father was a silent partner in his nefarious enterprise of selling whiskey and women, and that Pa had forbidden the girls to me. Again, strangely, I felt relief. However, I could not avoid the harsh truth that there are only two kinds of girls in the world, good girls and bad, and that I was barred from them both, uninvited to the feast of life. It was with that in mind that I sought upon the gentle breast of Mother Nature my balm and my solace. But, as I was saying, it was a matter of life and death! I had followed Lusty Creek high into the mountains where the stream had turned into a veritable cataract of water plunging down the mountainside, smashing to foam on the rocks and swirling in white splendor, with spray. There I did espy a female person in the cataract, clinging to a half-submerged rock. You can imagine my surprise, not expecting to see a female person in a cataract clinging to a half-submerged rock! Why? Wherefore? I rubbed my eyes and looked again. Yes! she was definitely there! Did she fall? Was she pushed? Did she alas! - jump? What was she doing in the mountains in the first instance, what with grizzlies and other fierce critters? Did |