^^^HHHHIHHHHBHHHHHVwHIBHHHHHHwBHBHHHHBMMHe 
 
 THE FOOL 
 
 FIVE FORKS 
 
 BY 
 
 [[BRET HARTE 
 
 &$& 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS. 
 
University of California Berkeley 
 
 Gift of 
 ROBERT B. HONEYMAN, JR. 
 
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THE 
 
 FOOL OF FIVE FORKS 
 
 BY 
 
 BRET HARTE 
 
 LONDON 
 GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS 
 
 THE BROADWAY, LUDGATE. 
 
LONDON : 
 PRINTED BY WOODFALL AND KINDER, 
 
 MILFORD LANE, STRAND, W.C. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE FOOL OF FIVE FORKS . . . . .7 
 
 RAMON 77 
 
 FOR THE KING .84 
 
 DON DIEGO OF THE SOUTH 99 
 
 LUKE I07 
 
 "THE BABES IN THE WOODS" . . . .116 
 THE GHOST THAT JIM SAW . . . . .122 
 WHAT THE CHIMNEY SANG 127 
 
THE 
 
 FOOL OF FIVE FORKS. 
 
THE 
 
 FOOL OF FIVE FORKS. 
 
 HE lived alone. I do not think this pecu 
 liarity arose from any wish to withdraw his 
 foolishness from the rest of the camp, nor 
 was it probable that the combined wisdom 
 of Five Forks ever drove him into exile. 
 My impression is, that he lived alone from 
 choice a choice he made long before the 
 camp indulged in any criticism of his mental 
 capacity. He was much given to moody re 
 ticence, and, although to outward appearances 
 
8 The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 a strong man, was always complaining of 
 ill health. Indeed, one theory of his isolation 
 was that it afforded him better opportunities 
 for taking medicine, of which he habitually 
 consumed large quantities. 
 
 His folly first dawned upon Five Forks 
 through the Post Office windows. He was 
 for a long time the only man who wrote home 
 by every mail, his letters being always directed 
 to the same person a woman. Now it so 
 happened that the bulk of the Five Forks' 
 correspondence was usually the other way ; 
 there were many letters received the majority 
 being in the female hand but very few 
 answered. 
 
 The men received them indifferently, or as 
 a matter of course ; a few opened and read 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 9 
 
 them on the spot with a barely repressed smile 
 of self-conceit, or quite as frequently glanced 
 over them with undisguised impatience. Some 
 of the letters began with " My dear husband," 
 and some were never called for. But the fact 
 that the only regular correspondent of Five 
 Forks never received any reply became at 
 last quite notorious. Consequently, when an 
 envelope was received bearing the stamp of 
 the "Dead Letter (Xficj " addressed to the 
 Fool, under the more conventional title of 
 " Cyrus Hawkins," there was quite a fever of 
 excitement. I do not know how the secret 
 leaked out, but it was eventually known to 
 the camp that the envelope contained Haw- 
 kins' own letters returned. This was the first 
 evidence of his weakness ; any man who re- 
 
TO The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 peatedly wrote to a woman who did not reply 
 must be a fool. I think Hawkins suspected 
 that his folly was known to the camp, but he 
 took refuge in symptoms of chills and fever, 
 which he at once developed, and affected a 
 diversion with three bottles of Indian cholo- 
 gogue and two boxes of pills. At all events, 
 at the end of a week he resumed a pen, 
 stiffened by tonics, with all his old epistolatory 
 pertinacity. This time the letters had a new 
 address. 
 
 In those days a popular belief obtained in 
 the mines that Luck particularly favored the 
 foolish and unscientific. Consequently, when 
 Hawkins struck a "pocket" in the hill-side 
 near his solitary cabin, there was but little 
 surprise. " He will sink it all in the next 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 1 1 
 
 hole," was the prevailing belief, predicated 
 
 
 upon the usual manner in which the possessor 
 
 of " nigger luck" disposed of his fortune. 
 To everybody's astonishment, Hawkins, after 
 taking out about eight thousand dollars and 
 exhausting the pocket, did not prospect for 
 another. The camp then waited patiently to 
 see what he would do with his money. I 
 think, however, that it was with the greatest 
 difficulty their indignation was kept ' from 
 taking the form of a personal assault when 
 it became known that he had purchased a 
 draft for eight thousand dollars in favor of 
 "that woman." More than this, it was finally 
 whispered that the draft was returned to him 
 as his letters had been, and that he was 
 ashamed to reclaim the money at the ex- 
 
12 The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 press office. " It wouldn't be a bad speci- 
 
 lation to go East, get some smart gal for a 
 
 I 
 
 hundred dollars to dress herself up and repre 
 sent that hag, and jest freeze onto that eight 
 thousand," suggested a far-seeing financier. 
 I may state here that we always alluded to 
 Hawkins' fair unknown as " The Hag," without 
 having, I am confident, the least justification 
 for that epithet. 
 
 That the Fool should gamble seemed emi 
 nently fit and proper. That he should occa 
 sionally win a large stake, according to that 
 popular theory which I have recorded in the 
 preceding paragraph, appeared also a not 
 improbable or inconsistent fact. That he 
 should, however, break the faro bank which 
 Mr. John Hamlin had set up in Five Forks } 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 1 3 
 
 and carry off a sum variously estimated at 
 from ten to twenty thousand dollars, and 
 not return the next day and lose the 
 money at the same table, really appeared 
 incredible. Yet such was the fact A day 
 or two passed without any known investment 
 of Mr. Hawkins' recently-acquired capital. 
 " Ef he allows to send it to that Hag," said 
 one prominent citizen, " suthin ought to be 
 done ! It's jest ruinin' the reputation of this 
 yer camp this sloshin' around o' capital on 
 non-residents ez don't claim it ! " " It's set- 
 tin' an example o' extravagance," said 
 another, " ez is little better nor a swindle. 
 Thais mor'n five men in this camp thet, 
 hearin' thet Hawkins had sent home eight 
 thousand dollars, must jest rise up and send 
 
14 The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 home their hard earnings, too ! And, then, 
 to think thet that eight thousand was only 
 a bluff, after all, and thet it's lyin' there on 
 call in Adams & Co.'s bank! Well! I say 
 it's one o' them things a vigilance committee 
 oughter look into!" 
 
 When there seemed no possibility of this 
 repetition of Hawkins' folly, the anxiety to 
 know what he had really done with his 
 money became intense. At last a self-ap 
 pointed committee of four citizens dropped 
 artfully, but to outward appearances care 
 lessly, upon him in his seclusion. When 
 some polite formalities had been exchanged, 
 and some easy vituperation of a backward 
 season offered by each of the parties, Tom 
 Wingate approached the subject : 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 15 
 
 " Sorter dropped heavy on Jack Hamlin 
 the other night, didn't ye ? He allows you 
 didn't give him no show for revenge. I said 
 you wasn't no such d d fool didn't I, 
 Dick ? " continued the artful Wingate, appeal 
 ing to a confederate. 
 
 "Yes," said Dick promptly. "You said 
 twenty thousand dollars wasn't goin' to be 
 thrown around recklessly. You said Cyrus 
 had suthin' better to do with his capital," 
 superadded Dick, with gratuitous mendacity. 
 " I disremember now what partickler invest 
 ment you said he was goin' to make with 
 it," he continued, appealing with easy indif 
 ference to his friend. 
 
 Of course Wingate did not reply, but 
 looked at the Fool, who with a troubled 
 
1 6 TJie Fool of Five Forks 
 
 face, was rubbing his legs softly. After a 
 pause he turned deprecatingly toward his 
 visitors. 
 
 "Ye didn't enny of ye ever hev a sort of 
 tremblin' in your legs a kind o' shakiness 
 from the knee down ? Suthin'," he continued, 
 slightly brightening with his topic, " suthin' 
 that begins like chills, and yet ain't chills. 
 A kind o' sensation of goneness here, and 
 a kind o' feelin' as if you might die sud- 
 dent ! When Wright's Pills don't somehow 
 reach the spot, and Quinine don't fetch 
 you?" 
 
 " No ! " said Windgate, with a curt direct 
 ness, and the air of authoritatively responding 
 for his friends. " No, never had. You was 
 speakin' of this yer investment." 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 17 
 
 " And your bowels all the time irregular ! " 
 continued Hawkins, blushing under Wingate's 
 eye, and yet clinging despairingly to his 
 theme like a shipwretched manner to his 
 plank. 
 
 Wingate did not reply, but glanced sig* 
 nificantly at the rest. Hawkins evidently saw 
 this recognition of his mental deficiency, and 
 said apologetically, "You was saying suthin 
 about my investment.?" 
 
 "Yes," said Wingate, so rapidly as to 
 almost take Hawkins' breath away "the in 
 vestment you made in " 
 
 " Rafferty's Ditch," said the Fool, timidly/ 
 
 P"or a moment the visitors could only stare- 
 blankly at each other. " Rafferty's Ditch,' 
 the one notorious failure of Five Forks 
 
 C 
 
1 8 The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 Rafferty's Ditch, the impracticable scheme of 
 an utterly unpractical man ; Rafferty's Ditch, 
 a ridiculous plan for taking water that could 
 not be got to a place where it wasn't 
 wanted ! Rafferty's Ditch, that had buried 
 the fortunes of Rafferty and twenty wretched 
 stockholders in its muddy depths ! 
 
 "And thet's it is it?" said Wingate, after 
 a gloomy pause. "Thet's it! I see it all 
 now, boys. That's how ragged Pat Rafferty 
 went down to San Francisco yesterday [in 
 store clothes, and his wife and four children 
 went off in a kerridge to Sacramento. Thet's 
 why them ten workmen of his ez hedn't a 
 cent to bless themselves with was playin' 
 billiards last night and eatin' isters. Thet's 
 whar that money kum frum one hundred 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 19 
 
 dollars to pay for thet long advertisement 
 of the new issue of Ditch stock in the Times 
 yesterday. Thet's why them six strangers 
 were booked at the Magnolia Hotel yester 
 day. Don't you see it's thet money and 
 thet Fool!" 
 
 The Fool sat silent. The visitors rose 
 without a word. 
 
 "You never took any. of them Indian 
 Vegetable Pills ? " asked Hawkins timidly, of 
 Wingate. 
 
 "No," roared Wingate, as he opened the 
 door. 
 
 "They tell me that took with the Pa 
 nacea they was out o' the Panacea when 
 I went to the drug store -last week they 
 say that, took with the Panacea, they 
 
 C 2 
 
2O The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 always effect a certing cure." But by 
 this time Wingate and his disgusted friends 
 had retreated, slamming the door on the 
 Fool and his ailments. 
 
 Nevertheless in six months the whole 
 affair was forgotten, the money had been 
 spent the " Ditch " had been purchased by 
 a company of Boston capitalists, fired by 
 the glowing description of an Eastern tourist, 
 who had spent one drunken night at 
 Five Forks and I think even the mental 
 condition of Hawkins might have remained 
 undisturbed by criticism, but for a singular 
 incident. 
 
 It was during an exciting political campaign, 
 when party feeling ran high, that the irascible 
 Capt. McFadden, of Sacramento, visited Five 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 2 1 
 
 Forks. During a heated discussion in the 
 Prairie Rose Saloon words passed between the 
 Captain and the Hon. Calhoun Bungstarter, 
 ending in a challenge. The Captain bore the 
 infelix reputation of being a notorious duelist 
 and a dead shot ; the Captain was unpopular ; 
 the Captain was believed to have been sent by 
 the opposition for a deadly purpose, and the 
 Captain was, moreover, a stranger. I am sorry 
 to say that with Five Forks this latter condition 
 did not carry the quality of sanctity or reverence 
 that usually obtains among other nomads. 
 There was consequently some little hesitation 
 when the Captain turned upon the crowd and 
 asked for some one to act as his friend. To 
 everybody's .astonishment, and to the indig 
 nation of many, the Fool stepped forward and 
 
22 The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 offered himself in that capacity. I do not know 
 whether Capt. McFadden would have chosen 
 him voluntarily, but he was constrained, in the 
 absence of a better man, to accept his services. 
 
 The duel never took place ! The prelim 
 inaries were all arranged, the spot indicated, the 
 men were present with their seconds, there was 
 no interruption from without, there was no 
 explanation or apology passed but the duel 
 did not take place. It may be readily imagined 
 that these facts, which were all known to Five 
 Forks, threw the whole community into a fever 
 of curiosity. The principals, the surgeon, and 
 one second left town the next day. Only the 
 Fool remained. He resisted all questioning 
 declaring himself held in honor not to divulge 
 in short, conducted himself with consistent but 
 
24 T/ie Pool of Five Forks. 
 
 Sacramento on the only other occasion when I 
 entered into an explanation of this delicate 
 affair by er er calling the individual to a 
 personal account er ! I do not believe," added 
 the Colonel, slightly waving his glass of liquor 
 n the air with a graceful gesture of courteous 
 deprecation " knowing what I do of the present 
 company that such a course of action is re 
 quired here. Certainly not Sir in the home 
 of Mr. Hawkins er the gentleman who repre 
 sented Mr. Bungstarter, whose conduct, ged, 
 Sir, is worthy of praise, blank me ! " 
 
 Apparently satisfied with the gravity and 
 respectful attention of his listeners, Colonel 
 Starbottle smiled relentingly and sweetly, 
 closed his eyes half dreamily, as if to recall 
 his wandering thoughts, and began : 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 2$ 
 
 "As the spot selected was nearest the 
 tenement of Mr. Hawkins, it was agreed 
 that the parties should meet there. They 
 did so promptly at half-past six. The morn 
 ing being chilly, Mr. Hawkins extended the 
 hospitalities of his house with a bottle of 
 Bourbon whisky of which all partook but 
 myself. The reason for that exception is, I 
 believe, well known. It is my invariable 
 custom to take brandy a wine-glassful in a 
 cup of strong coffee, immediately on rising. 
 It stimulates the functions, sir, without pro 
 ducing any blank derangement of the 
 nerves." 
 
 The barkeeper, to whom, as an expert, 
 the Colonel had graciously imparted this 
 information, nodded approvingly, and the 
 
26 The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 Colonel, amid a breathless silence, went 
 on: 
 
 "We were about twenty minutes in reach 
 ing the spot. The ground was measured, 
 the weapons were loaded, when Mr. Bung- 
 starter confided to me the information that 
 he was unwell and in great Pain! On con 
 sultation with Mr. Hawkins, it appeared that 
 his principal in a distant part of the field 
 was also suffering and in great Pain. The 
 symptoms were such as a medical man 
 would pronounce ' choleraic.' I say would 
 have pronounced, for on examination the 
 surgeon was also found to be er in Pain, 
 and, I regret to say, expressing himself in 
 language unbecoming the occasion. His 
 impression was that some powerful drug had 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 27 
 
 been administered. On referring the ques 
 tion to Mr. Hawkins, he remembered that 
 the bottle of whisky partaken by them con 
 tained a medicine which he had been in the 
 habit of taking, but which, having failed to 
 act upon him, he had concluded to be gene 
 rally ineffective, and had forgotten. His per 
 fect willingness to hold himself personally 
 responsible to each of the parties, his gen 
 uine concern at the disastrous effect of the 
 mistake, mingled with his own alarm at the 
 state of his system, which er failed to er 
 respond to the peculiar qualities of the 
 medicine, was most becoming to him as a 
 man of honor and a gentleman ! After an 
 hour's delay, both principals being completely 
 exhausted, and abandoned by the surgeon, 
 
condition, Mr. Hawkins and I agreed to re 
 move our men to Markleville. There, after 
 a further consultation with Mr. Hawkins, an 
 amicable adjustment of all difficulties, honor 
 able to both parties, and governed by pro 
 found secrecy, was arranged. I believe," 
 added the Colonel, looking around and 
 setting down his glass, " no gentleman has 
 yet expressed himself other than satisfied with 
 the result." 
 
 Perhaps it was the Colonel's manner, but 
 whatever was the opinion of Five Forks re 
 garding the intellectual display of Mr. Haw 
 kins in this affair, there was very little out 
 spoken criticism at the moment. In a few 
 weeks the whole thing was forgotten, except 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 29 
 
 as part of the necessary record of Hawkins' 
 blunders, which was already a pretty full 
 one. Again some later follies conspired to 
 obliterate the past, until, a year later, a 
 valuable lead was discovered in the " Blazing 
 Star " Tunnel, in the hill where he lived, 
 and a large sum was offered him for a por 
 tion of his land on the hill-top. Accustomed 
 as Five Forks had become to the exhibition 
 of his folly, it was with astonishment that 
 they learned that he resolutely and decidedly 
 refused the offer. The reason that he gave 
 was still more astounding. He was about 
 to build! 
 
 To build a house upon property available 
 for mining purposes was preposterous ; to 
 build at all with a roof already covering 
 
3O The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 him, was an act of extravagance ; to build a 
 house of the style he proposed was simply 
 madness ! 
 
 Yet here were facts. The plans were made 
 and the lumber for the new building was 
 already on the ground, while the shaft of 
 the " Blazing Star " was being sunk below. 
 The site was, in reality, a very picturesque 
 one the building itself of a style and quality 
 hitherto unknown in Five Forks. The citizens, 
 at first skeptical, during their moments of 
 recreation and idleness gathered doubtingly 
 about the locality. Day by day, in that 
 climate of rapid growths, the building plea 
 santly known in the slang of Five Forks as 
 " the Idiot Asylum," rose Reside the green 
 oaks and clustering firs of Hawkins Hill, as 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 31 
 
 \ 
 
 if it were part of the natural phenomena. 
 At last it was completed. Then Mr. Hawkins 
 proceeded to furnish it with an expensiveness 
 and extravagance of outlay quite in keeping 
 with his former idiocy. Carpets, sofas, mirrors, 
 and finally a piano the only one known in 
 the county, and brought at great expense 
 from Sacramento kept curiosity at a fever 
 heat. More than that, there were articles and 
 ornaments which a few married experts de 
 clared only fit for women. When the furnish 
 ing of the house was complete it had occu 
 pied two months of the speculative and 
 curious attention of the camp Mr. Hawkins 
 locked the front door, put the key in his 
 pocket, and quietly retired to his more humble 
 roof, lower on the hill-side! 
 
32 The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 I have not deemed it necessary 'to indi 
 cate to the intelligent reader all of the 
 theories which obtained in Five Forks during 
 the erection of the building. Some of them 
 may be readily imagined. That " the Hag 5J 
 had by artful coyness and systematic reti 
 cence at last completely subjugated the Fool, 
 and that the new house was intended for 
 the nuptial bower of the (predestined) un 
 happy pair, was of course the prevailing 
 opinion. But when, after a reasonable time 
 had elapsed, and the house still remained 
 untenanted, the more exasperating conviction 
 forced itself upon the general mind that the 
 Fool had been for the third time imposed 
 upon. When two months had elapsed and 
 there seemed no prospect of a mistress for 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. . 33 
 
 the new house, I think public indignation 
 became so strong that had " the Hag " ar 
 rived, the marriage would have been publicly 
 prevented. But no one appeared that seemed 
 to answer to th;c : -<ea of an available tenant, 
 and all inquiry of Mr. Hawkins as to his in 
 tention in building a house and not renting 
 it or occupying it, failed to elicit any further 
 information. The reasons that he gave were 
 felt to be vague, evasive, and unsatisfactory. 
 He was in no hurry to move, he said ; when 
 lie was ready, it surely was not strange that 
 lie should like to have his house all ready to 
 receive him. He was often seen upon the 
 Veranda of a Summer evening smoking a cigar. 
 It is reported that one night the house was 
 observed to be brilliantly lighted from garret 
 
 D 
 
34 The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 to basement ; that a neighbor, observing this, 
 crept toward the open parlor window, and, 
 looking in, espied the Fool accurately dressed 
 in evening costume, lounging upon a sofa in 
 the drawing-room, with the easy air of socially 
 entertaining a large party. Notwithstanding 
 this, the house was unmistakably vacant that 
 evening, save for the presence of the owner, 
 as the witnesses afterward testified. When 
 this story was first related, a few practical 
 men suggested the theory that Mr. Hawkins 
 was simply drilling himself in the elaborate 
 duties of hospitality against a probable event 
 in his history. A few ventured the belief 
 that the house was haunted. The imaginative 
 editor of the Five Forks Record evolved from 
 the depths of his professional consciousness a 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 35 
 
 story that Hawkins' sweetheart had died, and 
 that he regularly entertained her spirit in this 
 beautifully-furnished mausoleum. The occa 
 sional spectacle of Hawkins' tall figure pacing 
 the veranda on moonlight nights lent some 
 credence to this theory, until an unlooked-for 
 incident diverted all speculation into another 
 channel. 
 
 It was about this time that a certain wild, 
 rude valley, in the neighborhood of Five 
 Forks, had become famous as a picturesque 
 resort. Travelers had visited it, and declared 
 that there were more cubic yards of rough 
 stone cliff and a waterfall of greater height, 
 than any they had visited. Correspondents 
 had written it up with extravagant rhetoric 
 and inordinate poetical quotation. Men and 
 
 D 2 
 
36 The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 women who had never enjoyed a sunset, a 
 tree, or a flower who had never appreciated 
 the graciousness or meaning of the yellow 
 sunlight that flecked their homely doorways", 
 or the tenderness of a Midsummer's night, to 
 whose moonlight they bared their shirt-sleeves 
 or their tulle dresses came from thousands 
 of miles away to calculate the height of this 
 rock, to observe the depth of this chasm, 
 to remark upon the enormous size of this 
 unsightly tree, and to believe with ineffable 
 self-complacency that they really admired 
 nature. And so it came to pass that, in 
 accordance with the tastes or weaknesses of 
 the individual, the more prominent and sa 
 lient points of the valley were christened, 
 and there was a " Lace Handkerchief Fall," 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 37 
 
 and the " Tears of Sympathy Cataract," and 
 one distinguished orator's " Peak," and several 
 " Mounts " of various noted people, living or 
 dead ; and an " Exclamation Point," and a 
 " Valley of Silent Adoration." And in course 
 of time empty soda-water bottles were found 
 at the base of the cataract, and greasy news 
 papers and fragments of ham sandwiches lay 
 at the dusty roots of giant trees. With this, 
 there were frequent irruptions of closely- 
 shaven and tightly-cravated men and delicate- 
 faced women in the one long street of Five 
 Forks, and a scampering of mules, and an 
 occasional procession of dusty brown-linen 
 cavalry^. 
 
 A year after " Hawkins' Idiot Asylum" was 
 completed, one day there drifted into the 
 
38 The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 valley'a riotous cavalcade of "school-marms," 
 teachers of the San Francisco public schools, 
 out for a holiday. Not severely-spectacled 
 Minervas and chastely armed and mailed Pal- 
 lases, but, I fear for the security of Five Forks, 
 very human, charming, and mischievous young 
 women. At least, so the men thought, working 
 in the ditches and tunneling on the hill-side ; 
 and when, in the interests of Science and the 
 mental advancement of Juvenile Posterity, it 
 was finally settled that they should stay in 
 Five Forks two or three days for the sake of 
 visiting the various mines, and particularly the 
 " Blazing Star " Tunnel, there was some flutter 
 of masculine anxiety. There was a consider 
 able inquiry for " store clothes," a hopeless over 
 hauling of old and disused raiment, and a 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 39 
 
 general demand for "boiled shirts" and the 
 barber. 
 
 Meanwhile, with that supreme audacity and 
 impudent hardihood of the sex when gre 
 garious, the schoolmarms rode through the 
 town, admiring openly the handsome faces and 
 manly figures that looked up from the ditches 
 or rose behind the cars of ore at the mouths 
 of tunnels. Indeed, it is alleged that Jenny 
 Forester, backed and supported by seven other 
 equally shameless young women, had openly 
 and publicly waved her handkerchief to the 
 florid Hercules of Five Forks one Tom 
 Flynn, formerly of Virginia leaving that 
 good-natured but not over-bright giant pulling 
 his blonde mustaches in bashful amazement. 
 
 It was a pleasant June afternoon that Miss 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 41 
 
 circuitous route, at last she reached, unob 
 served, the summit. Before her rose, silent, 
 darkened, and motionless, the object of her 
 search. Here her courage failed her, with 
 all the characteristic inconsequence of her 
 sex. A sudden fear of all the dangers she 
 had safely passed bears, tarantulas, drunken 
 men, and lizards came upon her. For a 
 moment, as she ^afterward expressed it, 
 "She thought she should die." With this 
 belief, probably, she gathered three large 
 stones, which she could hardly lift, for the 
 purpose of throwing a great distance ; put 
 two hair-pins in her mouth, and carefully 
 readjusted with both hands two stray braids 
 of her lovely blue-black mane which had 
 fallen in gathering the stones. Then she felt 
 
42 The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 in the pockets of her linen duster for her 
 card-case, handkerchief, pocket-book, and 
 smelling-bottle, and finding them intact, sud 
 denly assumed an air of easy, ladylike uncon 
 cern, went up the steps of the veranda, and 
 demurely pulled the front door-bell, which 
 she knew would not be answered. After a 
 decent pause, she walked around the encom 
 passing veranda examining the closed shut 
 ters of the French windows until she found 
 one that yielded to her touch. Here she 
 paused again to adjust her coquettish hat by 
 the mirror-like surface of the long sash win 
 dow that reflected the full length of her 
 pretty figure. And then she opened the 
 window and entered the room. 
 
 Although long closed, the house had a 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 43 
 
 smell of newness and of fresh paint that was 
 quite unlike the moldiness of the conven 
 tional haunted house. The bright carpets, 
 the cheerful [walls, the glistening oil-cloths, 
 were quite inconsistent with the idea of a 
 ghost. With childish curiosity she began to 
 explore the silent house, at first timidly 
 opening the doors with a violent push, and 
 then stepping back from the threshold to 
 make good a possible retreat ; and then more 
 boldly, as she became convinced of her secu 
 rity and absolute loneliness. In one of the 
 chambers, the largest, there were fresh flowers 
 in a vase evidently gathered that morning ; 
 and what seemed still more remarkable, the 
 pitchers and ewers were freshly filled with 
 water. This obliged Miss Nelly to notice 
 
44 The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 another singular fact, namely, that the house 
 was free from dust the one most obtrusive 
 and penetrating visitor of Five Forks. The 
 floors and carpets had been recently swept, 
 the chairs and furniture carefully wiped and 
 dusted. If the house was haunted, it was 
 possessed by a spirit who had none of the 
 usual indifference to decay and mold. And 
 yet the beds had evidently never been slept 
 in, the very springs of the chair in which she 
 sat creaked stiffly at the novelty, the closet 
 doors opened with the reluctance of fresh 
 paint and varnish, and in spite of the 
 warmth, cleanliness, and cheerfulness of fur 
 niture and decoration, there was none of the 
 ease of tenancy and occupation. As Miss 
 Nelly afterward confessed, she longed to 
 
The Fool of Five Fotks. 45 
 
 " tumble things around," and when she reached 
 the parlor or drawing-room again, she could 
 hardly resist the desire. Particularly was she 
 tempted by a closed piano, that stood mutely 
 against the wall. She thought she would open 
 it just to see who was the maker. That done, 
 it would be no harm to try its tone. She- did 
 so, with one little foot on the soft pedal. But 
 Miss Nelly was too good a player, and too 
 enthusiastic a musician to stop at half mea 
 sures. She tried it again this time so sin 
 cerely that the whole house seemed to spring 
 into voice. Then she stopped and listened. 
 There was no response the empty rooms 
 seemed to have relapsed into their old still 
 ness. She stepped out on the veranda a 
 woodpecker recommenced his tapping on an 
 
46 The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 adjacent tree, the rattle of a cart in the 
 rocky gulch below the hill came faintly up. 
 No one was to be seen far or near. Miss 
 Nelly, reassured, returned. She again ran 
 her ringers over the keys stopped, caught 
 at a melody running in her mind, half played 
 it, and then threw away all caution. Before 
 five minutes had elapsed she had entirely 
 forgotten herself, and with her linen duster 
 thrown aside, her straw hat flung on the 
 piano, her white hands bared, and a black 
 loop of her braided hair hanging upon her 
 shoulder, was fairly embarked upon a flowing 
 sea of musical recollection. 
 
 She had played perhaps half an hour, when, 
 having just finished an elaborate symphony and 
 resting her hands on the keys, she heard very 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 47 
 
 distinctly and unmistakably the sound of ap 
 plause from without. In an instant 'the fires 
 of shame and indignation leaped into her 
 cheeks, and she rose from the instrument and 
 ran to the window, only in time to catch sight 
 of a dozen figures in blue and red flannel 
 shirts vanishing hurriedly through the trees 
 below. 
 
 Miss Nelly's mind was instantly made up. 
 I think I have already intimated that under 
 the stimulus of excitement she was not 
 wanting in courage, and as she quietly re 
 sumed her gloves, hat, and duster, she was 
 not perhaps exactly the young person that 
 it would be entirely safe for the timid, em 
 barrassed, or inexperienced of my sex to 
 meet alone, She shut down the piano, and 
 
48 :T/ie Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 having carefully reclosed all the windows and 
 doors, and ^restored the house to its former 
 desolate condition, she stepped from the 
 veranda, and proceeded directly to the cabin 
 of the unintellectual Hawkins, that reared its 
 adobe chimney above the umbrage a quarter 
 of a mile below. 
 
 The door opened instantly to her impulsive 
 knock, and the Fool of Five Forks stood before 
 her. Miss Nelly had never before seen the man 
 designated by this infelicitous title, and as he 
 stepped backward in half courtesy and half 
 Astonishment she was for the moment discon 
 certed. He was tall, finely formed, and dark- 
 bearded. Above cheeks a little hollowed by 
 care and ill-health shone a pair of hazel eyes, 
 very large, very gentle, but inexpressibly sad 
 
77/6' Fool of Five Forks. 49 
 
 and mournful. This was certainly not the kind 
 of man Miss Nelly had expected to see, yet 
 after her first embarrassment had passed, the 
 very circumstance, oddly enough, added to her 
 indignation, and stung her wounded pride still 
 more deeply. Nevertheless, the arch hypocrite 
 instantly changed her tactics with the swift 
 intuition of her sex. 
 
 "I have come," she said with a dazzling 
 smile, infinitely more dangerous than her former 
 dignified severity, " I have come to ask your 
 pardon for a great liberty I have just taken. 
 I believe the new house above us on the hill 
 is yours. I was so much pleased with its 
 exterior that I left my friends for a moment 
 below here," she continued artfully, with a 
 slight wave of tjie hand, as if indicating a 
 
 E 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 5 1 
 
 save for the natural uneasiness of a shy, 
 reticent man, I fear without a quickening of 
 his pulse. 
 
 " I knowed it," he said, simply. " I heerd 
 ye as I kem up." 
 
 Miss Nelly was furious at his grammar, 
 his dialect, his coolness, and still more at 
 the suspicion that he was an active member 
 of her invisible claque. 
 
 " Ah," she said, still smiling, " then I think 
 
 I heard you " 
 
 " I reckon not," he interrupted gravely. 
 " I didn't stay long. I found the boys hang 
 ing round the house, and I allowed at first 
 I'd go in and kinder warn you, but they 
 promised to keep still, and you looked so 
 ' comfortable and wrapped up in your music, 
 
 E 2 
 
52 The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 that I hadn't the heart to disturb you, and 
 kem away. I hope," he added earnestly, " they 
 didn't let on ez they heerd you. They ain't 
 a bad lot them Blazin' Star boys though 
 they're a little hard at times. But they'd no 
 more hurt ye then they would a a a cat ! " 
 continued Mr. Hawkins, blushing with a faint 
 apprehension of the inelegance of his simile. 
 
 " No ! no ! " said Miss Nelly, feeling sud 
 denly very angry with herself, the Fool, and 
 the entire male population of Five Forks. 
 " No ! I have behaved foolishly, I suppose 
 and if they had it would have served me 
 right. But I only wanted to apologize to 
 you. You'll find everything as you left it. 
 Good day ! " 
 
 She turned to go. Mr, Hawkins began to 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 53 
 
 feel embarrassed. "I'd have asked ye to sit 
 
 place nt tor a iauy. i o^iUx ^u*n 
 way. I don't know what kept me from it. 
 But I ain't well, Miss. Times I get a sort o' 
 dumb ager it's the ditches, I think, Miss 
 and I don't seem to hev my wits about me." 
 
 Instantly Miss Arnot was all sympathy 
 her quick woman's heart was touched. 
 
 " Can I can anything be done ? " she 
 asked, more timidly than she had before 
 spoken. 
 
 " No ! not onless ye remember suthin' about 
 these pills." He exhibited a box containing 
 about half a dozen. " I forget the direction 
 I don't seem to remember much, any way, 
 these times they're 'Jones' Vegetable Com- 
 
54 The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 pound.' If ye've ever took 'em ye'll remem 
 ber whether the reg'lar dose is eight. They 
 ain't but six here. But perhaps ye never tuk 
 any," he added, deprecatingly. 
 
 "No," said Miss Nelly, curtly. She had 
 usually a keen sense of the ludicrous, but 
 somehow Mr. Hawkins' eccentricity only 
 pained her. 
 
 " Will you let me see you to the foot of 
 the hill," he said again, after another embar 
 rassing pause. 
 
 Miss Arnot felt instantly that such an act 
 would condone her trespass in the eyes of 
 the world. She might meet some of her in 
 visible admirers or even her companions 
 and, with all her erratic impulses, she was 
 nevertheless a woman, and did not entirely 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 5 5 
 
 despise the verdict of conventionality. She 
 smiled sweetly and assented, and in another 
 moment the two were lost in the shadows of 
 the wood. 
 
 Like many other apparently trivial acts in 
 an uneventful life, it was decisive. As she 
 expected, she met two or three of her late 
 applauders, whom, she fancied, looked sheep 
 ish and embarrassed ; she met also her 
 companions looking for her in some alarm, 
 who really appeared astonished at her escort, 
 and, she fancied, a trifle envious of her 
 evident success. I fear that Miss Arnot, in 
 response to their anxious inquiries, did not 
 state entirely the truth, but, without actual 
 assertion, led them to believe that she had 
 at a very early stage of the proceeding com- 
 
56 The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 pletely subjugated this weak-minded giant, 
 and had brought him triumphantly to her 
 feet. From telling this story two or three 
 times she got finally to believing that she 
 had some foundation for it ; then to a 
 vague sort of desire that it would eventually 
 prove to be true, and then to an equally 
 vague yearning to hasten that consumma 
 tion. That it would redound to any satis 
 faction of the Fool she did not stop to 
 doubt. That it would cure him of his folly 
 she was quite confident. Indeed, there are 
 very few of us men or women who do 
 not believe that even a hopeless love for 
 ourselves is more conducive to the salva 
 tion of the lover than a requited affection 
 for another. 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 57 
 
 The criticism of Five Forks was, as the 
 reader may imagine, swift and conclusive. 
 When it was found out that Miss Arnot was 
 not " the Hag " masquerading as a young 
 and pretty girl, to the ultimate deception of 
 Five Forks in general and the Fool in par 
 ticular, it was at once decided that nothing 
 but the speedy union of the Fool and the 
 " pretty schoolmarm " was consistent with 
 ordinary common sense. The singular good 
 fortune of Hawkins was quite in accordance 
 with the theory of his luck as propounded 
 by the camp. That after " the Hag " failed 
 to make her appearance he should " strike a 
 lead " in his own house, without the trouble 
 of " prospectin','' seemed to these casuists as 
 a wonderful but inevitable law. To add to 
 
58 The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 these fateful probabilities, Miss Arnot fell 
 and sprained her ankle in the ascent of 
 Mount Lincoln, and was confined for some 
 weeks to the hotel after her companions had 
 departed. During this period Hawkins was 
 civilly but grotesquely attentive. When, after 
 a reasonable time had elapsed, there still 
 appeared to be no immediate prospect of the 
 occupancy of the new house, public opinion 
 experienced a singular change in regard to 
 its theories of Mr. Hawkins' conduct. "The 
 Hag" was looked upon as a saint-like and long- 
 suffering martyr to the weaknesses and incon 
 sistency of the Fool. That, after erecting this 
 new house at her request, he had suddenly 
 "gone back" on her; that his celibacy was the 
 result of a long habit of weak proposal and 
 
The Fool of. Five Forks. 59 
 
 subsequent shameless rejection, and that he was 
 now trying his hand on the helpless school- 
 marm, was perfectly plain to Five Forks. That 
 he should be frustrated in his attempts at any 
 cost was equally plain. Miss Nelly suddenly 
 found herself invested with a rude chivalry that 
 would have been amusing had it not been at 
 times embarrassing ; that would have been 
 impertinent but for the almost superstitious 
 respect with which it was proffered. Every day 
 somebody from Five Forks rode out to enquire 
 the health of the fair patient. " Hez Hawkins 
 bin over yer to-day," queried Tom Flynn, with 
 artful ease and indifference as he leaned over 
 Miss Nelly's easy-chair on the veranda. Miss 
 Nelly, with a faint pink flush on her cheek, was 
 constrained to answer " No." " Well, he sorter 
 
60 The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 sprained his foot agin a rock yesterday," con- 
 t : n-cd Fh with shameless "~"~"thflness.- 
 " You mus'n't think anything o' that, Miss 
 Arnot. He'll be over yer to-morrer, and mean 
 time he told me to hand this yer bookay with 
 his re-gards/and this yer specimen !" And Mr. 
 Flynn laid down the flowers he had picked en 
 route against such an emergency, and presented 
 respectfully a piece of quartz and gold which 
 he had taken that morning from his own sluice- 
 box. " You mus'n't mind Hawkins' ways, Miss 
 Nelly," said another sympathizing miner. 
 " There ain't a better man in camp than 
 that theer Cy Hawkins ! but he don't under 
 stand the ways o' the world with wimen. 
 He hasn't mixed as much with society as 
 the rest of us," he added, with an elaborate 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 61 
 
 Chesterfieldian ease of manner, " but he 
 means well." Meanwhile a few other sym 
 pathetic tunnel-men were impressing upon 
 Mr. Hawkins the necessity of the greatest 
 attention to the invalid. " It won't do, Haw 
 kins," they explained, "to let that there gal 
 go back to San Francisco and say that when 
 she was sick and alone, the only man in 
 Five Forks under whose roof she had rested, 
 and at whose table she had sat " this was 
 considered a natural but pardonable exagge 
 ration of rhetoric " ever threw off on her ; 
 and it shan't be done. It ain't the square 
 thing to Five Forks." And ^then the Fool 
 would rush away to the valley, and be re 
 ceived by Miss Nelly with a certain reserve 
 of manner that finally disappeared in a 
 
62 The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 flush of color, some increased vivacity, and 
 a pardonable coquetry. And so the days 
 passed ; Miss Nelly grew better in health 
 and more troubled in mind, and Mr. Haw 
 kins became more and more embarrassed, 
 and Five Forks smiled and rubbed its hands, 
 and waited for the approaching denouement. 
 And then it came. But not perhaps in the 
 manner that Five Forks had imagined. 
 
 It was a lovely afternoon in July that a 
 party of Eastern tourists rode into Five Forks. 
 They had just "done" the Valley of Big 
 Things, and there being one or two Eastern 
 capitalists among the party, it was deemed 
 advisable that a proper knowledge of the 
 practical mining resources of California should 
 be added to their experience of the merely 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 63 
 
 picturesque in Nature. Thus far everything 
 had been satisfactory ; the amount of water 
 which passed over [the Fall was large, owing 
 to a backward season ; some snow still re 
 mained in the canons near the highest peaks ; 
 they had ridden round one of the biggest 
 trees, and through the prostrate trunk of 
 another. To say that they were delighted is 
 to express feebly the enthusiasm of these 
 ladies and gentlemen, drunk with the cham- 
 pagny hospitality of their entertainers, the 
 utter novelty of scene, and the dry, exhilar 
 ating air of the valley. One or two had 
 already expressed themselves ready to live 
 and die there ; another had written a glowing 
 account to the Eastern press, depreciating 
 all other scenery in Europe and America; 
 
64 The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 and under these circumstances it was reasonably 
 expected that Five Forks would do its duty, and 
 equally impress the stranger after its own fashion. 
 Letters to this effect were sent from San 
 Francisco by prominent capitalists there, and 
 under the able superintendence of one of their 
 
 agents, the visitors were taken in hand, shown 
 
 i 
 
 "what was to be seen," carefully restrained 
 from observing what ought not to be visible, 
 and so kept in a blissful and enthusiastic con 
 dition. And so the graveyard of Five Forks, 
 in which but two of the occupants had died 
 natural deaths, the dreary, ragged cabins on the 
 hill-sides, with their sad-eyed, cynical, broken- 
 spirited occupants, toiling on, day by day, 
 for a miserable pittance and a fare that a 
 self-respecting Eastern mechanic would have 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 65 
 
 scornfully rejected, were not a part of the 
 Eastern visitors' recollection. But the hoisting 
 works and machinery of the " Blazing Star 
 Tunnel Company " was the Blazing Star 
 Tunnel Company, whose "gentlemanly Super 
 intendent" had received private information 
 from San Francisco to do the " proper thing " 
 for the party. Wherefore the valuable heaps 
 of ore in the company's works were shown, the 
 oblong bars of gold ready for shipment were 
 playfully offered to the ladies who could lift 
 and carry them away unaided, and even the 
 tunnel itself, gloomy, fateful, and peculiar, was 
 shown as part of the experience ; and, in the 
 noble language of one correspondent, "the 
 wealth of Five Forks and the peculiar induce 
 ments that it offered to Eastern capitalists " 
 
 F 
 
66 The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 were established beyond a doubt. And then 
 occurred a little incident which, as an unbiassed 
 spectator, I am free to say offered no induce 
 ments to anybody whatever, but which, for its 
 bearing upon the central figure of this veracious 
 chronicle, I cannot pass over. 
 
 It had become apparent to one or two more 
 practical and sober-minded in the party that 
 certain portions of the " Blazing Star" Tunnel 
 (owing, perhaps, to the exigencies of a flatter 
 ing annual dividend) were economically and 
 imperfectly " shored " and supported, and were 
 consequently unsafe, insecure, and to be avoided. 
 Nevertheless, at a time when champagne corks 
 were popping in dark corners, and enthusiastic 
 voices and happy laughter rang through the 
 half-lighted levels and galleries, there came 
 
F 2 
 
68 The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 eyes. Eh! Hullo there! Stop her. xFor 
 God's sake! not that way! She'll fall from 
 that shaft She'll be killed ! " 
 
 But the lively lady was already gone. With 
 staring black eyes, imploringly trying to 
 pierce the gloom, with hands and feet that 
 sought to batter and break down the thick 
 darkness, with incoherent cries and supplica 
 tions, following the moving of ignis fatuus 
 lights ahead, she ran and ran swiftly! Ran 
 over treacherous foundations, ran by yawning 
 gulfs, ran past branching galleries and arches, 
 ran wildly, ran despairingly, ran blindly, and 
 at last ran into the arms of the Fool of Five 
 Forks. 
 
 In an instant she caught at his hand. " Oh, 
 save him !" she cried ; "you belong here you 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 69 
 
 know this dreadful place ; bring me to him. 
 Tell me where to go and what to do, I im 
 plore you! Quick, he is dying. Come!" 
 
 He raised his eyes to hers, and then, with 
 a sudden cry, dropped the rope and crowbar 
 he was carrying, and reeled against the wall. 
 
 " Annie!" he gasped, slowly, "is it you?" 
 
 She caught at both his hands, brought her 
 face to his with staring eyes, murmured " Good 
 God, Cyrus !" and sank upon her knees before 
 him. 
 
 He tried to disengage the hand that she 
 wrung with passionate entreaty. 
 
 " No, no ! Cyrus, you will forgive me you 
 will forget the past ! God has sent you here 
 to-day. You will come with me. You will 
 you must save him !" 
 
70 The Fool of Five Forks. 
 
 "Save who?" cried Cyrus, hoarsely, 
 
 "My husband!" 
 
 The blow was so direct so strong and over 
 whelming that even through her own stronger 
 and more selfish absorption she saw it in the 
 face of the man, and pitied him. 
 
 "I thought you knew it!" she faltered. 
 
 He did not speak, but looked at her with 
 fixed, dumb eyes. And then the sound of 
 distant voices and hurrying feet started her 
 again into passionate life. She once more 
 caught his hand. 
 
 " O Cyrus ! hear me ! If you have loved 
 me through all these years, you will not fail 
 me now. You must save him ! You can ! 
 You are brave and strong you always were, 
 Cyrus ! You will save him, Cyrus, for my 
 
The Fool of Five Forks. 7 1 
 
 sake for the sake of your love for me ! 
 You will I know it ! God bless you ! 
 
 She rose as if to follow him, but at a 
 gesture of command she stood still. He 
 picked up the rope and crowbar slowly, and 
 in a dazed, blinded way that, in her agony 
 of impatience and alarm, seemed protracted 
 to cruel infinity. Then he turned, and raising 
 her hand to his lips, kissed it slowly, looked 
 at her again and the next moment was 
 gone. 
 
 He did not return. For at the end of the 
 next half hour, when they laid before her the 
 half-conscious breathing body of her husband, 
 safe and unharmed but for exhaustion and 
 some slight bruises, she learned that the 
 worst fears of the workmen had been realized. 
 
72 The Fool of Five Forks., 
 
 In releasing him a second cave had taken 
 place. They had barely time to snatch away 
 the helpless body of her husband before the 
 strong frame of his rescuer, Cyrus Hawkins, 
 was struck and smitten down in his place. 
 
 For two hours he lay there, crushed and 
 broken-limbed, with a heavy beam lying 
 across his breast, in sight of all, conscious and 
 patient. For two hours they had labored 
 around him, wildly, despairingly/ hopefully, 
 with the wills of gods and the strength of 
 giants, and at the end of that time they came 
 to an upright timber, which rested its base 
 upon the beam. There was a cry for axes, 
 and one was already swinging in the air, 
 when the dying man called to them, feebly : 
 
 " Don't cut that upright !" 
 
Ihe Fool of Five Forks. 73 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " It will bring down the whole gallery 
 with it." 
 
 "How?" 
 
 " It's one of the foundations of my house." 
 
 The ax fell from the workman's hand, and 
 with a blanched face he turned to his fel 
 lows. It was too true. They were in the 
 uppermost gallery, and the " cave " had 
 taken place directly below the new house. 
 After a pause the Fool spoke again more 
 feebly. 
 
 " The lady ! quick." 
 
 They brought her a wretched, fainting 
 creature, with pallid face and streaming 
 eyes and fell back as she bent her face 
 above him. 
 
7 'he Fool of Five Forks. 75 
 
 as are other monuments, but is a sign of 
 Life and Light and Hope, wherefore shall 
 all men know that he who lies under it -is 
 a Fool ! " 
 
ECHOES 
 OF THE FOOT-HILLS. 
 
ECHOES 
 OF THE FOOT-HILLS. 
 
 RAMON. 
 
 REFUGIO MINE, NORTHERN MEXICO. 
 
 DRUNK and senseless in his place 
 Prone and sprawling on his face, 
 More like brute than any man 
 
 Alive or dead, 
 By his great pump out of gear, 
 Lay the peon engineer, 
 Waking only just to hear, 
 Overhead, 
 
8o Ramon. 
 
 Angry tones that called his name, 
 Oaths and cries of bitter blame [fled ! 
 Woke to hear all this, and waking, turned and 
 
 " To the man who '11 bring to me," 
 
 Cried Intendant Harry Lee, 
 Harry Lee, the English foreman of the mine, 
 
 " Bring the sot alive or dead, 
 
 I will give to him," he said, 
 
 " Fifteen hundred pesos down, 
 
 Just to set the rascal's crown 
 Underneath this heel of mine : 
 Since but death 
 
 Deserves the man whose deed, 
 
 Be it vice or want of heed, 
 
 Stops the pumps that give us breath, 
 
 Stops the pumps that suck the death 
 
Ramon. 8 1 
 
 From the poisoned lower levels of the 
 mine ! " 
 
 No one answered, for a cry 
 From the shaft rose up on high ; 
 And shuffling-, scrambling, tumbling from be 
 low, 
 
 Came the miners each, the bolder 
 Mounting on the weaker's shoulder, 
 Grappling, clinging to their hold or 
 
 Letting go, 
 
 As the weaker gasped and fell 
 From the ladder to the well, 
 To the poisoned pit of hell 
 Down below ! 
 
 " To the man who sets them free," 
 Cried the foreman, Harry Lee, 
 
 G 
 
82 Ramon. 
 
 Harry Lee, the English foreman of the mine,- 
 " Brings them out and sets them free, 
 I will give that man," said he, 
 "Twice that sum, who with a rope 
 Face to face with Death shall cope. 
 Let him come who dares to hope ! " 
 " Hold your peace !" some one replied, 
 Standing by the foreman's side ; 
 
 " There has one already gone, whoe'er he be ! " 
 
 Then they held their breath with awe, 
 Pulling on the rope, and saw 
 Fainting figures reappear, 
 On the black rope swinging clear, 
 Fastened by some skilful hand from below ; 
 Till a score the level gained, 
 And but one alone remained, - 
 
Ramon. 83 
 
 He the hero and the last, 
 He whose skilful hand made fast 
 The long line that brought them back to hope 
 and cheer ! 
 
 Haggard, gasping, down dropped he 
 At the feet of Harry Lee, 
 Harry Lee, the English foreman of the mine ; 
 " I have come," he gasped, " to claim 
 
 Both rewards. Sefior, my name 
 
 Is Ramon ! 
 
 I'm the drunken engineer, 
 I'm the coward, Sefior " Here 
 He fell over, by that sign 
 
 Dead as stone ! 
 
 G 2 
 
8 4 
 
 FOR THE KING. 
 
 NORTHERN MEXICO. 
 
 i 
 
 1640. 
 
 As you look from the plaza at Leon, west 
 You can see her house, but the view is best 
 From the porch of the church where she lies 
 at rest, 
 
 Where much of her past still lives, I think, 
 In the scowling brows and sidelong blink 
 Of the worshipping throng that rise or sink 
 
For the King. 85 
 
 To the waxen saints that, yellow and lank, 
 Lean out from their niches, rank on rank, 
 With a bloodless Saviour on either flank ; 
 
 In the gouty pillars, whose cracks begin 
 
 To show the adobe core within, 
 
 A soul of earth in a whitewashed skin. 
 
 And I think that the moral of all, you '11 say, 
 Is the scupltured legend that moulds away 
 On a tomb in the choir : " For el Rey." 
 
 " For el Rey." Well, the king is gone, 
 Ages ago, and the Hapsburg one 
 
 Shot but the rock of the church lives on. 
 
86 For the King. 
 
 " For el Rey." What matters, indeed, 
 
 If king or president succeed 
 
 To a country haggard with sloth and greed, 
 
 As long as one granary is fat, 
 
 And yonder priest, in a shovel hat, 
 
 Peeps out from the bin like a sleek brown rat ! 
 
 What matters ? Naught, if it serves to bring 
 The legend nearer, no other thing, 
 We'll spare the moral, " Live the King ! " 
 
 Two hundred years ago, they say, 
 The viceroy, Marquis of Monte-Rey, 
 Rode, with his retinue, that way. 
 
For the King. 87 
 
 Grave as befitted Spain's grandee, 
 Grave as the substitute should be 
 Of His Most Catholic Majesty, 
 
 Yet from his black plume's curving grace 
 To his slim, black gauntlet's smaller space, 
 Exquisite as a piece of lace ! 
 
 Two hundred years ago e'en so 
 
 The marquis stopped where the lime-trees blow, 
 
 While Leon's seneschal bent him low 
 
 And begged that the marquis would that night 
 
 take 
 
 His humble roof for the royal sake, 
 And then, as the custom demanded, spake 
 
88 For the King. 
 
 The usual wish that his guest would hold 
 
 The house, and all that it might infold, 
 
 As his with the bride scarce three days old. 
 
 Be sure that the marquis, in his place, 
 Replied to all with the measured grace 
 Of chosen speech and unmoved face, 
 
 Nor raised his head till his black plume swept 
 The hem of the lady's robe, who kept 
 Her place, as her husband backward stept. 
 
 And then (I know not how nor why) 
 A subtle flame in the lady's eye 
 Unseen by the courtiers standing by 
 
For the King. 89 
 
 Burned through his lace and titled wreath, 
 Burned through his body's jeweled sheath, 
 Till it touched the steel of the man beneath ! 
 
 (And yet, mayhap, no more was meant 
 Than to point a well-worn compliment, 
 And the lady's beauty, her worst intent.) 
 
 Howbeit, the marquis bowed again : 
 
 " Who rules with awe well serveth Spain, 
 
 But best whose law is love made plain." 
 
 Be sure that night no pillow prest 
 The seneschal, but with the rest 
 Watched, as was due a royal guest, 
 
90 For the King. 
 
 Watched from the wall till he saw the square 
 Fill with the moonlight, white and bare, 
 
 Watched till he saw two shadows fare 
 
 i 
 
 Out from his garden, where the shade 
 That' the old church-tower and belfry made, 
 
 Like a benedictory hand was laid. 
 
 
 
 ' 
 ' 
 
 Few words spoke the seneschal as he turned 
 To his nearest sentry : " These monks have 
 
 learned 
 That stolen fruit is sweetly earned. 
 
 
 " Myself shall punish yon acolyte 
 
 Who gathers my garden grapes by night ; 
 Meanwhile, wait thou till the morning light." 
 
For the King. 91 
 
 Yet not till the sun was riding high 
 
 Did the sentry meet his commander's eye, 
 
 Nor then till the viceroy stood by. 
 
 To the lovers of grave formalities 
 
 No greeting was ever so fine, I wis, 
 
 As this host's and guest's high courtesies ! 
 
 The seneschal feared, as the wind was west, 
 A blast from Morena had chilled his rest ? 
 The viceroy languidly confest 
 
 That cares of state, and he dared to say- 
 Some fears that the king could not repay 
 The thoughtful zeal of his host, some way 
 
9 2 For tJie King. 
 
 Had marred his rest. Yet he trusted much 
 None shared his wakefulness ! Though such 
 Indeed might be ! If he dared to touch 
 
 A theme so fine the bride, perchance, 
 
 Still slept ? At least, they missed her glance 
 
 To give this greeting countenance. 
 
 Be sure that the seneschal, in turn, 
 
 Was deeply bowed with the grave concern 
 
 Of the painful news his guest should learn : 
 
 " Last night, to her father's dying bed 
 By a priest was the lady summoned ; 
 Nor yet we know how well she sped, 
 
For tJie King. 93 
 
 " But hope for the best." The grave viceroy 
 (Though grieved his visit had such alloy) 
 Must still wish the seneschal great joy 
 
 Of a bride so true to her filial trust ! 
 Yet now as the day waxed on, they must 
 To horse, if they'd 'scape the noonday dust. 
 
 " Nay," said the seneschal, " at least, 
 To mend the news of this funeral priest, 
 Myself shall ride as your escort, east." 
 
 The viceroy bowed. Then turned aside 
 To his nearest follower : " With me ride- 
 You and Felipe on either side. 
 
94 For the King. 
 
 " And list ! Should anything me befall, 
 Mischance of ambush or musket-ball, 
 
 Cleave to his saddle yon seneschal ! 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 " No more.". Then gravely in accents clear 
 Took formal leave of his late good cheer : 
 Whiles the seneschal whispered a musketeer, 
 
 Carelessly stroking his pommel top, 
 " If from the saddle ye see me drop, 
 Riddle me quickly yon solemn fop ! " 
 
 So these, with many a compliment, 
 Each on his one dark thought intent, 
 With grave politeness onward went, 
 
For the King. 95 
 
 Riding high, and in sight of all, 
 Viceroy, escort, and seneschal, 
 Under the shade of the Almandral. 
 
 Holding their secret, hard and fast, 
 Silent and grave, they ride at last 
 Into the dusty travelled Past ; 
 
 Even like this they passed away 
 Two hundred years ago to-day. 
 What of the lady ? Who shall say ? 
 
 Do the souls of the dying ever yearn 
 
 To some favored spot for the dust's return 
 
 For the homely peace of the family urn ? 
 
96 For tJic King. 
 
 I know not. Yet did the seneschal, 
 Chancing in after years to fall 
 Pierced by a Flemish musket-ball, 
 
 Call to his side a trusty friar 
 
 And bid him swear, as his last desire, 
 
 To bear his corse to San Pedro's choir 
 
 At Leon, where 'neath a shield azure 
 Should his mortal frame find sepulture ; 
 This much, for the pains Christ did endure. 
 
 Be sure that the friar loyally 
 Fulfilled his trust by land and sea, 
 Till the spires of Leon silently 
 
For the King. 97 
 
 Rose though the green of the Almandral, 
 
 As if to beckon the seneschal 
 
 To his kindred dust 'neath the choir wall. 
 
 I wot that the saints on either side 
 
 Leaned from their niches open-eyed, 
 
 To see the doors of the church swing wide 
 
 That the wounds of the Saviour on either 
 
 flank 
 
 Bled fresh, as the mourners, rank by rank, 
 Went by with the coffin, clank on clank, 
 
 For why ? When they raised the marble 
 
 door 
 
 Of the tomb untouched for years before, 
 The friar swooned on the choir floor ; 
 
 H 
 
98 For the King. 
 
 
 For there, in her laces and festal dress, 
 
 Lay the dead man's wife, her loveliness 
 Scarcely changed by her long duress ; 
 
 . 
 
 As" on the night she had passed away 
 Only that near her a dagger lay, 
 With the written legend, "For el Rey." 
 
 . 
 
 What was their greeting the groom and 
 
 bride, 
 
 They whom that steel and the years divide ? 
 I know not Here they lie side by side. 
 
 Side by side. Though the king has his way, 
 Even the dead at last have their day. 
 Make you the moral. " For el Rey." 
 
99 
 
 DON DIEGO OF THE SOUTH. 
 
 REFECTORY-MISSION SAN GABRIEL. 
 1869. 
 
 " GOOD/' said the Padre, " believe me still, 
 Don Giovanni, or what you will ; 
 The type's eternal ! We knew him here 
 As Don Diego del Sud. I fear 
 The story's no new one. Will you hear ? 
 
 One of those spirits you can't tell why 
 God has permitted. Therein I 
 Have the advantage, for I hold 
 That wolves are sent to the purest fold. 
 
 H 2 
 
IOO Don Diego of the South. 
 
 And we save the wolf, if we'd get the lamb. 
 
 You're no believer ! Good ! I am. 
 
 f 
 
 
 
 Well, for some purpose, I grant you dim, 
 The Don loved women, and they loved him. 
 Each thought herself his last love. Worse, 
 
 - 
 
 Many believed that they were his first ! 
 And such are those creatures, since the Fall, 
 The very doubt had a charm for all ! 
 
 You laugh ! You are young but I indeed 
 I have no patience. 
 
 To proceed. 
 
 . 
 
 You saw, as you passed through the upper 
 
 town, 
 The Encinal, where the road goes down 
 
Don Diego of the South. 101 
 
 To San Felipe. There one morn 
 They found Diego, his mantle torn, 
 And as many stabs through his doubtlet's band 
 As there were wronged husbands you under 
 stand ? 
 
 ' Dying,' so said the gossips. ' Dead/ 
 Was what the friars who found him said. 
 Good ! Quien sabe ? .Who else should 
 
 know ? 
 
 It was a hundred years ago. 
 There was a funeral. Small indeed 
 Private. What would you ? 
 
 To proceed. 
 
 Scarcely the year had flown. One night 
 The comandante awoke in fright, 
 
One week later Don Juan Ramirez 
 Found his own daughter, the Dona Inez, 
 Pale as a ghost, leaning out to hear 
 The song of that phantom cavalier. 
 Even Alcalde Pedro Bias 
 Saw, it was said, through his niece's glass 
 The shade of Diego twice repass. 
 
 What the gentlemen each confessed 
 Heaven and the Church only knows. At 
 best 
 
Don Diego of the South. 103 
 
 - 
 
 The case was a bad one. How to deal 
 With Sin as a ghost they couldn't but feel 
 Was an awful thing. Till a certain Fray 
 Humbly offered to show the way. 
 
 ' 
 ' 
 
 And the way was this : Did I say before 
 That the Fray was a stranger. No, Senor ? 
 Strange ! Very strange ! I should have said 
 That the very week that the Don lay dead 
 
 He came among us ! Bread he broke 
 
 
 
 Silent ; nor ever to one he spoke. 
 
 So had he vowed it. Below his brows 
 
 His face was hidden. There are such vows. 
 
 
 Strange, are they not ? You do not use 
 
 Snuff? A bad habit! 
 
 Well, the views 
 
104 Don Diego of the South. 
 
 Of the Fray were this: That the penance 
 
 done 
 
 By the caballeros was right ; but one 
 Was due from the cause, and that in brief, 
 Was Donna Dolores Gomez, chief, 
 And Inez, Sanchicha, Concepcion, 
 And Carmen. Well, half the girls in town 
 On his tablets the Friar had written down. 
 
 These were to come on a certain day 
 And ask at the hands of this pious Fray 
 For absolution. That done, small fear 
 But the shade of Diego would disappear. 
 
 They came, each knelt in her turn and place 
 To the pious Fray with his hidden face 
 And voiceless lips, and each again 
 
Don Diego of the South. 105 
 
 Took back her soul freed from spot or stain, 
 Till the Dofta Inez, with eyes downcast 
 And a tear on their fringes, knelt her last. 
 
 And then perhaps that her voice was low 
 From fear or from shame the monks said 
 
 so 
 But the Fray leaned forward, when swiftly 
 
 all 
 
 Were thrilled by a scream, and saw her fall 
 Fainting beside the confessional. 
 
 And so was the ghost of Diego laid 
 As the Fray had said. No more his shade 
 Was seen at San Gabriel's Mission. Eh ? 
 The girl interests you ? I dare say ! 
 
io6 Don Diego of the South. 
 
 \ 
 
 1 Nothing/ she said, when they brought her 
 
 to > 
 ' Nothing, a faintness.' They spake more 
 
 true 
 Who said 't was a stubborn soul. But then 
 
 Women are women, and men are men. 
 
 . 
 
 So to return. As I said before, 
 Having got the wolf, by the same high law 
 We saved the lamb in the wolf's own jaw ; 
 And that 's my story. The tale, I fear, 
 But poorly told. Yet, it strikes me, here 
 Is stuff for a moral. What 's your view ? 
 You smile, Don Pancho, ah ! that 's like you ! " 
 
LUKE. 
 
 IN THE COLORADO PARK. 
 1873. 
 
 WOT 's that you r'e readin' ? a 'novel ? 
 
 A novel, well, clern my skin ! 
 
 You a man grown and bearded and histin' such 
 
 stuff ez that in, 
 Stuff about gals and their sweethearts ! No 
 
 wonder you 're thin ez a knife. 
 Look at me ! clar two hundred, and never 
 
 read one in my life ! 
 
Yet she allers was sweet on the Jedge, and she 
 
 stuck by him day and night, 
 Alone in the cabin up yer, till she grew like a 
 
 ghost, all white. 
 She wus only a slip of a thing, ez light and ez 
 
 up and away 
 Ez rifle-smoke blown through the woods, but 
 
 ghc was n't my kind, no way ! 
 
Now she's what I call a gal, ez pretty and 
 
 plump ez a quail ; 
 Teeth ez white ez a hound's and they'd go 
 
 through a tenpenny nail ; 
 Eyes that kin -snap like a cap. So she asked 
 
 to know " whar I was hid." 
 She did ! O, it 's jist like her sass, for she's 
 
 peart ez a Katy-did. 
 
1 10 Luke. 
 
 But what was I talking of? O, the Jedge and 
 
 his daughter, she read 
 Novels the whole day long, and I reckon she 
 
 read them abed, 
 And sometimes she read them out loud to the 
 
 Jedge on the porch where he sat, 
 And 't was how " Lord Augustus" said this, and 
 
 how " Lady Blanche " she said that 
 
 
 
 But the sickest of all that I heerd, was a yarn 
 
 that they read 'bout a chap, 
 
 - 
 
 " Leather-stocking " by name, and a hunter 
 chock full o' the greenest o' sap ; 
 
 And they asked me to hear, but I says, " Miss 
 Mabel, not any for me ; 
 
 When I likes I kin sling my own lies, and thet 
 chap and I should n't agree." 
 
Luke. 1 1 1 
 
 Yet somehow or other she was always sayin' I 
 
 brought her to mind 
 Of folks about whom she had read, or suthin' 
 
 belike o' thet kind, 
 And thar warn't no end of the names that she 
 
 give me thet summer up here, 
 "Robin Hood," "Leather-stocking," "Rob Roy," 
 
 O, I tell you, the critter was queer. 
 
 And yet ef she hadn't been spiled, she was 
 
 1 harmless enough in her way, 
 She could jabber in French to her dad, and 
 
 they said that she knew how to play, 
 And she worked me that shot-pouch up thar, 
 
 which the man does n't live ez kin use, 
 And slippers you see 'em down yer ez 
 
 would cradle an Injin's pappoose. 
 
112 Luke. 
 
 . 
 
 Yet along o' them novels, you see she was 
 
 wastin' and mopin' away, 
 And then she got shy with her tongue, and at 
 
 last she had nothin' to say ; 
 And whenever I happened around, her face it 
 
 was hid by a book, 
 And it was n't- until she left that she give me 
 
 ez much ez a look. 
 
 And this was the way it was. It was night 
 
 when I kem up here 
 To say to 'em all " good by," for I reckoned 
 
 to go for deer 
 At " sun up " the day they left. So I shook 
 
 'em all round by the hand, 
 'Cept Mabel, and she was sick, ez they give 
 
 me to understand. 
 
Luke. 113 
 
 But jist ez I passed the house next morning 
 
 at dawn, some one, 
 Like a little waver o' mist, got up on the 
 
 hill with the sun ; 
 Miss Mabel it was, all alone, wrapped up in 
 
 a mantle o' lace, 
 And she stood there straight in the road, 
 
 with a touch o' the sun in her face. 
 
 And she looked me right in the eye, I 'd 
 
 seen suthin like it before 
 When I hunted a wounded doe to the edge 
 
 o' the Clear Lake shore, 
 And I had my knee on its neck, and jist was 
 
 a raisin' my knife 
 When it give me a look like that, and 
 
 well, it got off with its life. 
 
" And we '11 always think of you, Luke, as the 
 
 thing we could not take away ; 
 The balsam that dwells in the woods, the 
 
 rainbow that lives in the spray. 
 And you'll sometimes think of me, Luke, as 
 
 you know you once used to say, 
 A rifle-smoke blown through the woods, a 
 
 moment, but never to stay." 
 
Luke. 115 
 
 And then we shook hands. She turned, but 
 
 a-suddent she . tottered and fell, 
 And I caught her sharp by the waist, and 
 
 held her a minit, well, 
 It was only a minit, you know, that ez cold 
 
 and ez white she lay 
 Ez a snow-flake here on my breast, and then 
 
 well, she melted away 
 
 And was gone * * * And thar are her books ; 
 
 but I says not any for me, 
 Good enough may be for some, but them 
 
 and I mightn't agree. 
 They spiled a decent gal ez might hev made 
 
 some chap a wife, 
 And look at me!' clar two hundred, and 
 
 never read one in my life ! 
 
 I 2 
 
"THE BABES IN THE WOODS." 
 
 BIG PINE FLAT. 
 1871. 
 
 " SOMETHING characteristic," eh ! 
 
 Humph ! I reckon you mean by that 
 Something that happened in our way, 
 
 Here at the crossin' of Big Pine Flat. 
 Times are n't now as they used to be 
 
 When gold was flush and the boys were 
 
 frisky, 
 And a man would pull out his battery 
 
 For anything, may be the price of whisky. 
 
" The Babes in the Woods!' 117 
 
 Nothing of that sort ; eh ! That's strange, 
 
 Why, I thought you might be diverted, 
 Hearing how Jones of the Red Rock Range, 
 
 Drawed his " Hints to the Unconverted," 
 And saying, " Where will you have it ? " shot 
 
 Cherokee Bob at the last Debating ! 
 What was the question ? I forgot, 
 
 But Jones did 'nt like Bob's way of stating. 
 
 Nothing of that kind, eh ? You mean 
 Something milder ? Let 's see. O, Joe ! 
 
 Tell to the stranger that little scene 
 
 Out of the "Babes in the Woods." You 
 know 
 
 " Babes " was the name we gave 'em, sir, 
 Two lean lads in their teens, and greener 
 
Ii8 " The Babes in the Woods:' 
 
 Than even the belt of spruce and fir 
 
 Where they built their nest, and each day 
 m 
 grew leaner. 
 
 No one knew where they came from. None 
 
 Cared to know if they had a mother. 
 Runaway school-boys, may be. One 
 
 Tall and dark as a spruce ; the other 
 Blue and gold in the eyes and hair, 
 
 Soft and low in his speech, but rarely 
 Talking with us ; and we did n't care 
 
 To get at their secret at all unfairly. 
 
 For they were so quiet, so sad and shy, 
 Content to trust each other solely, 
 
 That somehow we 'd always shut one eye 
 And never seem to observe them wholly 
 
"The Babes in the Woods:' 119 
 
 As they passed to their work.. 'Twas a worn- 
 out claim 
 And it paid them grub. They could live 
 
 without it, 
 
 For the boys had a way of leaving game 
 In their tents, and forgetting all about it. 
 
 Yet no one asked for their secret. Dumb 
 
 It lay in their big eyes' heavy hollows, 
 lit was understood that no one should come 
 
 To their tent unawares, save the bees and the 
 
 swallows. 
 So they lived alone. Until one warm night 
 
 I was sitting here at the tent-door so, sir, 
 When out of the sunset's rosy light 
 
 Up rode the sheriff of Mariposa. 
 
120 " The Babes in the Woods" 
 
 I knew at once there was something wrong, 
 
 For his hand and his voice shook just a 
 
 little, 
 And there is n't much you can fetch along 
 
 To make the sinews of Jack Hill brittle. 
 " Go warn the Babes ! " he whispered hoarse ; 
 
 " Tell them I'm coming, to get and 
 
 scurry, 
 For I Ve got a story that 's bad, and worse, 
 
 I Ve got a warrant ; G d d n it, hurry." 
 
 Too late ! they had seen him cross the hill ; 
 
 I ran to their tent and found them lying 
 Dead in each other's arms, and still 
 
 Clasping the drug they had taken flying. 
 And there lay their secret, cold and bare, 
 
 Their life, their trial, the old, old story ! 
 
" The Babes in the Woods." 121 
 
 For the sweet blue eyes and the golden hair, 
 Was a woman s shame and a woman's glory. 
 
 " Who were they ? " Ask no more, or ask 
 
 The sun that visits their grave so lightly ; 
 Ask of the whispering reeds, or task 
 
 The mourning crickets that chirrup nightly. 
 All of their life but its love forgot, 
 
 Everything tender and soft and mystic. 
 These are our " Babes in the Woods "; you Ve 
 got, 
 
 Well human nature ! that 's charac 
 teristic. 
 
122 
 
 THE GHOST THAT JIM SAW. 
 
 WHY, as to that, said the engineer, 
 Ghosts ain't things we are apt to fear, 
 Spirits don't fool with levers much, 
 And throttle-valves don't take to such ; 
 
 And as for Jim, 
 
 What happened to him 
 Was one half fact and t' other half whim ! 
 
 Running one night on the line, he saw 
 A house as plain as the moral law 
 
The Ghost that Jim Saw. 123 
 
 Just by the moonlit bank, and thence 
 Came a drunken man with no more sense 
 
 Then to drop on the rail, 
 
 Flat as a flail, 
 As Jim drove by with the midnight mail. 
 
 Down went the patents. Steam reversed, 
 Too late! for there came a "thud." Jim 
 
 cursed, 
 
 As the fireman, there in the cab with him, 
 Kinder stared in the face of Jim, 
 
 And says, "What now ? " 
 
 Says Jim, " What now ! 
 I Ve just run over a man, that 's how !" 
 
 The fireman stared at Jim. They ran 
 Back, but they never found house nor man, 
 
124 The Ghost that Jim Saw. 
 
 Nary a shadow within a mile. 
 
 Jim turned pale, but he tried to smile, 
 
 Then on he tore, 
 
 Ten mile or more, 
 In quicker time than he 'd made afore. 
 
 Would you believe it ! the very next night 
 Up rose that house in the moonlight white, 
 Out comes the chap and drops as before, 
 Down goes the brake and the rest encore, 
 
 And so, in fact, 
 
 Each night that act 
 Occurred, till folks swore Jim was cracked. 
 
 Humph ! let me see ; it 's a year now, ' most, 
 That I met Jim, East, and says, " How 's your 
 ghost ?" 
 
The Ghost that Jim Saw. 125 
 
 " Gone," says Jim ; " and more, it 's plain 
 That ghost don't trouble me again. 
 
 I thought I shook 
 
 That ghost when I took 
 A place on an Eastern line, but look ! 
 
 " What should I meet, the first trip out, 
 
 But the very house we talked about, 
 
 And the selfsame man ! ' Well,' says I, ' I 
 
 guess 
 It 's time to stop this yer foolishness ' ; 
 
 So I crammed on steam, 
 
 When there came a scream 
 From my fireman, that jest broke my dream. 
 
 '"You've killed somebody!' Says I, 'Not 
 much, 
 
126 The Ghost that Jim Saw. 
 
 I Ve been thar often, and thar ain't no such, 
 And now I '11 prove it ! ' Back we ran, 
 And, darn my skin ! but thar was a man 
 
 On the rail, dead, 
 
 Smashed in the head, 
 
 Now I call that meanness ! " That 's all Jim 
 said. 
 
I2 7 
 
 WHAT THE CHIMNEY SANG. 
 
 OVER the chimney the night-wind sang 
 And chanted a melody no one knew ; 
 
 And the Woman stopped, as her babe she 
 tossed, 
 
 And thought of the one she had long since lost, 
 
 And said, as her tear-drops back she forced, 
 " I hate the wind in the chimney." 
 
 Over the chimney the night-wind sang 
 And chanted a melody no one knew ; 
 
 And the Children said, as they closer drew, 
 " 'T is some witch that is cleaving the black 
 night through, 
 
128 What tJie Chimney Sang. 
 
 'T is a fairy trumpet that just then blew, 
 And we fear the wind in the chimney." 
 
 Over the chimney the night-wind sang 
 And chanted a melody no one knew ; 
 
 And the Man, as he sat on his hearth below, 
 Said to himself, " It will surely snow, 
 
 And fuel is dear, and wages low, 
 
 And I '11 stop the leak in the chimney." 
 
 Over the chimney the night-wind sang 
 And chanted a melody no one knew ; 
 
 But the Poet listened and smiled, for he 
 
 Was Man, and Woman, and Child, all three, 
 
 And he said, " It is God's own harmony, 
 This wind that sings in the chimney." 
 
 Woodfall & Kinder, Printers, Milford Lane, Strand, London, W.C. 
 
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