^^^HHHHIHHHHBHHHHHVwHIBHHHHHHwBHBHHHHBMMHe THE FOOL FIVE FORKS BY [[BRET HARTE &$& LONDON: GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS. University of California Berkeley Gift of ROBERT B. HONEYMAN, JR. THE COMMON U EJECTS U* WOODLANDS, HEATHS, AND HEDGES. w. s. BRITISH FERNS. Coloured Plates. Thomas Moore, F.L.S. FAVOURITE FLOWERS. HINTS FOR FARMERS. BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. Coieman. BRITISH BIRDS' EGGS AND NESTS. R*>. J. c. Atkinson. LIFE OF A NAG HORSE. Fcap. 8vo. j. Taylor. THE PIG : How to Choose, Breed, Rear, &c. Saml. Sidney. CRAB, SHRIMP, AND LOBSTER LORE. w. B. Lord, R.A. AQUARIUM : Fresh and Salt Water. COMMON BRITISH MOTHS. WINDOW GARDENING. THE HOMING OR CARRIER PIGEON. GEOLOGY FOR THE MILLION. COMMON BRITISH BEETLES. THE COTTAGE GARDEN. Rev. J. G. Wood, M.A' Rev. J. G. Wood. A.Meikle. W. B. Tegetmeier. Rev. J. G. Wood. A. Meikh. Published by George Routledge and Sons. Books for the Country. Continued. Price is. 6d. each. (Postage zd.) CATTLE : Their Various Breeds, Management, and Diseases. Revised by W. and H. Raynbird. W. C. L. Martin. DOGS : Their Management in Health and Disease. Mayhew. SIBSON'S AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. PROFITABLE FARMING. Alderman Mecki. Price 2s. t in boards. THE RAT. With Anecdotes. Uncle James. WILD FLOWERS : Where to Find and How to Know Them. Illustrated. Spencer Thomson. HAUNTS OF THE WILD FLOWERS. Anne Pratt. RAREY ON HORSE TAMING. OUR NATIVE SONG BIRDS. Barnesby. OUR FARM OF FOUR ACRES. WALTON AND COTTON'S ANGLER. FISH CULTURE. Francis. The Fine Edition, printed on superior paper in a large type, -with the Plates printed in Colours, f cap. 8vo, gilt edges. Price y. 6d. each. COMMON OBJECTS OF THE SEA SHORE. RCV. J. G. Wood. COMMON OBJECTS OF THE COUNTRY. Rev. J. G. Wood. OUR WOODLANDS, HEATHS, AND HEDGES. Coieman. BRITISH FERNS AND ALLIED PLANTS. Moore. BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. Coieman. BRITISH BIRDS' EGGS AND NESTS. Atkinson. WILD FLOWERS. Spencer Thomson. COMMON OBJECTS OF THE MICROSCOPE. RCV. J. G. Wood. HAUNTS OF WILD FLOWERS. Anne Pratt. THE KITCHEN AND FLOWER GARDEN. E. s. Deiamer. THE FRESH AND SALT-WATER AQUARIUM. Rev. j. G. Wood. COMMON BRITISH MOTHS. Rev. J. G. Wsod. COMMON BRITISH BEETLES. Rev. J. G. Wood. CHAMBER AND CAGE BIRDS. Bechstein. THE CALENDAR OF THE MONTHS. Rev. J. G. Wood. WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. Waterton. WALTON AND COTTON'S ANGLER. Published by George Routledge and Sons. ROUTLEDGE'S SIXPENNY MINIATURE LIBRARY. Cloth, gilt edges. (Postage la.) The Language of Flowers. Etiquette for Gentlemen. Etiquette for Ladies. Etiquette of Courtship and Ma trimony. The Bail-Room Manual. Carving. Toasts and Sentiments. How to Dress Well. ROUTLEDGE'S SHILLING SONG BOOKS. EDITED AND COMPILED BY J. E. CARPENTER. Fcap. 2^mo, boards, with fancy covers. (Postage 2d.) The Modern Song Book. The Popular Song Book. The New Universal Song Book. The Comic Song Book. The Humorous Song Book. The New British Song Book, The Entertainer's Song Book. The New Standard Song Book. The Comic Vocalist The New Scotch Song Book. The New Irish Song Book. The Moral Song Book. The Religious Song Bcok. ROUTLEDGE'S SIXPENNY SONG BOOKS. EDITED BY J. E. CARPENTER. Each i^pp.fcap. 2^tno, fancy covers. (Postage id.) The Fire-side Song Book. The Home Songster. The British Song Book. Songs for All Ages. The Select Songster. The Convivial Songster. Merry Songs for Merry Meetings. The Funny Man's Song Book. The Fashionable Song Book. The Drawing- Room Song Book. The Laughable Song Book. The Sensation Songster. Everybody's Song Book. The Social Song Book. The Family Song Book. The Amusing Songster. The Social Songster. Songs for All Seasons. The Droll Ditty Song Book. The Whimsical Songster. The Highland Songster. The Blue-Bell Songster. The Shamrock Songster. The Mavourneen Songster. The Sacred Songster. The Devout Songster. Songs for the Righteous. Songs of Grace. EVERYBODY'S SONG BOOK. Words and Music. By Rev. Guise Tucker, M.A., and C. H. Pur day. 2s. HEARTY STAVES QF HEART Music. By Rev. J. E. Clarke. 4^. Published by George Routledge and Sons. 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 : -