ff M-~ ,. > ' ^, : J Lil.S o. J-1 ft L SOME FOLKS There 's as much difference in ' some folks 1 as anybody. 1 ' SOME FOLKS. BV JOHN HABBERTON, AUTHOR OF HELEN'S BABIES,' "THE BARTON EXPERIMENT/ "THE SCRIPTURE CLUU OF VALLEY REST,' AND "OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN.' SOLD ONLY BY SUBSCRIPTION. NEW YORK : j SAN FRANCISCO : DERBY BROTHERS. ! A. ROMAN & CO. 1877. Copyrighted by FRANK LESLIE, 1877. r H5- 17 tf INTKODUCTION. MANY of the sketches contained in "Some Folks" were written by me during the past five years, and some of them published by Mr. Leslie in his Illus- trated Newspaper and his Chimney Corner, from which journals they have been collected by friends who be- lieve that in these stories is displayed better work- manship than I have since done. For myself, I can claim for them only an unusual degree of that unlit* erary and unpopular quality called truthfulness. Although at present mildly tolerated in the East, I was "brought up" in the West, and have written largely from recollection of "some folks" I have known, veritable men and women, scenes and incidents, and otherwise through the memories of Western friends of good eyesight and hearing powers. Should any one accuse me of having imitated Bret Jlarte's style, I shall accept the accusation as a com- pliment, for I know of no other American story writer so worthy to be taken as a teacher by men who ac- ceptably tell the stories of new countries. For occa- sionally introducing characters and motives that would not be considered disgraceful in virtuous communities, I can only plead in excuse the fact that, even in the New West, some folks will occasionally be uniformly thoughtful, respectable and honest, just as individuals sometimes are in the East. JOHN HABBERTON. NEW YORK, July 1st, 1877. To FRANK LESLIE, Who, while other publishers were advising the writer of these sketches to write, supplied the author with encouragement in the shape of a publishing medium and the lucre which all literary men despise but long for, this volume is respectfully dedicated by THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS. PAGE THE SCHOOLTEACHER AT BOTTLE FLAT 9 JIM HOCKSON'S REVENGE fc 27 MAKING HIS MARK 44 CODAGO 52 THE LAST PIKE AT JAGGCR'S BEND 61 FIRST PRAYER AT HANNEY'S 69 THE NEW SHERIFF- OF BUNKER COUNTY 81 MAJOR MARTT'S FRIEND 94 BUFFLE 109 MATTELETTE'S SECTION 130 A STORY OF TEN MILE GULCH 141 CAPTAIN SAM'S CHARGE 154 Miss FEWNE'S LAST CONQUEST 165 MARKSON'S HOUSE 174 GRUMP'S PET 194 TOM CHAFFLIN'S LUCK 218 OLD TWITCHETT'S TREASURE 225 BLIZZER'S WIFE 231 A BOARDING-HOUSE ROMANCE 245 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS 253 THE HARDHACK MISTAKE 265 THE C ARMI CHUMS 274 LITTLE GUZZY 282 A ROMANCE OF HAPPY REST 298 Two POWERFUL ARGUMENTS 311 MR. PUTCHETT'S LOVE 321 THE MEANEST MAN AT BLUGSEY'S 340 DEACON BARKER'S CONVERSION 356 JOE GATTER'S LIFE INSURANCE 371 THE TEMPERANCE MEETING AT BLACKLEV 381 JUDE 391 A LOVE OF A COTTAGE .... .403 THE BLEIGHTON RIVALS 426 BUDGE AND TODDIE AT AUNT ALICE'S 438 SAILING UP STREAM 477 FREE SPEECH 494 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE FRONTISPIECE 4 TOLEDO AND THE COMMITTEE'S VISIT I4 " HE HELD IT UNDER THE LIGHT " 28 " THEY FOUND HIM SENSELESS," ETC 48 FINDING THE BABY 56 THE GOLDEN HARVEST 68 PASSING THE HAT 73 EAST PATTEN , 95 THE ROUGH GREETING 112 THE BABY'S NAME 128 THE DESERTED COTTAGK 129 THE PRAIRIE FARM 140 AN INVITATION TO WAIT 149 A LOVELY EXPERIENCE" SPILED " 163 A STRANGE PROCEDURE 182 THE PLACARD ON THE DOOR 209 THE CIRCUIT PREACHER 217 KISSING SUNRISE 223 A DISCOVERY 242 THE LIKENESS 259 MOTHER AND SON MEET 263 COUNTRY INQUISITIVENESS 271 HUSBAND AND WIFE 290 IN PRISON 293 RUM VALLEY 310 NEAR His END 317 THE BONNEYS EMIGRATE 320 MR. PUTCHETT'S NEW FRIEND 325 " GOOD-BY, LITTLE ANGEL !" 334 COOL IN FACE OF DANGER 346 "THAT'S PET'S MOTHER" 352 THE RICH MAN'S CHURCH 363 TALKING OVER INSURANCE 375 THE MEETING 385 " GKT HIM ! GET JOHNNY !" 396 DOWN THE STREAM 402 THE WELCOME HOME 411 THE COTTAGE 425 "I CAME TO PLEAD FOR THE MAJOR " 433 PROCESS OF BEING LOCKED UP 448 BREAKFAST 463 SOME FOLKS. THE SCHOOLTEACHER AT BOTTLE FLAT. IT certainly was hard. What was the freedom of a country in which the voice of the original founders was spent in vain? Had not they, the "Forty" miners of Bottle Flat, really started the place ? Hadn't they located claims there? Hadn't they contributed three ounces each, osten- sibly to set up in business a brother miner who unfortun- ately lost an arm, but really that a saloon might be opened, and the genuineness and stability of the camp be assured? Hadn't they promptly killed or scared away every China- man who had ever trailed his celestial pig-tail into the Flat? Hadn't they cut and beaten a trail to Placerville, so that miners could take a run to that city when the Flat became too quiet? Hadn't they framed the squarest betting code in the whole diggings ? And when a 'Frisco man basely attempted to break up the camp by starting a gorgeous saloon a few miles up the creek, hadn't they gone up in a body and cleared him out, giving him only ten minutes in which to leave the creek for ever? All this they had done, actuated only by a stern sense of duty, and in the patient anticipation of the reward which traditionally crowns vir- tuous action. But now oh, ingratitude of republics ! a schoolteacher was to be forced upon Bottle Flat in spite of all the protest which they, the oldest inhabitants, had made ! Such had been their plaint for days, but the sad excite- ment had not been productive of any fights, for the few married men in the camp prudently absented themselves at 10 WHAT'S BEST TO BE DONE ? night from "The Nugget" saloon, where the matter was fiercely discussed every evening. There was, therefore, such an utter absence of diversity of opinion, that the most quarrelsome searched in vain for provocation. On the afternoon of the day on which the opening events of this story occurred, the boys, by agreement, stopped -work two hours earlier than usual, for the stage usually reached Bottle Flat about two hours before sundown, and the one of that day was to bring the hated teacher. The boys had wellnigh given up the idea of further resistance, yet curiosity has a small place even in manly bosoms, and they could at least look hatred at the detested pedagogue. So about four o'clock they gathered at The Nugget so suddenly, that several fathers, who were calmly drinking inside, had barely time to escape through the back win- dows. The boys drank several times before composing them- selves into their accustomed seats and leaning-places ; but it was afterward asserted, and Southpaw the one-armed bar-keeper cited as evidence, that none of them took sugar in their liquor. They subjected their sorrow to homeo- pathic treatment by drinking only the most raw and rasping fluids that the bar afforded. The preliminary drinking over, they moodily whittled, chewed, and expectorated ; a stranger would have imagined them a batch of miserable criminals awaiting transportation. The silence was finally broken by a decided-looking red-haired man, who had been neatly beveling the door-post with his knife, and who spoke as if his words only by great difficulty escaped being bitten in two. "We ken burn down the schoolhouse right before his face and eyes, and then rnebbe the State Board '11 git our idees about eddycation." "Twon't be no use, Mose," said Judge Barber, whose legal title was honorary, and conferred because he had spent some time in a penitentiary in the East. "Them State Board fellers is wrong, but they've got grit, ur they'd never WHO'S TO MARRY THE WIDDER ? 11 Jhev got the schoolhouse done after we rode the contractor out uv the Flat on one of his own boards. Besides, some uv 'em might think we wuz rubbin' uv it in, an' next thing you know'd they'd be buildin' us a jail." "Can't we buy off these young uns' folks?" queried an angular fellow from Southern Illinois. "They're a mizzable pack of shotes, an' I b'leeve they'd all leave the camp fur a few ounces." "Ye es," drawled the judge, dubiously; "but thar's the Widder Ginneys sJie'd pan out a pretty good school- room-full with her eight young uns, an' there ain't ounces enough in the diggin's to make her leave while Tom Ginneys' s coffin's roostin' under the rocks." "Then," said Mose, the first speaker, his words escaping with even more difficulty than before, " throw around keards to see who's to marry the widder, an' boss her young uns. The feller that gits the fust Jack's to do the job." "Meanin' no insult to this highly respectable crowd," said the judge, in a very bland tone, and inviting it to walk up to the bar and specify its consolation, "I don't b'leevo there's one uv yer the widder'd hev." The judge's ey\ glanced along the line at the bar, and he continued softly, but in decided accents "Not a cussed one. But," added the judge, passing his pouch to the barkeeper, "if anything's to be done, it must ba done lively, fur the stage is pretty nigh here. Tell ye what's ez good ez enny thing. We'll crowd around the stage, fust throwin' keards for who's to put out his hoof to be accidently trod onto by the infernal teacher ez he gits out. Then satisfaction must be took out uv the teacher. It'll be a mean job, fur these teachers hevn't the spunk of a coyote, an' ten to one he won't hev no shootin' irons, so the job '11 hev to be done with fists." "Good!" said Mose. "The crowd drinks with me to a .square job, and no backin'. Chuck the pasteboards, jedge The dickens ! " For Mose had got first Jack. "Square job, and no backin'," said the judge, with a grin. There's the stage now hurry up, fellers ! " 12 I'M THE TEACHER, GENTLEMEN.' The stage drew up with a crash in front of The Nugget, and the passengers, outside and in, but none looking teach- erish, hurried into the saloon. The boys scarcely knew whether to swear from disappointment or gratification, when a start from Mose drew their attention again to the stage. On the top step appeared a small shoe, above which was visible a small section of stocking far whiter and smaller than is usual in the mines. In an instant a similar shoe appeared on the lower step, and the boys saw, successively, the edge of a dress, a waterproof cloak, a couple of small gloved hands, a bright muffler, and a pleasant face covered with brown hair, and a bonnet. Then they heard a cheerful voice say: "I'm the teacher, gentlemen can any one show me the schoolhouse ? " The miserable Mose looked ghastly, and tottered. A suspicion of a wink graced the judge's eye, but he exclaimed in a stern, low tone : "Square job, an' no backin'," upon which Mose took to his heels and the Placerville trail. The judge had been a married man, so he promptly answered : "I'll take yer thar, mum, ez soon ez I git yer baggage." "Thank you," said the teacher; "that valise under the seat is all." The judge extracted a small valise marked "Huldah Brown," offered his arm, and he and the teacher walked off before the astonished crowd as naturally as if the appear- ance of a modest-looking young lady was an ordinary occur- rence at the Flat. The stage refilled, and rattled away from the dumb and staring crowd, and the judge returned. "Well, boys," said he, "yer got to marry two women, now, to stop that school, an' you'll find this un more par- ticler than the widder. I just tell yer what it is about that school it's agoin' to go on, spite uv any jackasses that wants it broke up; an' any gentleman that's insulted ken git. satisfaction by " TOLEDO AND TI1E COittllTTEEKEN S VISIT TO THE 8CHOOLTE ACHES. THE SCHOOLTEACHER RECEIVES A CALL. 15 "Who wants it broke up, you old fool?" demanded Toledo, a man who had been named after the city from which he had come, and who had been from the first one of the fiercest opponents of the school. "I move the appoint- ment uv a committee of three to wait on the teacher, see if the school wants anything money can buy, take up subscrip- tions to git it, an' lay out any feller that don't come down with the dust when he's went fur." "Hurray!" "Bully!" "Good!" "Sound!" "Them's the talk!" and other sympathetic expressions, were heard from the members of the late anti-school party. The judge, who, by virtue of age, was the master of cere- monies and general moderator of the camp, very promptly appointed a committee, consisting of Toledo and two miners, whose attire appeared the most respectable in the place, and instructed them to wait 011 the schoolmarm, and tender her the cordial support of the miners. Early the next morning the committee called at the schoolhouse, attached to which were two small rooms in which teachers were expected to keep house. The committee found the teacher "putting to rights" the schoolroom. Her dress was tucked up, her sleeves- rolled, her neck hidden by a bright handkerchief, and her hair "a-blowin' all to glory," as Toledo afterward expressed it. Between the exertion, the bracing air, and the excite- ment caused by the newness of everything, Miss Brown's pleasant face was almost handsome. "Mornin', marm," said Toledo, raising a most shocking hat, while the remaining committee - men expeditiously ranged themselves behind him, so that the teacher might by no chance look into their eyes. " Good-morning, gentlemen," said Miss Brown, with a cheerful smile; "please be seated. I suppose you wish to speak of your children?" Toledo, who was a very young man, blushed, and the whole committee was as uneasy on its feet as if its boots had been soled with fly-blisters. Finally, Toledo answered : 16 THE BOYS HEZ GOT THE DUST. "Not m-Kch, marm, seem' we ain't got none. Me an j these gentlemen's a committee from the boys." "From the boys?" echoed Miss Brown. She had heard so many wonderful things about the Golden State, that now she soberly 'wondered whether bearded men called themselves boys, and went to school. "From the miners, washin' along the crick, marm they want to know what they ken do fur yer," continued To- ledo. "I am very grateful," said Miss Brown; "but I suppose the local school committee - " "Don't count on them, marm," interrupted Toledo; " they're livin' five miles away, and they're only the preacher, an' doctor, an' a feller that's j'ined the church lately. None uv 'em but the doctor ever shows themselves at the saloon, an' lie only comes when there's a diffikilty, an' he's called in to officiate. But the boys the boys hez got the dust, marm, an' they've got the will. One uv us '11 be in often to see what can be done fur yer. Good-mornin', marm." Toledo raised his hat again, the other committee-men bowed profoundly to all the windows and seats, and then the whole retired, leaving Miss Brown in the wondering posses- sion of an entirely new experience. "Well?" inquired the crowd, as the committee ap- proached the creek. "Well," replied Toledo, "she's just a hundred an' thirty pound nugget, an' no mistake hey, fellers ? " "You bet," promptly responded the remainder of the committee. " Good ! " said the judge. " What does she want ? " Toledo's countenance fell. "By thunder!" he replied, "we got out 'fore she had a chance to tell us ! " The judge stared sharply upon the young man, and hurriedly turned to hide a merry twitching of his lips. That afternoon the boys were considerably astonished and scared at seeing the schoolmistress walking quickly " WHO'S GOT THE CLEANEST PAN ?" 17 toward the creek. The chairman of the new committee was fully equal to the occasion. Mounting a rock, he roared : " You fellers without no sherts on, git. You with shoes off, put 'em on. Take your pants out uv yer boots. Hats off when the lady comes. Hurry up, now no foolin'." The shirtless ones took a lively double-quick toward some friendly bushes, the boys rolled down their sleeves and pantaloons, and one or two took the extra precaution to wash the mud off their boots. Meanwhile Miss Brown approached, and Toledo stepped forward. "Anything wrong up at the schoolhouse ? " said he. "Oh, no, replied Miss Brown, "but I have always had a great curiosity to see how gold was obtained. It seems as if it must be very easy to handle those little pans. Don't you- don't you suppose some miner would lend me his pan and let me try just once ? " " Certingly, marm ; ev'ry galoot ov 'em would be glad of the chance. Here, you fellers who's got the cleanest pan?" Half a dozen men washed out their pans, and hurried off with them. Toledo selected one, put in dirt and water, and handed it to Miss Brown. "Thar you are, marm, but I'm afeared you'll wet your dress." "Oh, that won't harm," cried Miss Brown, with a laugh which caused one enthusiastic miner to "cut the pigeon- wing." She got the miner's touch to a nicety, and in a moment had a spray of dirty water flying from the edge of the pan, while all the boys stood in a respectful semicircle, and stared delightedly. The pan empty, Toledo refilled it several times; and, finally, picking out some pebbles and hard pieces of earth, pointed to the dirty, shiny deposit in the bottom of the pan, and briefly remarked : "Thar 'tis, marm." "Oh!" screamed Miss Brown, with delight; "is that really gold-dust ? " 18 " THEM BOOTS AIN'T FOB SALE NOW." "That's it," said Toledo. "I'll jest put it up fur yer, so yer ken kerry it." "Oh, no," said Miss Brown, "I couldn't think of it it isn't mine." "You washed it out, marm, an' that makes a full title in these parts." All of the traditional honesty of New England came into Miss Brown's face in an instant ; and, although she, Yankee- like, estimated the value of the dust, and sighingly thought how much easier it was to win gold in that way than by forcing ideas into stupid little heads, she firmly declined the gold, and bade the crowd a smiling good-day. "Did yer see them little fingers uv hern a-holdiii' out that pan? did yer see her, fellers?" inquired an excited miner. "Yes, an' the way she made that dirt git, ez though she was useder to washin' than wallopin'/' said another. "Wallopin'!" echoed a staid miner. "I'd gie my claim, an' throw in my pile to boot, to be a young 'un an' git walloped by them playthings of han's." "Jest see how she throwed dirt an.' water on them boots," said another, extending an enormous ugly boot. "Them boots ain't fur sale now them ain't." "Them be durned!" contemptuously exclaimed another. "She tramped right on my toes as she backed out uv the crowd." Every one looked jealously at the last speaker, and a grim old fellow suggested that the aforesaid individual had obtained a trampled foot by fraud, and that each man in camp had, consequently, a right to demand satisfaction o him. But the judge decided that he of the trampled foot was right, and that any miner who wouldn't take such a chance, whether fraudulently or otherwise, hadn't the spirit of a man in him. Yankee Sam, the shortest man in camp, withdrew from the crowd, and paced the banks of the creek, lost in thought 19* Within half an hour Sam was owner of the only store in the place, had doubled the prices of all articles of clothing contained therein, and increased at least six-fold the price of all the white shirts. Next day the sun rose on Bottle Flat in his usual conservative and impassive manner. Had he respected the dramatic proprieties, he would have appeared with aston- ished face and uplifted hands, for seldom had a whole community changed so completely in a single night. Uncle Hans, the only German in the camp, had spent the preceding afternoon in that patient investigation for whick the Teutonic mind is so justly noted. The morning sun saw over Hans's door .a sign, in charcoal, which read, "SHAVIN' DUN HIER"; and few men went to the creek that morning without submitting themselves to Hans's hands. Then several men who had been absent from the saloon the night before straggled into camp, with jaded mules and new attire. Carondelet Joe came in, clad in a pair of pants, on which slender saffron -hued serpents ascended graceful gray Corinthian columns, while from under the collar of a. new white shirt appeared a cravat, displaying most of the lines of the solar spectrum. Flush, the Flat champion at poker, came in late in the afternoon, with a huge watch-chain, and an overpowering bosom-pin, and his horrid fingers sported at least one seal- ring each. Several stove-pipe hats were visible in camp, and even a pair of gloves were reported in the pocket of a miner. Yankee Sam had sold out his entire stock, and prevented bloodshed over his only bottle of hair-oil by putting it up at a raffle, in forty chances, at an ounce a chance. His stock of white shirts, seven in number, were visible on manly forms ; his pocket combs and glasses were all gone ; and there had been a steady run on needles and thread. Most of the miners were smoking new white clay pipes, while a few thoughtful ones, hoping for a repetition of the events of the previous day, had scoured their pans to a dazzling brightness. 20 THE SINGING SCHOOL. As for the innocent cause of all this commotion, she was fully as excited as the miners themselves. She had never been outside of Middle Bethany, until she started for Cali- fornia. Everything on the trip had been strange, and her stopping-place and its people were stranger than all. The male population of Middle Bethany, as is usual with small New England villages, consisted almost entirely of very young boys and very old men. But here at Bottle Flat were hosts of middle-aged men, and such funny ones ! She was wild to see more of them, and hear them talk ; yet, her wildness was no match for her prudence. She sighed to think how slightly Toledo had spoken of the minister on the local committee, and she piously admitted to herself that Toledo and his Mends were undoubtedly on the brink of the bottomless pit, and yet they certainly were very kind. If she could only exert a good influence upon these men but how ? Suddenly she bethought herself of the grand social centre of Middle Bethany the singing-school. Of course, she couldn't start a singing-school at Bottle Flat, but if she were to say the children needed to be led in singing, would it be very hypocritical? She might invite such of the miners as were musically inclined to lead the school in singing in the morning, and thus she might, perhaps, remove some of the prejudice which, she had been informed, existed against the school. She broached the subject to Toledo, and that faithful official had nearly every miner in camp at the schoolhouse that same evening. The judge brought a fiddle, Uncle Hans came with a cornet, and Yellow Pete came grinning in with his darling banjo. There was a little disappointment all around when the boys declared their ignorance of "Greenville" and "Bonny Doon," which airs Miss Brown decided were most easy for the children to begin with ; but when it was ascertained that the former was the air to "Saw My Leg Off," and the litter was % identical with the " Three Black Crows," all FRONT SEATS IN DEMAND. 21 friction was removed, and the melodious howling attracted the few remaining boys at the saloon, and brought them up in a body, led by the barkeeper himself. The exact connection between melody and adoration is yet an unsolved religio-psychological problem. But we all know that everywhere in the habitable globe the two in- termingle, and stimulate each other, whether the adora- tion be offered to heavenly or earthly objects. And so it came to pass that, at the Bottle Flat singing-school, the boys looked straight at the teacher while they raised their tuneful voices ; that they came ridiculously early, so as to get front seats ; and that they purposely sung out of tune, once in a while, so as to be personally addressed by the teacher. And she pure, modest, prudent, and refined saw it all, and enjoyed it intensely. Of course, it could never go any further, for though there was in Middle Bethany no moneyed aristocracy, the best families scorned alliances with any who were undegenerate, and would not be unequally yoked with those who drank, swore, and gambled let alone the fearful suspicion of murder, which Miss Brown's imagination affixed to every man at the Flat. But the boys themselves considering the unspeakable contempt which had been manifested in the camp for the profession of teaching, and for all who practiced it the boys exhibited a condescension truly Christian. They vied with each other in manifesting it, and though the means were not always the most appropriate, the honesty of the sentiment could not be doubted. One by one the greater part of the boys, after adoring and hoping, saw for themselves that Miss Brown could never be expected to change her name at their solicitation. Sadder but better men, they retired from the contest, and solaced themselves by betting on the chances of those still "on the track," as an ex-jockey tersely expressed the situation. There was no talk of "false hearted" or "fair temp- 22 BETTING ON THE FAVORITES. tress," such as men often hear in society ; for not only had all the tenderness emanated from manly breasts alone, but it had never taken form of words. Soon the hopeful ones were reduced to half a dozen of these. Yankee Sam was the favorite among the betting men, for Sam, knowing the habits of New England damsels, went to Placerville one Friday, and returned next day with a horse and buggy. On Sunday he triumphantly drove Miss Brown to the nearest church. Ten to one was offered on Sam that Sunday afternoon, as the boys saw the demure and contented look on Miss Brown's face as she returned from church. But Samuel followed in the sad footsteps of many another great man, for so industriously did he drink to his own success that he speedily developed into a load case of delirium tremens. Then Carondelet Joe, calmly confident in the influence of his wonderful pants, led all odds in betting. But one evening, when Joe had managed to get himself in the front row and directly before the little teacher, that lady turned her head several times and showed signs of discomfort. "When it finally struck the latter that the human breath might, perhaps, waft toward a lady perfumes more agree- able than those of mixed drinks, he abruptly quitted the school and the camp. "'Flush, the poker champion, carried with him to the ringing-school that astounding impudence which had long been the terror and admiration of the camp. But a quality which had always seemed exactly the thing when applied to poker seemed to the boys barely endurable when dis- played toward Miss Brown. One afternoon, Flush indiscreetly indulged in some triumphant and rather slighting remarks about the little teacher. Within fifteen minutes, Flush's final earthly home lad been excavated, and an amateur undertaker was making his coffin. An untimely proposal by a good-looking young Mexican, .and his prompt rejection, left the race between Toledo and 23 a Frenchman named Lecomte. It also left Miss Brown considerably frightened, for until now she had imagined nothing more serious than the rude admiration which had so delighted her at first. But now, who knew but some one else would be ridicu- lous? Poor little Miss Brown suffered acutely at the thought of giving pain, and determined to be more demure than ever. ' But alas ! even her agitation seemed to make her more charming to her two remaining lovers. Had the boys at the saloon comprehended in the least the cause of Miss Brown's uneasiness, they would have promptly put both Lecomte and Toledo out of the camp, or out of the world. But to their good-natured, conceited minds it meant only that she was confused, and unable to decide, and unlimited betting was done, to be settled upon the retirement of either of the contestants. And while patriotic feeling influenced the odds rather in Toledo's favor, it was fairly admitted that the Frenchman was a formidable rival. To all the grace of manner, and the knowledge of women that seems to run in Gallic blood, he was a man of tolerable education and excellent taste. Besides, Miss Brown was so totally different from French women, that every develop- ment of her character afforded him an entirely new sensa- tion, and doubled his devotion. Toledo stood his. ground manfully, though the boys considered it a very bad sign when he stopped drinking, and spent hours in pacing the ground in front of his hut, with his hands behind him, and his eyes fixed on the ground. Finally, when he was seen one day to throw away his faithful old pipe, heavy betters hastened to " hedge " as well as they might. Besides, as one of the boys truthfully observed, " He couldn't begin to wag a jaw along with that Frenchman." But, like many other young men, he could talk quite eloquently with his eyes, and as the language of the eyes is 24 GOING BACK ON THE COMFORTS OF LIFE. always direct, and purely grammatical, Miss Brown under- stood everything they said, and, to her great horror, once or twice barely escaped talking back. The poor little teacher was about to make the whole matter a subject of special prayer, when a knock at the door startled her. She answered it, and beheld the homely features of the judge. "I just come in to talk a little matter that's been botherin' me some time. Ye'll pardon me ef I talk a little plain?" said he. "Certainly," replied the teacher, wondering if he, too, had joined her persecutors. "Thank ye," said the judge, looking relieved. "It's all right. I've got darters to hum ez big ez you be, an' I want to talk to yer ez ef yer was one uv 'em." The judge looked uncertain for a moment, and then proceeded : "That feller Toledo's dead in love with yer uv course you know it, though 'tain't likely he's told yer. All I want to say 'bout him is, drop him kindly. He's been took so bad sence you come, that he's stopped drinkin' an' chewin' an' smokin' an' cussin', an' he hasn't played a game at The Nugget sence the first singin'-school night. Mebbe this all ain't much to you, but you've read 'bout that woman that was spoke well uv fur doin' what she could. He's the fust feller I've ever seen in the diggin's that went back on all the comforts uv life, an' an' I've been a 'young man myself, an' know how big a claim it's been fur him to work. I ain't got the heart to see him spiled now ; but he ivill be ef, when yer hev to drop him, yer don't do it kindly. An' just one thing more the quicker he's out of his misery the better." The old jail-bird screwed a tear out of his eye with a dirty knuckle, and departed abruptly, leaving the little teacher just about ready to cry herself. But before she was quite ready, another knock startled her. " OUT OF HIS MISERY, BY THUNDER !" 25 She opened the door, and let in Toledo himself. "Good-evin', marm," said he, gravely. "I just come in to make my last 'fficial call, seein' I'm goin' away to-morrer. Ez there anything the schoolhouse wants I ken git an' send from 'Frisco ?" t "Going away!" ejaculated the teacher, heedless of the remainder of Toledo's sentence. "Yes, marm; goin' away fur good. Fact is, I've been tryin' to behave myself lately, an' I find I need more company at it than I git about the diggin's. I'm goin' some place whar I ken learn to be the gentleman I feel like bein' to be decent an' honest, an' useful, an' there ain't anybody here that keers to help a feller that way nobody." The ancestor of the Browns of Middle Bethany was at Lexington on that memorable morning in '75, and all of his promptness and his courage, ten times multiplied, swelled the heart of his trembling little descendant, as she faltered out: "There's one." "Who?" asked Toledo, before he could raise his eyes. But though Miss Brown answered not a word, he did not repeat his question, for such a rare crimson came into the little teacher's face, that he hid it away in his breast^ and acted as if he would never let it out again. Another knock at the door. Toledo dropped into a chair, and Miss Brown, hastily smoothing back her hair, opened the door, and again saw the judge. "I jest dropped back to say " commenced the judge, when his eye fell upon Toledo. He darted a quick glance" at the teacher, comprehended the situation at once, and with a loud shout of " Out of his misery, by thunder ! " started on a run to carry the news to the saloon. * -Sf # -Jr -3f # * Miss Brown completed her term, and then the minister, 26 " MADE FROM GOLD WASHED BY HULDAH BROWN. who was on the local Board, was called in to formally make her tutor for life to a larger pupil. Lecomte, with true French gallantry, insisted on being groomsman, and the judge gave away the bride. The groom, who gave a name very different from any ever heard at the Flat, placed on his bride's finger a ring, inscribed within, "Made from gold washed by Huldah Brown." The little teacher has increased the number of her pupils by several, and her latest one calls her grandma. iF^ JIM HOCKSON'S EEVENGE. L don't say?" " I do though." "Waal, I never." "Nuther did I adzackly." "Don't be provokin', Ephr'm what makes you talk in that dou'fle way?" " Wa'al, ma, the world hain't all squeezed into this yere little town of Crankett. I've been elsewheres, some, an' I've seed some funny things, and likewise some that wuzn't so funny ez they might be." " P'r'aps ye hev, but ye needn't allus be a-settin' other folks down. Mebbe Crankett ain't the whole world, but it's seed that awful case of Molly Capins, and the shipwreck of thirty-four, when the awful nor'easter wuz, an' " "Wa'al, wa'al, ma don't let's fight 'bout it," said Ephr'm, with a sigh, as he tenderly scraped down a new ax-helve with a piece of glass, while his wife made the churn-dasher hurry up and down as if the innocent cream was Ephr'm's "back, and she was avenging thereon Ephr'm's insults to Crankett and its people. Deacon Ephraim Crankett was a descendant of the founder of the village, and although now a sixty-year old farmer, he had in his lifetime seen considerable of the world. He had been to the fishing-banks a dozen times, been whaling twice, had carried a cargo of wheat up the Mediterranean, and had been second officer of a ship which 28 DEACON CRANKETT'S TRAVELS. had picked up a miscellaneous cargo in the heathen ports of Eastern Asia. He had picked up a great many ideas, too, wherever he JIM HOCKSON'S REVENGE. " HE HELD IT UNDER THE LIGHT, AND EXAMINED IT CLOSELY." had been, and his wife was immensely proud of him and them, whenever she could compare them with the men and ideas which existed at Crankett; but when Ephr'm displayed "MILLICENT AIN'T A CHRISTIAN NAME." 29 his memories and knowledge to her alone oh, that was a very different thing. "Anyhow," resumed Mrs. Crankett, raising the lid of the churn to see if there were any signs of butter, " it's an ever- lastin' shame. Jim Hockson's a young feller in good standin' in the Church, an' Millie Botayne's an unbeliever they say her father's a reg'lar infidel." " Easy, ma, easy," gently remonstrated Ephr'm. " When he seed you lookin' at his pet rose-bush on yer way to church las' Sunday, didn't he hurry an' pull two or three an' han' 'em to ye?" " Yes, an' what did he hev' in t'other han' ? a Boasting paper, an' not a Sunday one, nuther ! Millicent ain't a Christian name, nohow ye can fix it it amounts to jest 'bout's much ez she does, an' that's nothing. She's got a soft face, an' purty hair ef it's all her own, which I power- fully doubt an' after that ther's no thin' to her. She's never been to sewin' meetiii', an' she's off a boatin' with that New York chap every Saturday afternoon, instead of goin' to the young people's prayer-meetin's." " She's most supported Sam Hansom's wife an' young uns since Sam's smack was lost," suggested Ephr'm. " That's you, Deac'n Crankett," replied his wife, "always stick up for sinners. P'r'aps you'd make better use of your time ef you'd examine yer own evidences." "Wa'al, wife," said the deacon, "she's engaged to that New York feller, ez you call Mr. Brown, so there's no dan- ger of Jim beiii' oiiequally yoked with an onbeliever. An' I wish her well, from the bottom of my heart." " / don't," cried Mrs. Crankett, giving the dasher a vicious push, which sent the cream flying frantically up to the top of the churn ; " I hope he'll turn out bad, an' her pride '11 be tuk down ez The deacon had been long enough at sea to know the nigns of a long storm, and to know that prudence suggested -a prompt sailing out of the course of such a storm, when possible ; so he started for the door, carrying the glass and 30 "BROWN THE NEW YORK CHAP. ax-helve with him. Suddenly the door opened, and a female figure ran so violently against the ax-helve, that the said figure was instantly tumbled to the floor, and seemed an irregular mass of faded pink calico, and subdued plaid shawl. " Miss Peekin ! " exclaimed Mrs. Crankett, dropping the churn-dasher and opening her eyes. " Like to ha' not been," whined the figure, slowly arising and giving the offending ax-helve a glance which would have set it on fire had it not been of green hickory ; " but liev you heerd?" "What?" asked Mrs. Crankett, hastily setting a chair for the newcomer, while Ephr'm, deacon and sixty though he was, paused in his almost completed exit. "Hes gone !" exclaimed Miss Peekin. " Oh, I heerd Jim hed gone to Calif or " Pshaw ! " said Miss Peekin, contemptuously ; " that was days ago ! I mean Brown the New York chap Millie Botayne's lover ! " " Ye don't?" " But I do ; an' what's more, he had to. Ther wuz men come after him in the nighttime, but he must hev heard 'em, fur they didn't find him in his room, an' this mornin' they found that his sailboat was gone, too. An' what's more, ther's a printed notice up about him, an' he's a defaulter, and there's five thousand dollars for whoever catches him, an' he's stole tiventy-five, an' he's all described in the notice, as p'ticular as if he was a full-blood Alderney cow." " Poor fellow," sighed the deacon, for which interruption he received a withering glance from Miss Peekin. "They say Millie's a goin' on awful, and that she sez- she'll marry him now if he'll come back. But it ain't likely he'll be such a fool ; now he's got so much money, he don't need hern. Beckon her an' her father won't be so high an* mighty an' stuck up now. It's powerful discouragin' to the righteous to see the ungodly flourishin' so, an' a-rollin' in JIM HOCKSON'S FIRST LOVE. 31 ther wealth, when ther betters has to be on needles all year fur fear the next mack'ril catch won't 'mount to much. The idee of her bein' willin' to marry a defaulter ! I can't understand it." " Poor girl ! " sighed Mrs. Crankett, wiping one eye with the corner of her apron. " I'd do it myself, ef I was her ? " The deacon dropped the ax-helve, and gave his wife a tender kiss on each eye. II. PERHAPS Mr. Darwin can tell inquirers why, out of very common origin, there occasionally spring beings who are very decided improvements on their progenitors ; but we are only able to state that Jim Hockson was one of these superior beings, and was himself fully aware of the fact. Not that he was conceited at all, for he was not, but he could not help seeing what every one else saw and acknowledged. Every one liked him, for he was always kind in word and action, and every one was glad to be Jim Hockson' s friend ; but somehow Jim seemed to consider himself his best company. His mackerel lines were worked as briskly as any others when the fish were biting ; but when the fish were gone, he would lean idly on the rail, and stare at the waves and clouds ; he could work a cranberry-bog so beautifully that the people for miles around came to look on and take lessons ; yet, when the siin tried to hide in the evening behind a ragged row of trees on a ridge beyond Jim's cranberry- patch, he would lean on his spade, and gaze until everything about him seemed yellow. He read the Bible incessantly, yet offsnded alike the pious saints and critical sinners by never preaching or exhorting. And out of everything Jim Hockson seemed to extract what it contained of the ideal and the beautiful ; and when he saw Millicent Botayne, he straightway adored the first woman he had met who was alike beautiful, intelligent and refined. Miss Millie, being human, was pleased by the 32 " WE ATT, SWEAR BY HIM, WE DO. ' admiration of the handsome, manly fellow who seemed so far the superior of the men of his class; but when, in his honest simplicity, he told her that he loved her, she declined his further attentions in a manner which, though very deli- cate and kind, opened Jim's blue eyes to some sad things he liad never seen before. He neither got drunk, nor threatened to kill himself, nor married the first silly girl he met; but he sensibly left the place where he had suffered so greatly, and, in a sort of sad daze, he hurried off to hide himself in the newly discovered gold-fields of California. Perhaps he had suddenly learned certain properties of gold which were heretofore unknown to him; at any rate, it was soon understood at Spanish Stake, where he had located himself, that Jim Hockson got out more gold per week than any man in camp, and that it all went to San Francisco. " Kind of a mean cuss, I reckon," remarked a newcomer, one day at the saloon, when Jim alone, of the crowd present, declined to drink with him. " Not any ! " replied Colonel Two, so called because he had two eyes, while another colonel in the camp had but one. " An' it's good for you, stranger," continued the colonel, " that you ain't been long in camp, else some of the boys 'ud put a hole through you for sayin' anything 'gainst Jim; for we all swear by him, we do. He don't carry shootm'-irons, but no feller in camp dares to tackle him ; he don't cuss nobody, "hut ev'rybody does just as he asks 'em to. As to drinkin', why, I'd swear off myself, ef 'twud make me hold a candle to him. Went to old Bermuda t'other day, when he was ravin' tight and layin' for Butcher Pete with a shootin'-iron, an' he actilly talked Bermuda into soakin' his head an' turnin' in ev'rybody else was afeared to go nigh old Bermuda that day." The newcomer seemed gratified to learn that Jim was so peaceable a man that was the natural supposition, at least for he forthwith cultivated Jim with considerable assiduity, and being, it was evident, a man of considerable taste and "GIT! i B'LIEVE IN THE GOLDEN KULE, i DO I" 33 experience, Jim soon found his companionship very agree- able, and he lavished upon his new acquaintance, who had been nicknamed Tarpaulin, the many kind and thoughtful attentions which had endeared Jim to the other miners. The two men lived in the same hut, staked claims adjoining each other, and Tarpaulin, who had been thin and nervous-looking when he first came to camp, began to grow peaceable and plump under Jim's influence. One night, as Jim and Tarpaulin lay chatting before a fire in their hut, they heard a thin, wiry voice in the next hut inquiring : " Anybody in this camp look like this ? " Tarpaulin started. " That's a funny question," said he ; " let's see who and what the fellow is." And then Tarpaulin started for the next hut. Jiin waited some time, and hearing low voices in earnest conver- sation, went next door himself. Tarpaulin was not there, but two small, thin, sharp-eyed men were there, displaying an old-fashioned daguerreotype of a handsome-looking young man, dressed in the latest New York style ; and more than this Jim did not notice. "Don't know him, mister," said Colonel Two, who happened to be the owner of the hut. " Besides ef, as is most likely, he's growed long hair an' a beard since he leit the States, his own mother wouldn't know him from George Washington. Brother o' yourn ? " "No," said one of the thin men; "he's well, the fact is, we'll give a thousand dollars to any one who'll find him for us in twenty-four hours." "Deppity sheriffs?" asked the colonel, retiring some- what hastily under his blankets. "About the same thing," said one of the thin men, with a sickly smile. "Git!" roared the colonel, suddenly springing from his bed, and cocking his revolver. " I b'lieve in the Golden Kule, /do!" 8 34 JIM MAKES A DISCOVERY. The detectives, with the fine instinct peculiar to their profession, rightly construed the colonel's action as a hint, and withdrew, and Jim retired to his own hut, and fell asleep while waiting for his partner. Morning came, but no Tarpaulin; dinner-time arrived, but Jim ate alone, and was rather blue. He loved a sociable chat, and of late Tarpaulin had been almost his sole companion. Evening came, but Tarpaulin came not. Jim couldn't abide the saloon for a whole evening, so he lit a candle in his own hut, and attempted to read. Tarpaulin was a lover of newspapers it seemed to Jim he received more papers than all the remaining miners put together. Jim thought he would read some of these same papers, and unrolled Tarpaulin's blankets to find them, when out fell a picture-case, opening as it fell. Jim was about to close it again, when he suddenly started, and exclaimed : " Millicent Botayne ! " He held it under the light, and examined it closely. There could be no doubt as to identity there were the same exquisite features which, a few months before, had opened to Jim Hockson a new world of beauty, and had then, with a sweet yet sad smile, knocked down all his fair castles, and destroyed all his exquisite pictures. Strange that it should appear to him now, and so unex- pectedly, but stranger did it seem to Jim that on the opposite side of the case should be a portrait which was a duplicate of the one shown by the detectives ! " That rascal Brown ! " exclaimed Jim. " So he succeeded in getting her, did he ? But I shouldn't call him names ; he had as much right to make love to her as I. God grant he may make her happy ! And he is probably a very fine fellow must be, by his looks." Suddenly Jim started, as if shocked by an electric battery. Hiding all the hair and beard of the portrait, he stared at it a moment, and exclaimed : " Tarpaulin I " GOIN' BACK ON A PAKDNER. 35 III. " BOTH gone ! " exclaimed Colonel Two, hurrying into the saloon, at noon. "Both gone ?" echoed two or three men. " Yes," said the colonel ; " and the queerest thing is,, they left ev'rything behind every darned thing ! I never did see such a stampede afore /didn't! Nobody's got any idee of whar they be, nor what it's 'bout neither." " Don't be too sartain, colonel ! " piped Weasel, a self- contained mite of a fellow, who was still at work upon his glass, filled at the last general treat, although every one else had finished so long ago that they were growing thirstv again "don't be too sartain. Them detectives bunked at my shanty last night." " The deuce they did ! " cried the colonel. " Good tho rest of us didn't know it." "Well," said Weasel, moving his glass in graceful circles, to be sure that all the sugar dissolved, " I dunno. It's a respectable business, an' I wanted to have a good look at 'em." " What's that got to do with Jim and Tarpaulin ? '" look at demanded the colonel, fiercely. " Wait, and I'll tell you," replied Weasel, provokingly,. taking a leisurely sip at his glass. "Jim come down to see 'em " "What?" cried the colonel. " Aif told 'em he knew their man, an' would help find him," continued Weasel. " They offered him the thousand dollars " Oh, Lord ! oh, Lord !" groaned the colonel ; " who's a feller to trust in this world ! The idee of Jim goiii' back on a pardner fur a thousand! I wouldn't hev b'lieved he'd a-done it fur a million ! " "An' he told 'em he'd cram it down their throats if they mentioned it again." "Bully! Hooray fur Jim!" shouted the colonel. 36 EXCITEMENT IN THE CAMP. " What'll yer take, fellers ? Fill high ! Here's to Jim ! the feller that b'lieves his friend's innercent ! " The colonel looked thoughtfully into his glass, and remarked, as if to his own reflection therein, " Ain't many such men here nur nowhars else ! " after which he drank the toast himself. " But that don't explain what Tarpaulin went fur," said the colonel, suddenly. " Yes, it does," said the exasperating "Weasel, shutting his thin lips so tightly that it was hard to see where his mouth was. " What ?" cried the colonel. " 'Twould take a four- horse corkscrew to get anything out o' you, you dried-up little scoundrel ! " " Why ! " replied Weasel, greatly pleased by the colonel's compliment, "after what you said about hair and beard hidin' a man, one of them fellers cut a card an' held it over the picture, so as to hide hair an' chin. The forehead an' face an' nose an' ears wuz Tarpaulin's, an' nobody else's." " Lightning's blazes ! " roared the colonel, " Ha, ha, ha ! why, Tarpaulin hisself came into my shanty, an' looked at the pictur', an' talked to them 'bout it ! Trot out yer glass- ware, barkeeper got to drink to a feller that's ez cool ez all that!" The boys drank with the colonel, but they were too severely astonished to enjoy the liquor particularly. In fact, old Bermuda, who had never taken anything but plain rye, drank three fingers of claret that day, and did not know of it until told. The colonel's mind was unusually excited. It seemed to him there were a number of probabilities upon which to hang bets. He walked outside, that his meditation might be undisturbed, but in an instant he was back, crying : "Lady comin' !" Shirt-sleeves and trowsers-legs were hurriedly rolled down, shirt-collars were buttoned, hats were dusted, and then each man went leisurely out, with the air of having c< BEEN HERE, BUT GONE." 87 merely happened to leave the saloon an \ air which imposed upon no disinterested observer. Coming up the trail beside the creek were a middle-aged gentleman and a young lady, both on horseback. The gentleman's dress and general style plainly indi- cated that he was not a miner, nor a storekeeper, nor a barkeeper ; while it was equally evident that the lady was neither a washerwoman, a cook, nor a member of either of the very few professions which were open to ladies on the Pacific Coast in those days. This much every miner quickly decided for himself ; but after so deciding, each miner reached the uttermost extremity of his wits, and devoted himself to staring. The couple reined up before the saloon, and the gentle- man drew something small and black and square from his pocket. "Gentlemen," said he, "we are looking for an old friend of ours, and have traced him to this camp. We scarcely know whether it would be any use to give his name, but here is his picture. Can any one remember having seen the person here ? " Every one looked toward Colonel Two, he being the man with the most practical tongue in camp. The colonel took the picture, and Weasel slipped up behind him and looked over his shoulder. The colonel looked at the picture, abruptly handed it back, looked at the young lady, and then gazed vacantly into space, and seemed very uncomfortable. " Been here, but gone," said the colonel, at length. "Where did he go, do you know ?" asked the gentleman, while the lady's eyes dropped wearily. "Nobody knows only been gone a day or two," replied the colonel. The colonel had a well-developed heart, and, relying on what he considered the correct idea of Jim Hockson's mission, ventured to say : ".He'll be back in a day or twoleft all his things.". 38 "TRUST JIM HOCKSON. Suddenly Weasel raised liis diminutive voice, and said : " The detec The determined grip of the colonel's hand interrupted tho communication which Weasel attempted to make, and the colonel hastily remarked : "Ther's a feller gone for him that's sure to fetch him Tmck." Who who is it?" asked the young lady, hesitatingly. " Well, ma'am," said the colonel, " as yer father I s'pose, leastways said, 'tain't much use to give names in this part of the world, but the name he's goin' by is Jim Hockson." The young lady screamed and fell. IV. " WHETHER to do it or not, is what bothers me," solilo- quized Mr. Weasel, pacing meditatively in front of the saloon. "The old man offers me two thousand to get Tarpaulin away from them fellers, and let him know where to meet him an' his daughter. Two thousand's a pretty penny, an' the bein' picked out by so smart a lookin' man is ,n honor big enough to set off agin' a few hundred dollars more. But, on t'other hand, if they catch him, they'll come back here, an' who knows but what they'll want the old man an' girl as bad as they wanted Tarpaulin ? A bird in the hand's worth two in the bush better keep near the ones I got, I reckon. Here they come now ! " As Mr. Weasel concluded his dialogue with himself, Mr. Botayne and Millicent approached, in company with the oolonel. The colonel stopped just beyond the saloon, and said : " Now, here's your best p'int you can see the hill-trail fur better'n five miles, an' the crick fur a mile an' a half. I'll jest hev a shed knocked together to keep the lady from the sun. An' keep a stiff upper lip, both of yer trust Jim Hockson; nobody in the mines ever knowed him to fail." Millicent shivered at the mention of Jim's name, and the THE DETECTIVES' LUCK.. 39 colonel, unhappily ignorant of the cause of her agitation, tried to divert her mind from the chances of harm to Tar- paulin by growing eloquent in praise of Jim Hockson. Suddenly the colonel himself started a.nd grew pale. He quickly recovered himself, however, and, with the delicacy of a gentleman, walked rapidly away, as Millicent and her father looked in the direction from which the colonel's surprise came. There, handcuffed, with beard and hair singed close, clothes torn and face bleeding, walked Ethelbert Brown between the two detectives, while Jim Hockson, with head bowed and hands behind his' back, followed a few yards behind. Some one gave the word at the saloon, and the boys hurried out, but the colonel pointed significantly toward the sorrowful couple, while with the other hand he pointed an ugly pistol, cocked, toward the saloon. Millicent hurried from her father's side, and flung her arms about the sorry figure of her lover ; and Jim Hockson, finding his pathway impeded, raised his eyes, and then blushed violently. " Sorry for you, sir," said one of the detectives, touching his hat to Mr. Botayne, " but can't help being glad we got a day ahead of you." " What amount of money will buy your prisoner ? " demanded the unhappy father. " Beg pardon, sir very sorry, but we'd be compound- ing felony in that case, you know," replied one of the officers, gazing with genuine pity on the weeping girl. "Don't worry," whispered the colonel in Mr. Botayne's ear ; " we'll clean out them two fellers, and let Tarpaulin loose again. Ev'ry feller come here for something darn it ! " with which sympathizing expression the colonel again retired. "I'll give you as much as the bank offers," said Mr. Botayne. "Very sorry, sir; but can't," replied the detective. ""We'd be just as bad then in the eyes of the law as before. 40 BEVENGE AT LAST. Keward, five thousand, bank lose twenty-five thousand thirty thousand, in odd figures, is least we could take. Even that wouldn't be reg'lar ; but it would be a safe risk, seeing all the bank cares for's to get its money back." Mr. Botayne groaned. " We'll make it as pleasant as we can for you, sir," con- tinued the detective, " if you and the lady'll go back on the ship with us. We'll give him the liberty of the ship as soon as we're well away from land. We'd consider it our duty to watch him, of course ; but we'd try to do it so's not to give offense we've got hearts, though we are in this business. Hope you can buy him clear when you get home, sir ? " " I've sacrificed everything to get here I can never clear him," sighed Mr Botayne. "/can !" exclaimed a clear, manly voice. Millicent raised her eyes, and for the first time saw Jim Hockson. She gave him a look in which astonishment, gratitude and fear strove for the mastery, and he gave her a straight- forward, honest, respectful look in return. The two detectives dropped their lower jaws alarmingly, and raised their eyebrows to their hat-rims. "The bank at San Francisco has an agent here," said Jim. " Colonel, won't you fetch him?" The colonel took a lively double-quick, and soon re- turned with a business-looking man. "Mr. Green," said Jim, "please tell me how much I have in your bank?" The clerk looked over a small book he extracted from his pocket, and replied, briefly : " Over two thousand ounces." "Please give these gentlemen a check, made whatever way they like it, for the equivalent of thirty thousand dollars. I'll sign it," said Jim. The clerk and one of the detectives retired to an adjacent hut, and soon called Jim. Jim joined them, and immediately he and the officer returned to' the prisoner, A THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLAR SERMON. 41 "It's all right, Maxley," said the officer ; " let him go." The officer removed the handcuffs, and Ethelbert Brown was free. His first motion was to seize Jim's hand. " Hockson, tell me why you helped those detectives," said he. "Kevenge!" replied Jim. " For what ? " cried Brown, changing color. " Gaining Millie Botayne's love," replied Jim. . Brown looked at Millicent, and read the story from her face. He turned toward Jim a wondering look, and asked, slowly : " Then, why did you free me ? " " Because she loved you," said Jim, and then he walked quietly away. Y. " WHY, Miss Peekin ! " "It's a fact : Eben Javash, that went out better'n a year ago, hez got back, and he wuz at the next digging an' heerd all about it. 'T seems the officers ketched Brown, an' Jim Hockson gave 'em thirty thousand dollars to pay them an' the bank too, and then they let him go. Might's well ha kept his money, though, seein' Brown washed overboard on the way back. " I ain't a bettin' man," said the deacon, " but I'd risk our white-faced cow that them thirty thousand dollars preached the greatest sermon ever heerd in Californy ur in Orankett either." Miss Peekin threw a withering glance at the deacon ; it was good he was not on trial for heresy, with Miss Peekin for judge and jury. She continued : " Eben. says there was a fellow named Weasel that hid close by, an' heerd all 'twas said, and when he went to the rum-shop an' told the miners, they hooray'd for Jim ez ef they wuz mad. Just like them crazy fellers they hain't no idee when money's wasted." 42 A POWERFUL CONVERSION. " The Lord waste all the money in the world that way ! " devoutly exclaimed the deacon. " An' that feller Weasel," continued Miss Peekin, giving the deacon's pet cat a vicious kick, " though he'd always been economical, an' never set a bad example before by persuadin' folk to be intemprit, actilly drored a pistol, and fit with a feller they called Colonel Two fit for the chance of askin' the crowd to drink to Jim Hockson, an' then went aroun' to all the diggins, tellin' about Jim, an' wastiii' his money treatin' folks to drink good luck to Jim. Dis graceful ! " " It's what I'd call a powerful conversion," remarked the deacon. " But thers more," said Miss Peekin, with a sigh, and yet with an air of importance befitting the bearer of won- derful tidings. "What?" eagerly asked Mrs. Crankett. " Jim's back," said Miss Peekin. " Mercy 011 us ! " cried Mrs. Crankett. " The Lord bless and prosper him ! " earnestly exclaimed the deacon. " Well," said Miss Peekin, with a disgusted look, " I s'pose He will, from the looks o' things ; fur Eben sez that when Weasel told the fellers how it all wuz, they went to work an' put gold dust in a box fur Jim till ther wus more than he giv fur Brown, an' fellers from all round's been sendin' him dust ever since. He's mighty sight the richest man anywhere near this town." "Good bless the Lord!" said the deacon, with delight. "Ye hain't heerd all of it, though," continued Miss Peekin, with a funereal countenance. " They're going to be married." " Sakes alive ! " gasps Mrs. Crankett. 'It's so," said Miss Peekin ; "an' they say she sent for him, by way of the Isthmus, an' he come back that way. Bad enough to marry him, when poor Brown hain't been dead six months, but to send for him '' SHOCKING MISS PEEKIN. 43 " Wuz a real noble, big-hearted, womanly thing to do," declared Mrs. Crankett, snatching off her spectacles ; " an' I'd hev done it myself ef I'd*been her." The deacon gave his old wife an enthusiastic hug ; upon seeing which Miss Peekin hastily departed, with a severely shocked expression of countenance and a nose aspiring heavenward. MAKING HIS MARK. BLACK HAT was, in 1851, about as peaceful and well- regulated a village as could be found in the United States. It was not on the road to any place, so it grew but little ; the dirt paid steadily and well, so but few of the original settlers went away. The march of civilization, with its churches and circuses, had not yet reached Black Hat ; marriages never convulsed the settlement with the pet excitement of villages generally, and the inhabitants were never arrayed at swords' point by either religion, politics or newspapers. To be sure, the boys gambled every evening and all day Sunday ; but a famous player, who once passed that way on a prospecting-trip, declared that even a preacher would get sick of such playing ; for, as everybody knew everybody else's game, and as all men who played other than squarely had long since been required to leave, there was an utter absence of pistols at the tables. Occasional disagreements took place, to be sure they have been taking place, even among the best people, since the days of Cain and Abel; but all difficulties at Black Hat which did not succumb to force of jaw were quietly locked in the bosoms of the disputants until the first Sunday. Sunday, at Black Hat, orthodoxically commenced at sunset on Saturday, and was piously extended through to working-time on Monday morning, and during this period of SUNDAY AT SLACK HAT. 45 thirty-six hours there was submitted to arbitrament, by knife or pistol, all unfinished rows of the week. On Sunday was also performed all of the hard drinking at Black Hat ; but through the week the inhabitants worked as steadily and lived as peacefully as if surrounded by church-steeples, court-houses and jails. Whether owing to the inevitable visitations of the great disturber of affairs in the Garden of Eden, or only in the due course of that developement which affects communities as well as species, we know not, but certain it is that sud- denly the city fathers at Black Hat began to wear thoughtful faces and wrinkled brows, to indulge in unusual periods of silence, and to drink and smoke as if these consoling occupa- tions were pursued more as matters o^ habit than of enjoy- ment. The prime cause of the uneasiness of these good men was a red-faced, red-haired, red-whiskered fellow, who had been nicknamed " Captain," on account of the military cut of the whiskers mentioned above. The captain was quite a good fellow ; but he was suffer- ing severely from " the last infirmity of noble minds " ambition. He had gone West to make a reputation, and so openly did he work for it that no one doubted his object ; and so untiring and convincing was he, that, in two short weeks, he had persuaded the weaker of the brethren at Black Hat that things in general were considerably out of joint. And as a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump, every man at Black Hat was soon discussing the captain's criticisms, and was neglecting the more peaceable matters of cards and drink, which had previously occupied their leisure hours. The captain was. always fully charged with opinions on every subject, and his eloquent voice was heard at length on even the smallest matter that interested the camp. One day a disloyal miner remarked : " Captain's jaw is a reg'lar air-trigger ; reckon he'll run the camp when Whitey leaves." 46 WHITEY'S EXPLOITS. Straightway a devout respecter of the "powers that be" carried the remark to "Whitey, the chief of the camp. Now, it happened that Whitey, an immense but Very peaceable and sensible fellow, had just been discussing with some of his adherents the probable designs of the captain, and this new report seemed to arrive just in time, for Whitey instantly said : " Thar he goes agin, d'ye see, pokin' his shovel in all aroun'. Now, ef the boys want me to leave, they kin say so, an' I'll go. 'Tain't the easiest claim in the world to- work, runnin' this camp ain't, an' I'll never hanker to be chief nowhar else ; but seein' I've stuck to the boys, an' seen 'em through from the fust, 'twouldn't be exactly gent'e- maiily, 'pears to me." And for a moment Whitey hid his emotions in a tin cup,, from which escaped perfumes suggesting the rye-fields of Kentucky. " Nobody wants you to go, Whitey," said Wolverine, one of the chief's most faithful supporters. " Didn't yer kick that New Hampshire feller out of camp when he kept a-sayiii' the saloon wuz the gate o' hell?" " Well," said the chief, with a flush of modest pride, " I don't deny it ; but /won't remind the boys of it, ef they've forgot it." " An' didn't yer go to work," said another, " when all the fellers was a-askin' what was to be done with them Chinesers didn't yer just order the boys to clean 'em out to wunst?" "That ain't the best thing yer dun, neither!" exclaimed a third. " I wonder does any of them galoots forgit how the saloon got a-fire when ev'rybody was asleep how the chief turned out the camp, and after the barkeeper got out the door, how the chief rushed in an' rolled out all three of the barrels, and then went dead-bent fur the river with his clothes all a-blazin' ? Whar'd we hev been for a couple of weeks ef it hadn't bin fur them bar'ls ?" The remembrance of this gallant act so affected Wol- verine, that he exclaimed : GENERAL TREATS RESTRICTED TO THREE PER DIEM. 47 " Whitey, we'll stick to yer like tar-an' -feather, an' ef cap'n an' his friends git troublesome we'll jes' show 'em the trail, an' seggest they're big enough to git up a concern uv their own, instid of tryin' to steal somebody else's." The chief felt that he was still dear to the hearts of his subjects, and so many took pains that day to renew their allegiance that he grew magnanimous in fact, when the chief that evening invited the boys to drink, he pushed his own particular bottle to the captain an attention as deli- cate as that displayed by a clergyman when he invites into his pulpit the minister of a different creed. Still the captain labored. So often did the latter stand treat that the barkeeper suddenly ran short of liquor, and was compelled, for a week, to restrict general treats to three per diem until he could lay in a fresh stock. The captain could hit corks and half-dollars in the air almost every time, but no opportunity occurred in which he could exercise his markmanship for the benefit of the camp. He also told any number of good stories, at which the boys/ Whitey included, laughed heartily ; he sang jolly songs, with a very fair tenor voice, and all the boys joined in the chorus ; and he played a banjo in style, which always set the boys to capering as gracefully as a crowd of bachelor bears. But still Whitey remained in camp and in office, and tho captain, who was as humane as he was ambitious, had no idea of attempting to remove the old chief by force. On Monday night the whole camp retired early, and slept soundly. Monday had at all times a very short evening at Black Hat, for *the boys were generally weary after the duties and excitements of Sunday ; but on this particular Monday a slide had threatened on the hillside, and the boys had been hard at work cutting and carrying huge logs to make a break or barricade. So, soon after supper they took a drink or two, and sprinkled to their several huts, and Black Hat was at peace> 48 PERFECT PEACE REIGNS AT BLACK HAT. There were no dogs or cats to make night hideous no uneasy roosters to be sounding alarm at unearthly hours no horrible policemen thumping the sidewalks with clubs no fashionable or dissipated people rattling about in car- U H SENSELESS > A ND CARRIED HIM TO THE SALOON, WHERK THE CANDLES WERE ALREADY LIGHTED. ONE OF THE MINERS, WHO HAD BEEN A DOCTOR, PROMPTLY EXAMINED HIS BRUISES. riages. Excepting an occasional cough, or sneeze, or over-loud snore, the most perfect peace reigned at Black Hat. Suddenly a low but heavy rumble, and a trembling of THE LAND SLIDE. 49 ilie ground, roused every man in camp, and, rushing out of their huts, the miners saw a mass of stones and earth had been loosened far up the hillside, and were breaking over the barricade in one place, and coming down in a perfect torrent. They were fortunately moving toward the river on a line obstructed by no houses, though the hut of old Miller, who was very sick, was close to the rocky torrent. But while they stared, a young pine-tree, perhaps a foot thick, which had been torn loose by the rocks and brought down by them, suddenly tumbled, root first, over a steep rock, a few feet in front of old Miller's door. The leverage ex- erted by the lower portion of the stem threw the whole tree into a vertical position for an instant ; then it caught the wind, tottered, and finally fell directly on the front of old Miller's hut, crushing in the gable and a portion of the front door, and threatening the hut and its unfortunate occupant with immediate destruction. A deep groan and many terrible oaths burst from the boys, and then, with one impulse, they rushed to the tree and attempted to move it ; but it lay at an angle of about forty-five degrees from the horizontal, its roots heavy with dirt, on the ground in front of the door, and its top high in the air. The boys could only lift the lower portion ; but should they do so, then the hut would be entirely crushed by the full weight of the tree. There was no window through which they could get Miller out, and there was no knowing how long the frail hut could resist the weight of the tree. Suddenly a well-known voice was heard shouting : " Keep your head level, Miller, old chap we'll hev you out of that in no time. Hurry up, somebody, and borrow the barkeeper's ropes. While I'm cuttin', throw a rope over the top, and when she commences to go, haul all together and suddenly, then 'twill clear the hut." In an instant later the boys saw, by the bright moon- 4 50 THE CAPTAIN'S UNANIMOUS ELECTION. light, the captain, bareheaded, barefooted, with open shirt, standing on, the tree directly over the crushed gable, and chopping with frantic rapidity. " Hooray for cap'en ! " shouted some one. "Hooray!" replied the crowd, and a feeble "hooray'* was heard from between the logs of old Miller's hut. Two or three men came hurrying back with the ropes, and one of them was dexterously throivn across a branch of the tree. Then the boys distributed themselves along both ends of the rope. "Easy!" screamed the captain. "Plenty of time. I'll give the word. When I say, 'Now/ pull quick and all together. I won't be long." And big chips flew in undiminished quantity, while a commendatory murmur ran along both lines of men, and Whitey, the chief, knelt with his lips to one of the chinks of the hut, and assured old Miller that he was perfectly safe. " Now ! " shrieked the captain, suddenly. In his excitement, he stepped toward the top instead of the root of the tree ; in an instant the top of the tree was. snatched from the hut, but it tossed the unfortunate captain into the air as easily as a sling tosses a stone. Every one rushed to the spot where he had fallen. They found him senseless, and carried him to the saloon, where the candles were already lighted. One of the miners, who had been a doctor, promptly examined his bruises, and ex- claimed : " He's two or three broken ribs, that's all. It's a wonder he didn't break every bone in his body. He'll be around all right inside of a month." "Gentlemen," said Whitey, "I resign. All in favor of the cap'en will please say 'I.' " " I," replied every one. " I don't put the noes," continued Whitey, " because I'm a peaceable man, and don't want to hev to kick any man mean enough to vote no. Cap'en, you'r boss of this camp,, and I'm yourn obediently." THE CAPTAIN'S MARK A DEAD SURE THING. * 51 The captain opened his eyes slowly, and replied : " I'm much obliged, boys, but I won't give Whitey the trouble. Doctor's mistaken there's someting broken in- side, and I haven't got many minutes more to live." " Do yer best, cap'en," said the barkeeper, encouragingly. " Promise me you'll stay alive, and I'll go straight down to 'Frisco, and get you all the champagne you can drink." " You're very kind," replied the captain, faintly ; " but I'm sent for, and I've got to go. I've left the East to make my mark, but I didn't expect to make it in real estate. Whitey, I was a fool for wanting to be chief of Black Hat, and you've forgiven me like a gentleman and a Christian. It's getting dark I'm thirsty I'm going gone ! " The doctor felt the captain's wrist, and said : "Fact, gentlemen, he's panned his last dirt." " Do the honors, boy s," said the barkeeper, placing glasses along the bar. Each man filled his glass, and all looked at "Whitey. " Boys," said Whitey, solemnly, " ef the cap'en hed struck a nugget, good luck might liev spiled him ; ef he'd been chief of Black Hat, or any other place, he might hev got shot. But he's made his mark, so nobody begrudges him, an' nobody can rub it out. So here's to 'the cap'en's mark, a dead sure thing.' Bottoms up." The glasses were emptied in silence, and turned bottoms uppermost on the bar. The boys were slowly dispersing, when one, who was. strongly suspected of having been a Church member^ remarked : " He was took of a sudden, so he shouldn't be stuck up." Whitey turned to him, and replied, with some asperity : " Young man, you'll be lucky ef you're ever stuck up as. high as the captain." And all the boys understood what Whitey meant. CODAGO. TWO o'clock A. M. is supposed to be a popular sleeping hour the world over, and as Flatfoot Bar was a portion of the terrestrial sphere, it was but natural to expect its denizens to be in bed at that hour. Yet, on a certain morning twenty years ago, when thero was neither sickness nor a fashionable entertainment to excuse irregular hours in camp, a bright light streamed from the only window of Ghagres Charley's residence at Flatfoot Bar, and inside of the walls of Chagres Charley's domicile were half a dozen miners engaged in earnest conversation. Flatfoot Bar had never formally elected a town com- mittee, for the half-dozen men aforesaid had long ago modestly assumed the duties and responsibilities of city fathers, and so judicious had been their conduct., that no one had ever expressed a desire for a change in the government. The six men, in half a dozen different positions, sur- rounded Chagres Charley's fire, and gazed into it as intently as if they were fire-worshipers awaiting the utterances of a salamanderish oracle. But the doughty Puritans of Cromwell's time, while they trusted in God, carefully protected their powder from moisture, and the devout Mohammedan, to this day, ties up his camel at night before committing it to the keeping of the higher powers ; so it was but natural that the anxious ones at Flatfoot Bar vigorously ventilated their own ideas whilo they longed for light and knowledge. " They ain't ornaments to camp, no way you can fix it. SOME FLATPOOT BAR FOLKS. 53 them Gieasers ain't," said a tall miner, bestowing an effec- tive kick upon a stick of firewood, which had departed a short distance from his neighbors. " Mississp's right, fellers," said the host. " They ain't got the slightest idee of the duties of citizens. They show themselves down to the saloon, to be sure, an' I never seed one of 'em a-waterin' his liquor ; but when you've sed that, you've sed ev'rythin'." " Our distinguished friend speaks truthfully," remarked Nappy Boney, the only Frenchman in camp, and possessing a nickname playfully contracted from the name of the first emperor. " La gloire is nothing to them. Comprehends any one that they know not even of France's most illustrious son, le petit caporal ? " " That's bad, to be sure," said Texas, cutting an enormous chew of tobacco, and passing both plug and knife ; " but that might be overlooked ; mebbe the schools down in Mexico ain't up with the times. What I'm down on is, they hain't got none of the eddication that comes nateral to a gentleman, even ef he never seed the outside of a school- house. Who ever heerd of one of 'em hevin' a difficulty with any gentleman, at the saloon or on the crick ? They drar a good deal of blood, but it's allers from some of their own kind, an' up there by 'emselves. Ef they hed a grain of public spirit, not to say liberality, they'd do some of their amusements before the rest of us, instead of gougin' the camp out of its constitutional amusements. Why, I've knowed the time when I've held in fur six hours on a stretch, till there could be fellers enough around to git a good deal of enjoyment out of it." " They wash out a sight of dust ! " growled Lynn Taps, from the Massachusetts shoe district ; " but I never could git one of 'em to put up an ounce on a game they jest play by 'emselves, an' keep all their washin's to home." " Blarst 'em hall ! let's give 'em tickets-o'-leave, an' show 'era the trail ! " roared Bracelets, a stout Englishman, who had on each wrist a red scar, which had suggested his name THEM'S OUR PRINCIPLES/' and unpleasant situations. " I believe in fair play, but I darsn't keep my eyes lioff of 'em sleepy-lookiri tops, when their flippers is anywheres near their knives, you know." " Well, what's to be done to 'em ? " demanded Lynn Taps. * : All this jawin's well enough, but jaw never cleared out anybody 'xcep' that time Samson tried, an' then it came from an individual that wasn't related to any of this crowd." " Let 'em alone till next time they git into a muss, an' then clean 'em all out of camp," said Chagres Charley. "Let's hev it onderstood that while this camp cheerfully recognizes the right of a gentleman to shoot at sight an' lay out his man, that it considers stabbin' in the dark's the same thing as murder. Them's our principles, and folks might's well know 'em fust as last. Good Lord ! what's that ?" All the men started to their feet at the sound of a long, loud yell. " That's one of 'em now ! " ejaculated Mississip, with a huge oath. " Nobody but a Greaser ken holler that way sounds like the last despairin' cry of a dyin' mule. There's only eight or nine of 'em, an' each of us is good fur two Greasers apiece let's make 'em git this minnit." And Mississip dashed out of the door, followed by the other five, revolvers in hand. The Mexicans lived together, in a hut made of raw hides, one of which constituted the door. The devoted six reached the hut, Texas snatched aside the hide, and each man presented his pistol at full cock. But no one fired; on the contrary, each man slowly dropped his pistol, and opened his eyes. There was no newly made corpse visible, nor did any Greasers savagely wave a bloody stiletto. But on the ground, insensible, lay a Mexican woman, and about her stood seven or eight Greasers, each looking even more dumb, incapable, and solemn than usual. The city fathers felt themselves in an awkward position, and Mississip finally asked, in the meekest of tones : "What's the matter?" GALLANTRY IN CAMI>. 55 " She Codago s wife," softly replied a Mexican. " They iight in Chihuahua he run away she follow. She come here now this minute she fall on Codago she say some- thing, we know not he scream an' run." "He's a low-lived scoundrel!" said Chagres Charley, between his teeth. "Ef my wife thort enough of me to follow me to the diggin's, I wouldn't do much runnin' away. He's a reg'lar black-hearted, white-livered " Sh h h ! " whispered Nappy, the Frenchman. "The lady is recovering, and she may have a heart." "Maria, Madre purissima /" low wailed the woman. "Mi mno mi nino per dido / " "What's she a-sayin' ?" asked Lynn Taps, in a whisper. "She talk about little boy lost," said the Mexican. "An' her husband gone, too, poor woman ! " said Chagres Charley, in the most sympathizing tones ever heard at Flatfoot Bar. But a doctor'd be more good to her jes' now than forty sich husbands as her'n. Where's the nearest doctor, fellers ? " continued Chagres Charley. " Up to Dutch Hill," said Texas ; an' I'll see he's fetched inside of two hours." Saying which, Texas dropped the raw-hide door, and liurried off. The remaining five strolled slowly back to Chagres Charley's hut. " Them Greasers hain't never got nothiii'," said Mississip, suddenly; "an' that woman'll lay thar on the bare ground all night 'fore they think of makin' her comfortable. Who's got an extra blanket ? " " I ! " said each of the four others ; and Nappy Boney expressed the feeling of the whole party by exclaiming : " The blue sky is enough good to cover man when woman needs blankets." Hastily Mississip collected the four extra blankets and both of his own, and, as he sped toward the Mexican hut, he stopped several times by the way to dexterously snatch blankets from sleeping forms. , 56 NAPPY BONEY'S OFFERING. "Here you be," said he, suddenly entering the Mexican: hut, and startling the inmates into crossing themselves violently. " Make the poor thing a decent bed, an' we' a doctor here pretty soon." SUDDENLY, BY THE GLAEE OF A FRESH LIGHT, THE BOYS SAW THE FACE OF A BATHER DIRTY, LARGE-EYED, BROWN-SKINNED MEXICAN BABY, Mississip had barely vanished, when a light scratching was heard on the door. A Mexican opened it, and saw Nappy Boney, with extended hand and bottle. THE. SEAIiCH FOR THE CHILD. 57 "It is the eau-de-vie of la Mlc France" lie whispered. " Tenderly I have cherished, but it is at the lady's service." Chagres Charley, Lynn Taps and Bracelets were com- posing their nerves with pipes about the fire they had surrounded early in the morning. Lynn Taps had just declared his disbelief of a soul inside of the Mexican frame, when the door was thrown open and an excited Mexican appeared. " Her tongue come back ! " he cried. " She say she come over mountain she bring little Boy she no eat, it was long time. Soon she must die, boy must die. What she do ? She put round boy her cloak, an' leave him by rock, an' hurry to tell. Maybe coyote get him. What can do?" " What can we do ? " echoed Lynn Taps ; " turn out every galoot in camp, and foller. her tracks till we find it. Souls or no souls, don't make no diff'rence. I'll tramp my legs off, 'fore that child shall be left out in the snow in them mountains." Within five minutes every man in camp had been aroused. Each man swore frightfully at being prematurely turned out each man hated the Greasers with all his heart and soul and strength ; but each man, as he learned what was the matter, made all possible haste, and fluently cursed all who were slower than himself. In fact, two or three irrepressible spirits, consuming with delay, started alone 011 independent lines of search. Chagres Charley appeared promptly, and assumed com- mand. " Boys," said he, " we'll sprinkle out into a line a couple of miles long, and march up the mountain till we reach the snow. When I think it's time, I'll fire three times, an' then each feller'll face an' tramp to the right, keepin' a keerful lookout for a woman's tracks p'intiii' t'ward camp. Ther can't be 110 mistakin' 'em, for them sennyritas hez the littlest kind o' feet. When any feller finds her tracks, he'll fire, an' then we'll rally 011 him. I wish them other fellers, instid of goin' off half-cocked, lied tracked Codago, the low-lived 8 CODAGO AND HIS PACK. r,kunk. To think of him runnin' away from wife, an' young one, too ! Forward, git ! " " They hain't got no souls that's what made him do it, Charley," said Lynn Taps, as the men deployed. Steadily the miners ascended the rugged slope ; rocks, trees, fallen trunks and treacherous holes impeded their progress, but did not stop them. A steady wind cut them to the bone, and grew more keen and fierce as they neared the snow. Suddenly Chagres Charley fired, and the boys faced to the right a moment later another shot rallied the party ; those nearest it found Nappy Boney in a high state of ex- citement, and leaning over a foot-print. " Mon Dieu ! " he cried ; " they have not the esprit, those Hexicans ; but her footprints might have been made by the adorable feet of one of my countrywomen, it is so small." " Yes," said Mississip ; " an' one of them fellers that started ahead hez found it fust, fur here's a man's track a-goin' up." Rapidly the excited miners followed the tracks through the snow, and found them gradually leading to the regular trail across the mountain, which trail few men ventured upon at that season. Suddenly the men in advance stopped. " Here 'tis, I reckon ! " cried Mississip, springing across a small cleft in the rocks, and running toward a dark object lying on the sheltered side of a small cliff. " Good God ! " he continued, as he stooped down ; " it's Codago ! An' he's froze stiff." "Serve him right, cuss him," growled Lynn Taps. "I almost wish he had a soul, so he could catch it good an' hot, now he's gone ! " " He's got his pack with him," shouted Mississip, " and a huggin' it ez tight ez ef he could take it to to wherever he's gone to." " No man with a soul could hev ben cool enough to pack up his trap's after seein' that poor woman's face," argued Lynn Taps. " IT BEATS ANYTHING I EVER SEED. * 59 Mississip tore off a piece of his trowsers, struck fire with flint and steel, poured on whisky, and blew it into a flame. Rapidly the miners straggled up the trail, and halted opposite Mississip. "Well, I'll be durned!" shouted the latter; "he ain't got no shirt on, an' there's an ugly cut in his arm. It beats anything I ever seed ! " One by one the miners leaped the cleft, and 'crowded about Mississip arid stared. It was certainly Codago, and there was certainly his pack, made up in his poncho, in the usual Greaser manner, and held tightly in his arms. But while they stared, there was a sudden movement of the pack itself. Lynn Taps gave a mighty tug at it, extricated it from the dead man's grasp, and rapidly undid it. Suddenly, by the glare of a fresh light, the boys saw the face of a rather dirty, large-eyed, brown-skinned Mexican baby ; and the baby, probably by way of recognition, raised high a voice such as the boys never heard before on that side of the Rocky Mountains. " Here's what that cut in his arm means," shouted a miner who had struck a light on the trail ; " there's a finger-mark, done in blood on the snow, by the side of the trail, an' a-pintin' right to that ledge ; an' here's his shirt a- flappin' on a stick stuck in a snow-bank lookin' t'ward camp." " There ain't no doubt 'bout what the woman said to him, or what made him yell an' git, boys," said Chagres Charley, solemnly, as he took a blanket from his shoulders and spread it on the ground. Mississip took off his hat, and lifting the poor Mexican from the snow, laid him in the blanket. Lynn Taps hid the baby, rewrapped, under his own blanket, and hurried down the mountain, while four men picked up Codago and fol- lowed. Lynn Taps scratched on the rawhide door ; the doctor opened it. 60 " WALK UP, BOYS FILL HIGH HATS OFF.' Lynn Tapps unrolled the bundle, and its occupant again raised its voice. The woman, who was lying motionless and with closed eyes, sprang to her feet in an instant, and as Lynn Taps laid his burden on the blankets, the woman, her every dull feature softened and lighted with motherly tenderness, threw her arms about the astonished Yankee, and then fell sob- bing at his feet. " You've brought her tie only medicine that'll do her any good," said the doctor, giving the baby a gentle dig under the ribs as he picked up his saddle-bags. Lynn 'Taps made a hasty escape, and reached the saloon, which had been hurriedly opened as the crowd was heard approaching. The bearers of the body deposited it gently on the floor, and the crowd filed in quietly. Lynn Taps walked up to the bar, and rapped upon it. " Walk up, boys," said he ; " fill high ; hats off. Here's Codago. Maybe he didn't have a soul, but if he didn't, souls ain't needed in this world. Buttoms up, every man." The toast was drunk quietly and reverently, and when it was suggested that the Greasers themselves should have participated, they were all summoned, and the same toast was drank again. The next day, as the body of Codago was being carried to a newly dug grave, on the high ground overlooking the creek, and the Mexicans stood about, as if dumb staring and incessant smoking were the only proprieties to be observed on such occasions, Lynn Taps thoughtfully offered his arm to the weeping widow, and so sorrowful was she throughout the performance of the sad rites, that Lynn Taps was heard to remark that, however it might be with the men, there could be no doubt about Mexican women's possessing souls. As a few weeks later the widow became Mrs. Lynn Taps, there can be no doubt that her second husband's final convictions were genuine. THE LAST PIKE AT JAGGEB'S BEND. "TTTHERE they came from no one knew. Among the \\ farmers near the Bend there was ample ability to conduct researches beset by far more difficulties than was that of the origin of the Pikes ; but a charge of buckshot which a good-natured Yankee received one evening, soon after putting questions to a venerable Pike, exerted a de- pressing influence upon the spirit of investigation. They were not bloodthirsty, these Pikes, but they had good reason to suspect all inquirers of being at least deputy sheriffs, if not worse ; and a Pike's hatred of officers of the law is equaled in intensity only by his hatred for manual labor. But while there was doubt as to the fatherland of the little colony of Pikes at Jagger's Bend, their every neighbor would willingly make affidavit as to the cause of their locat- ing and remaining at the Bend. When' humanitarians and optimists argued that it was because the water was good and convenient, that the Bend itself caught enough drift-wood for fuel, and that the dirt would yield a little gold when manipulated by placer and pan, all farmers and stockowners would freely admit the validity of these reasons ; but the admission was made with a countenance whose indignation and sorrow indicated that the greater causes were yet unnamed. With eyes speaking emotions which words could not express, they would point to sections of wheat-fields minus the grain-bearing heads to hides and hoofs of cattle imslaughtered by themselves to mothers of promising" 62 AN ARISTOCRATIC COMMUNITY. calves, whose tender bleatings answered not the maternal call to the places which had once known fine horses, but had been untenanted since certain Pikes had gone across, the mountains for game. They would accuse no man wrongfully, but in a country where all farmers had wheat and cattle and horses, and where prowling Indians and Mex- icans were not, how could these disappearances occur ? But to people owning no property in the neighborhood to tourists and artists the Pike settlement at the Bend was as interesting and ugly as a stye-terrier. The archi- tecture of the village was of original style, and no duplicate existed. Of the half-dozen residences, one was composed exclusively of sod ; another of bark ; yet another of poles:, roofed with a wagon-cover, and plastered on the outside with mud ; the fourth was of slabs, nicely split from logs which had drifted into the Bend ; the fifth was of hide stretched over a frame strictly gothic from foundation to ridgepole ; while the sixth, burrowed into the hillside, dis- played only the barrel which formed its chimney. A more aristocratic community did not exist on the Pa- cific Coast. Yisit the Pikes when you would, you could lever see any one working. Of churches, school-houses, stores and other plebeian institutions, there were none ; and no Pike demeaned himself by entering trade, or soiled his- hands by agriculture. Yet unto this peaceful, contented neighborhood there found his way a visitor who had been everywhere in the world without once being made welcome. He came to the house built of slabs, and threatened the wife of Sam Trot- wine, owner of the house ; and Sam, after sunning himself uneasily for a day or two, mounted a pony, and rode off for a doctor to drive the intruder away. When he returned he found all the men in the camp seated on a log in front of his own door, and then he knew he must prepare for the worst only one of the great influ- ences of the world could force every Pike from his own door at exactly the same time. There they sat, yellow-faced, " I WISH TER GOD I COULD DIE FUR YER." 63 bearded, long-backed and bent, eacli looking like the other, and all like Sam ; and, as he dismounted, they all looked at him. " How is she ? " said Sam, tying his horse and the doctor's, while the latter went in. " Well," said the oldest man, with deliberation, " the wimmin's all thar ef that's any sign." Each man on the log inclined his head slightly but positively to the left, thus manifesting belief that Sam had been correctly and sufficiently answered. Sam himself seemed to regard his information in about the same manner. Suddenly the raw hide which formed the door of Sam's house was pushed aside, and a woman came out and called Sam, and he disappeared from his log. As he entered his hut, all the women lifted sorrowful faces and retired ; no one even lingered, for the Pike has not the common human interest in other people's business ; he lacks that, as well as certain similar virtues of civiliza- tion. Sam dropped by the bedside, and was human ; his heart was in the right place ; and though heavily intrenched by years of laziness and whisky and tobacco, it could be brought to the front, and it came now. The dying woman cast her eyes appealingly at the surgeon, and that worthy stepped outside the door. Then the yellow-faced woman said : " Sam, doctor says I ain't got much time left. " Mary," said Sam, " I wish ter God I could die fur yei\ The children " " It's them I want to talk about, Sam," replied his wife. 'An' I wish they could die with me, rather'ii hev 'em liv ez I've lied to. Not that you ain't been a kind husband to me, for you hev. Whenever I wanted meat yev got it r somehow ; an' when yev been ugly drunk, yev kep' away from the house. But I'm dyiii', Sam, and it's cos you've killed me." 64 HIS LIPS BROUGHT TO HER WAN FACE A SMILE. " Good God, Mary ! " cried the astonished Sam, jumping up ; " yure crazy here, doctor ! " " Doctor can't do no good, Sam ; keep still, and listen, ef yer love me like yer once said yer did; for I hevn't got much breath left," gasped the woman. " Mary," said the aggrieved Sam, " I swow to God I dunno what yer drivin' at." " It's jest this, Sam," replied the woman : " Yer tuk me, tellin' me ye'd love me an' honor me an' pertect me. You mean to say, now, yev done it ? I'm a-dyin', Sam I hain't got no favors to ask of nobody, an' I'm tellin' the truth, not knowin' what worcl'll be my last." " Then tell a feller where the killin' came in, Mary, for heaven's sake/' said the unhappy Sam. " It's come in all along, Sam," said the woman ; " there is women in the States, so I've heerd, that marries fur a home, an' bread an' butter, but you promised more'ii that, Sam. An' I've waited. An' it ain't come. An' there's somethin' in me that's all starved and cut to pieces. An' it's your fault, Sam., I tuk yer fur better or fur wuss, an' I've never grumbled. ' ' "I know yer hain't, Mary," whispered the conscience- stricken Pike. "An' I know what yer mean. Ef God '11 only let yer be fur a few years, I'll see ef the thing can't be helped. Don't cuss me, Mary I've never knowed how I've been a-goin'. I wish there was somethin' I could do 'fore you go, to pay yer all I owe yer. I'd go back on everything that makes life worth hevin'." " Pay it to the children, Sam," said the sick woman, raising herself in her miserable bed. "I'll forgive yer everything if you'll do the right thing fur them. Dodo everything ! ' said the woman, throwing up her arms and falling backward. Her husband's arm caught her ; his lips brought to her wan face a smile, which the grim visitor, who an instant later stole her breath, pityingly left in full possession of the rightful inheritance from which it had been so long excluded. "I NEVER HEAED OF SUCH A THING.'* 65 Sam knelt for a moment with his face beside his wife what he said or did the Lord only knew, but the doctor, who was of a speculative mind, afterward said that when Sam appeared at the door he showed the first Pike face in which he had ever seen any signs of a soul. Sam went to the sod house, where lived the oldest woman in the camp, and briefly announced the end of his wife. Then, after some consultation with the' old woman, Sam rode to town on one of his horses, leading another. He came back with but one horse and a large bundle ; and soon the women were making for Mrs. Trotwine her last earthly robe, and the first new one she had worn for years. The next day a wagon brought a coffin and a minister, and the whole camp silently and respectfully followed Mrs. Trotwine to a home with which she could find no fault. For three days all the male Pikes in the camp sat on the log in front of Sam's door, and expressed their sympathy as did the three friends of Job that is, they held their peace. But on the fourth their tongues were unloosed. As a con- versationalist the Pike is not a success, but Sam's actions were so unusual and utterly unheard of, that it seemed as if even the stones must have wondered and communed among themselves. "I never heard of such a thing," said Brown Buck; "he's gone an' bought new clothes for each of the four young 'uns." " Yes," said the patriarch of the camp, "an' this mornin', when I went down to the bank to soak my head, 'cos last night's liquor didn't agree with it, I seed Sam with all his young 'uns as they wuz a washin' their face an' hands with soap. They'll ketch their death an' be on the hill with their mother 'fore long, if he don't look out ; somebody ort to reason with him." " 'Twon't do no good," sighed Limping Jim. " He's lost his head, an' reason just goes into one ear and out at t'other. When he was scrapin' aroun' the front door t'other day, an' I asked him what he wuz a-layin' the ground all bare an'- 66 RUIN TO JAGGEB'S BEND. desolate for, lie said lie was done keepin' pig-pen. Now everybody but him knows he never had a pig. His head's gone, just mark my words." On the morning of the fourth day Sam's friends had just secured a full attendance on the log, and were at work upon their first pipes, when they were startled by seeing Sam harness his horse in the wagon and put all his children into it. "Whar yer bound fur, Sam?" asked the patriarch. Sam blushed as near as a Pike could, but answered with only a little hesitation : " Goin' to take 'em to school to Maxfield goin' to do ii ev'ry day." The incumbent of the log were too nearly paralyzed ta remonstrate, but after a few moments of silence the patriarch remarked, in tones of feeling, yet decision : " He's hed a tough time of it, but he's no bizness to ruin the settlement. I'm an old man myself, an' I need peace of mind, so I'm goin' to pack up my traps and mosey. When the folks at Maxfield knows what he's doin', they'll make him a constable or a justice, an' I'm too much of a man to live nigh any sich." And next clay the patriarch wheeled his family and pro- perty to parts unknown. A few days later Jim Merrick, a brisk farmer a few miles from the Bend, stood in front of his own house, and shaded his eyes in solemn wonder. It couldn't be he'd never heard of such a thing before yet it was there was no doubt of it there was a Pike riding right toward him, in open daylight. He could swear that Pike had often visited him that is, his wheatfield and corral after dark, but a day- light visit from a Pike was as unusual as a social call of a Samaritan upon a Jew. And when Sam for it was he- approached Merrick and made his business known, the farmer was more astonished and confused than he had ever been in his life before. Sam wanted to know for how much money Merrick would plow and plant a hundred and sixty SAM ElvTERS A QUARTER SECTION. 6T acres of wheat for him, and whether he would take Sam's horse a fine animal,brought from the States, and for which Sam could show a bill of sale as security for the amount until he could harvest and sell his crop. Merrick so well understood the Pike nature, that he made a very liberal offer, and afterward said he would have paid handsomely for the chance. A few days later, and the remaining Pikes at the Bend experienced the greatest scare that had ever visited their souls. A brisk man came into the Bend with a tripod on his shoulder, and a wire chain, and some wire pins, and a queer machine under his arm, and before dark the Pikes- understood that Sam had deliberately constituted himself a renegade by entering a quarter section of land. Next morn- ing two more residences were empty, and the remaining fathers of the hamlet adorned not Sam's log, but wandered about with faces vacant of all expression save the agony of the patriot who sees his home invaded by corrupting influ- ences too powerful for him to resist. Then Merrick sent up a gang-plow and eight horses, and the tender green of Sam's quarter section was rapidly changed to a dull-brown color, which is odious unto the eye of the Pike. Day by day the brown spot grew larger, and one morning Sam arose to find all his neighbors departed, having wreaked their vengeance upon him by taking away his dogs. And in his delight at their disappearance, Sam freely forgave them all. Eegularly the children were carried to and from school, and even to Sunday-school regularly every evening Sam visited the grave on the hillside, and came back to lie by the hour looking at the sleeping darlings little by little farmers, began to realize that their property was undisturbed little by little Sam's wheat grew and waxed golden; and then there came a day when a man from 'Frisco came and changed it into a heavier gold more gold than Sam had ever seen before. And the farmers began to stop in to see Sam, and their children came to see his, and kind women 68 THE GOLDEN HARVEST. were unusually kind to the orphans, and as day by day Sam took his solitary walk on the hillside, the load on his heart grew lighter, until he ceased to fear the day when he, too, should lie there. FIKST PKAYEK AT HANNEY'S. HANNEY'S DIGGINGS certainly needed a missionary, if any place ever did; but, as one of the boys once re- marked during a great lack of water, " It had to keep on a- needin'." Zealous men came up by steamer via the Isthmus, and seemed to consume with their fiery haste to get on board the vessel for China and Japan, and carry the glad tidings to the heathen. Self-sacrificing souls gave up home and friends, and hurried across, overland, to brave the Pacific and bury themselves among the Australasian savages. But, though they all passed in sight of Hanney's, none of them paused to give any attention to the souls who had flocked there. Men came out from 'Frisco and the East to labor with the Chinese miners, who were the only peaceable and well-behaved people in the mines ; but the white-faced, good-natured, hard-swearing, generous, heavy-drinking, .en- thusiastic, murderous Anglo-Saxons they let severely alone. Perhaps they thought that hearts in which the good seed had once been sown, but failed to come up into fruit, were barren soil ; perhaps they thought it preferable to be killed and eaten by cannibals than to be tumbled into a gulch by a revolver-shot, while the shootist strolled calmly off in com- pany with his approving conscience, never thinking to ascertain whether his bullet had completed the business, or whether a wounded man might not have to fight death and coyotes together. At any rate, the missionaries let Hanney's alone. If any one with an unquenchable desire to carry the Word where it 70 "PENTECOST CHAPEL." is utterly unknown, a digestion without fear, and a full-proof article of common sense (these last two requisites are abso- lute), should be looking for an eligible location, Hanney's is just the place for him, and he need give himself no trouble for fear some one would step in before him. If he has several dozens of similarly constituted friends, they can all find similar locations by betaking themselves to any mining camp in the West. As Hanney's had no preacher, it will be readily imagined it had no church. With the first crowd who located there came an insolvent rumseller from the East. He called him- self Pentecost, which was as near his right name as is usual with miners, and the boys dubbed his shop "Pentecost Chapel " at once. The name, somehow, reached the East, .for within a few months there reached the post-office at Hanney's a document addressed to " Preacher in charge of Pentecost Chapel." The postmaster went up and down the brook in high spirits, and told the boys ; they instantly dropped shovel and pan, formed line, and escorted the post- master and document to the chapel. Pentecost acknow- ledged the joke, and stood treat for the crowd, after which he solemnly tore the wrapper, and disclosed the report of a certain missionary society. Modestly expressing his gratifi- cation at the honor, and his unworthiness of it, he moved that old Thompson, who had the loudest voice in the crowd, should read the report aloud, he, Pentecost, volunteering to furnish Thompson all necessary spirituous aid during the continuance of his task. Thompson promptly signified his acquiescence, cleared his throat with a glass of amber-colored liquid, and commenced, the boys meanwhile listening atten- tively, and commenting critically. " Too much cussed heavenly twang," observed one, disap- provingly, as one letter largely composed of Scriptural extracts was read. "Why the deuce didn't he shoot?" indignantly demanded another, as a tale of escape from heathen pursuers was Tead. THE CONTENTS OF THE HAT. 71 " Shot up wimmen in a denied dark room ! Well, Til be durned!" soliloquized a yellow -haired Missourian, as Thompson read an account of a Zenana. " Keckon they'd set an infernal sight higher by wimmen if they wuz in the dig- gins' six months hey, fellers ? " " You bet ! " emphatically responded a majority of those present. Before the boys became very restive, Thompson finished the pamphlet, including a few lines on the cover, which stated that the society was greatly in need of funds, and that contributions might be sent to the society's financial agent in Boston. Thompson gracefully concluded his service by passing the hat, with the following net result : Two revol- vers, one double-barreled pistol, three knives, one watch, two rings (both home-made, valuable and fearfully ugly), a poc- ket-ink stand, a silver tobacco-box, and forty or fifty ounces of dust and nuggets. Boston Bill, who was notoriously absent- minded, dropped in a pocket-comb, but, on being sternly called to order by old Thompson, cursed himself most fluently, and redeemed his disgraceful contribution with a gold double-eagle. "The Webfoot," who was the most unlucky man in camp, had been so wrought upon by the tale of one missionary who had lost his all many times in succession, sympathetically contributed his only shovel, for which act he was enthusiastically cursed and liberally treated at the bar, while the shovel was promptly sold at auction to the highest bidder, who presented it, with a staggering slap between the shoulders, to its original owner. The remaining non-legal tenders were then converted into gold-dust, and the whole dispatched by express, with a grim note from Pentecost, to the society's treasurer at Boston. As the society was controlled by a denomination which does not understand how good can come out of evil, 110 detail of this contribution ever appeared in print. But a few months thereafter there did appear at Hanney's a thin-chested, large- headed youth, with a heavily loaded mule, who announced himself as duly accredited by the aforementioned society to 72 THE YOUNG MAN GOES FOR HIS MULE. preacli the Gospel among tlie miners. The boys received him cordially, and Pentecost offered him the nightly hospi- tality of curling up to sleep in front of the bar-room fire- place. His mule's load proved to consist largely of tracts, which he vigorously distributed, and which the boys used to wrap up dust in. He nearly starved while trying to learn to cook his own food, so some of the boys took him in and fed him. He tried to persuade the boys to stop drinking, and they good-naturedly laughed ; but when he attempted to break up the " lifctle game " which was the only amusement of the camp the only steady amusement, for fights were short and irregular the camp rose in its wrath, and the young man hastily rose and went for his mule. But at the time of which this story treats a missionary would have fared even worse, for the boys where wholly absorbed by a very unrighteous, but still very darling, pleasure. A pair of veteran knifeists, who had fought each other at sight for almost ten years every time they met, had again found themselves in the same settlement, and Hanney's- had the honor to be that particular settlement. " Judge " Briggs, one of the heroes, had many years before discussed with his neighbor, Billy Bent, the merits of two opposing brands of mining shovels. In the course of the chat they drank considerable villainous whisky, and naturally resorted to knives as final arguments. The matter might have ended here, had either gained a decided advantage over the other; but both were skillful each inflicted and received so near the same number of wounds, that the wisest men in camp were unable to decide which whipped. Now, to average Californians in the mines this is a most distressing state of affairs ; the spectators and friends of the combat- ants waste a great deal of time, liquor, and blood on the subject, while the combatants themselves feel unspeakably uneasy on the neutral ground between victory and defeat. At Sonora, where Billy and the Judge had their first en- counter, there was no verdict, so the Judge indignantly shook the dust from his feet and went elsewhere. Soon ALWAYS TOOK HIS WHISKY STRAIGHT. 75 Billy happened in at the same place, and a set-to occurred at sight, in which the average was not disarranged. Both men went about, for a month or two, in a patched-up condi- tion, and then Billy roamed off, to be soon met by the Judge with the usual result. Both men were known by reputation all through the gold regions, and the advent of either at any " gulch," or " washin'," was the best advertisement the saloon-keepers could desire. In the East, hundreds of mon would have tried to reason the men out of this feud, and some few would have forcibly separated them while fighting ; but in the diggings any interference in such matters is con- sidered impertinent, and deserving of punishment. Hanney's had been fairly excited for a week, for the Judge had arrived the week before, and his points had been carefully scrutinized and weighed, time and again, by every man in the camp. There seemed nothing unusual about him he was of middle size, and long hair and beard, a not unpleasant expression, and very dirty clothes ; he never jumped a claim, always took his whisky straight, played as fair a game of poker as the average of the boys, and never stole a mule from any one whiter than a Mexican. The boys had just about ascertained all this, and made their " blind " bets on the result of the next fight, when the whole camp was convulsed with the intelligence that Billy Bent had also arrived. Work immediately ceased, except in the immediate vicinity of the champions, and the boys stuck close to the chapel, that being the spot where the encounter should naturally take place. Miners thronged in from fifty miles around, and nothing but a special mule express saved the camp from the horror of Pentecost's bar being inadequate to the demand. Between " straight bets " and " hedging " most of the gold dust in camp had been " put up," for a bet is the only California backing of an opinion. As the men did not seem to seek each other, the boys had ample time to "grind things down to a pint," as the camp concisely ex- pressod it, and the matter had given excuse for a dozen minor fights, when order was suddenly restored one after- 76 " EXQUISITE CARVING " AT HANNEY'S. noon by the entrance of Billy and his neighbors, just as the Judge and Ids neighbors were finishing a drink. The boys immediately and silently formed a ring, on tho outer edge of which were massed all the men who had been outside, and who came pouring in like flies before a shower. No one squatted or hugged the wall, for it was understood that these two men fought only with knives/so the specta- tors were in a state of abject safety. The Judge, after settling for the drinks, turned, and saw for the first time his enemy. " Hello, Billy ! " said he, pleasantly ; " let's take a drink first." Billy, who was a red-haired man, with a snapping-turtle mouth, but not a vicious-looking man for all that, briefly replied, "All right," and these two determined enemies clinked their glasses with the unconcern of mere social drinkers. But, after this, they proceeded promptly to business ; the Judge, who was rather slow on his guard, was the owner of a badly cut arm within three minutes by the bar-keeper's watch, but not until he had given Billy, who was parrying a thrust, an ugly gash in his left temple. There was a busy hum during the adjustment of bets on "first blood," and the combatants very considerately re- frained from doing serious injury during this temporary distraction ; but within five minutes more they had exchanged chest wounds, but too slight to be dangerous. Betting became furious each man fought so splendidly, that the boys were wild with delight and enthusiasm. Bets were roared back and forth, and when Pentecost, by virtue of his' universally conceded authority, commanded silence,, there was a great deal of finger-telegraphy across the circle, and head-shaking in return. Such exquisite carving had never before been seen afc Hanney's that was freely admitted by all. Men pitied absent miners all over the State, and wondered why this delightful lingering, long-drawn-out system of slaughter was THE DOCTOR AT HAND. 77 not more popular than the brief and commonplace method of the revolver. The Webfoot rapturously and softly quoted the good Doctor Watt's : " My willing soul would stay In such a place as this, And " when suddenly his cup of bliss was dashed to the ground, for Billy, stumbling, fell upon his own knife, and received a severe cut in the abdomen. Wounds of this sort are generally fatal, and the boys had experience enough in such matters to know it. In an instant the men who had been calmly viewing a life-and- death conflict bestirred themselves to help the sufferer. Pentecost passed the bottle of brandy over the counter ; half a dozen men ran to the spring for cold water ; others hastily tore off coats, and even shirts, with which to soften a bench for the wounded man. No one went for the Doctor, for that worthy had been viewing the fight professionally from the first, and had knelt beside the wounded man at exactly the right moment. After a brief examination, he gave his opinion in the following professional style : " No go, Billy ; you're done for." " Good God ! " exclaimed the Judge, who had watched the Doctor with breathless interest ; "ain't ther' no chance ?" " Nary," replied the Doctor, decidedly. " I'm a ruined man I'm a used-up cuss," said the Judge, with a look of bitter anguish. " I wish I'd gone under, too." " Easy, old hoss," suggested one of the boys ; " you didn't do him, yer know." " That's what's the matter !" roared the Judge, savagely; " nobody '11 ever know which of us whipped. And the Judge sorrowfully took himself off, declining most resolutely to drink. Many hearts were full of sympathy for the Judge ; but the poor fellow on the bench seemed to need most just then. 78 "CAN'T NOBODY PRAY?" He had asked for some one who could write, and was dic- tating, in whispers, a letter to some person. Then he drank some brandy, and then some water ; then he freely acquitted the Judge of having ever fought any way but fairly. But still his mind seemed burdened. Finally, in a very thin, weak voice, he stammered out : " I don't want to make to make it uncomfortable for for any of you fellers, but is ther' a a preacher in the camp ?" The boys looked at each other inquiringly ; men from every calling used to go to the mines, and no one would have been surprised if a backsliding priest, or even bishop, had stepped to the front. But none appeared, and the wounded man, after looking despairingly from one to- another, gave a smothered cry. " Oh, God, hez a miserable wretch got to cut hisself open, and then flicker out, without anybody to say a prayer for him?" The boys looked sorrowful if gold-dust could have bought prayers, Billy would have had a first-class assort- ment in an instant. " There's Deacon Adams over to Pattin's," suggested a bystander ; " an' they do say he's a reg'lar rip-roarer at prayin' ! But 'twould take four hours to go and fetch him." " Too long," said the Doctor. "Down in Mexico, at th'e cathedral," said another, " they pray for a feller after he's dead, when }*er pay 'em fur it, an' they say it's jist the thing sure pop. I'll give yer iny word, Billy, an' 110 go back, that I'll see the job done up in style fur yer, ef that's any comfort." " I want to hear it myself," groaned the sufferer ; " I don't feel right ; can't nobody pray nobody in the crowd ? " Again the boys looked inquiringly at each other, but this time it was a little shyly. If he had asked for some one to go out and steal a mule, or kill a bear, or gallop a buck- jumping mustang to 'Frisco, they would have fought for the chance ; but praying praying was entirely out of their line,. THE PRAYER. 79 The silence became painful : soon slouched hats were hauled down over moist eyes, and shirt-sleeves and bare arms seemed to find something unusual to attend to in the boys' faces. Big Brooks commenced to blubber aloud, and was led out by old Thompson, who wanted a chance to get out of doors so he might break down in private. Finally matters were brought to a crisis by Mose no one knew his other name. Mose uncovered a sandy head, face and beard, and remarked : " I don't want to put on airs in this here crowd, but ef nobody else ken say a word to the Lord about Billy Bent, I'm a-goin' to do it myself. It's a bizness I've never bin in, but ther's nothin' like tryin'. This meetin' '11 cum to order to wunst." " Hats off in church, gentlemen ! " commanded Pentecost. Off came every hat, and some of the boys knelt down, as Mose knelt beside the bench, and said : " Oh, Lord, here's Billy Bent needs 'tendin' to ! He's panned out his last dust, an' he seems to hev a purty clear idee that this is his last chance. He wants you to give him a lift, Lord, an' it's the opinion of this house thet he needs, it. 'Taiii't none of our bizness what he's done, an' ef it wuz, you'd know more about it than we cud tell yer ; but it's mighty sartin that a cuss that's been in the diggins fur years needs a sight of mendiii' up before he kicks the bucket." " That's so," responded two or three, very emphatically. " Billy's down, Lord, an' no decent man b'lieves that the Lord 'ud hit a man when he's down, so there's one or two things got to be done either he's got to be let alone, or he's got to be helped. Lettin' him alone won't do him or any- body else enny good, so helpin's the holt, an' as enny one uv us tough fellers would help ef we knew how to, it's only fair to suppose thet the Lord '11 do it a mighty sight quicker. Now, what Billy needs is to see the thing in thet light, an' you ken make him do it a good deal better than ive ken. It's mighty little fur the Lord to do, but it's meat an' drink an' clothes to Billy just now. When we wuz boys, sum uv us 80 THE BLESSING. read some promises ef you'rn in thet Book thet wes writ a good spell ago by chaps in the Old Country, an' though Sunday-school teachers and preachers mixed the matter up in our minds, an' got us all tangle-footed, we know they're dar, an' you'll know what we mean. Now, Lord, Billy's jest the boy he's a hard case, so you can t find no better stuff to work on he's in a bad fix, thet we can't do nuthin' fur, so it's jest yer chance. He ain't exactly the chap to make an A Number One Angel ef, but he ain't the man to forget a friend, so he'll be a handy feller to hev aroun'." "Feel any better, Billy?" said Mose, stopping the prayer for a moment. "A little," said Billy, feebly; "but you want to tell the. whole yarn. I'm sorry for all the wrong I've done." " He's sorry for all his deviltry, Lord " An' I ain't got nothin' agin the Judge," continued the sufferer. "An' he don't bear no malice agin the Judge, which he shouldn't, seein' he generally gin as good as he took. An' the long an' short of it, Lord, is jest 'this he's a dyin', an' he wants a chance to die with his mind easy, an' nobody else can make it so, so we leave the whole job in your hands, only puttin' in, fur Billy's comfort, thet we recollect hearing how yer forgiv' a dyin' thief, an' thet it ain't likely yer a-goin' to be harder on a chap thet's alwas paid fur what he got. Thet's the whole story. Amen." Billy's hand, rapidly growing cold, reached for that of Mose, and he said, with considerable effort : " Mose, yer came in ez handy as a nugget in a gone-up claim. God bless yer, Mose. I feel better inside. Ef I get through the clouds, an' hev a livin' chance to say a word to them as is the chiefs dar, thet word 11 be fur you, Mose. God bless yer, Mose, an' ef my blessin's no account, it can't cuss yer, ennyhow. This claim's washed out, fellers, an' here goes the last shovelful, to see ef ther's enny gold in it er not." And Billy departed this life, and the boys drank to the repose of his soul. THE NEW SHEEIFF OF BUNKEK COUNTY. TTE suited the natives exactly. What they would have _LL done had he not been available, they shuddered to con- template. The county was so new a one that but three men had occupied the sheriff's office before Charley Mansell was elected. Of the three, the first had not collected taxes witlj proper vigor; the second was so steadily drunk that aggrieved farmers had to take the law in their own hands regarding horse-thieves ; the third was, while a terrible man on the chase or in a fight, so good-natured and lazy at other times, that the county came to be overrun with rascals. But Charley Mansell fulfilled every duty of his office with promptness and thoroughness. He was not very well known, to be sure, but neither was any one else among the four or five thousand inhabitants of the new county. He had arrived about a year before election-day, and established himself as repairer of clocks and watches an occupation which was so unprofitable at Bunkerville, the county town, that Charley had an immense amount of leisure time at his disposal. He never hung about the stores or liquor-shop after dark ; he never told doubtful stories, or displayed unusual ability with cards ; neither did he, on the other hand, identify himself with either of the Bunkerville churches, and yet every one liked him. Perhaps it was because, although short, he was straight and plump, whereas the other inhab- itants were thin and bent from many discouraging 'tussles with ague ; perhaps it was because he was always the first to see the actual merits and demerits of any subject of con- 82 " OH, IF I WERE SHERIFF ! versation ; perhaps it was because lie was more eloquent in defense of what he believed to be right than the village pastors were in defense of the holy truths to which they were committed ; perhaps it was because he argued Squire. Backett out of foreclosing a mortgage on the Widow Worth when every one else feared to approach the squire on the subject ; but, no matter what the reason was, Charley Man- sell became every one's favorite, and gave no one an excuse to call him enemy. He took no interest in politics, but one day when a brutal ruffian, who had assaulted a lame native, escaped because the easy-going sheriff was too slow in pur- suing, Charley was heard to exclaim, "Oh, if I were sheriff!" The man who heard him was both impression- able and practical. He said that Charley's face, when he made that remark, looked like Christ's might have looked when he was angry, but the hearer also remembered that the sheriff-incumbent's term of office had nearly expired, and he quietly gathered a few leading spirits of each political party, with the result that Charley was nominated and elected on a " fusion" ticket. When elected, Charley properly declined, on the ground that he could not file security bonds ; but. within half an hour of the time the county clerk received the letter of declination, at least a dozen of the most solid citizens of the county waited upon the sheriff-elect and volunteered to go upon his bond, so Charley became sheriff in spite of himself. And he acquitted himself nobly. He arrested a murderer the very day after his sureties were accepted, and although Charley was by far the smaller and paler of the two, the murderer submitted tamely, and dared not look into Char- ley's eye. Instead of scolding the delinquent tax-payers, the new sheriff sympathized with them, and the county treasury filled rapidly. The self-appointed "regulators" caught a horse-thief a week or two after Charley's install- ment into office, and were about to quietly hang him, after the time-honored custom of Western regulators, when Char- ley dashed into the crowd, pointed his pistol at the head of CIVILIZATION MOVES IN QUEER CONVEYANCES. 83' Deacon Bent, the leader of the enraged citizens, remarked that all sorts of murder were contrary to the law he had sworn to maintain, and then led the thief off to jail. The regulators were speechless with indignation for the space of five minutes then they hurried to the jail ; and when Charley Mansell, with pale face but set teeth, again pre- sented his pistol, they astonished him with three roaring cheers, after which each man congratulated him on his- courage. In short, Bunkerville became a quiet place. The new sheriff even went so far as to arrest the disturbers of camp- meetings ; yet the village boys indorsed him heartily, and would, at his command, go to jail in squads of half a dozen with no escort but the sheriff himself. Had it not been that Charley occasionally went to prayer-meetings and church r not a rowdy at Bunkerville could have found any fault with him. But not even in an out-of-the-way, malarious Missouri village, could a model sheriff be for ever the topic of conver- sation. Civilization moved forward in that part of the world in very queer conveyances sometimes, and with con- siderable friction. Gamblers, murderers, horse - thieves, counterfeiters, and all sorts of swindlers, were numerous in lauds so near the border, and Bunkerville was -not neglected by them. Neither greenbacks nor national bank-notes were known at that time, and home productions, in the financial direction, being very unpopular, there was a decided prefer- ence exhibited for the notes of Eastern banks. And no sooner would the issues of any particular bank grow very popular in the neighborhood of Bunkerville than merchants began to carefully examine every note bearing the name of said bank, lest haply some counterfeiter had endeavored to assist in supplying the demand. At one particular time tlio suspicions had numerous and well-founded grounds ; whero they came from nobody knew, but the county was full of them, and full, too, of wretched people who held the doubtful notes. It was the usual habit of the Bunkerville merchants- 84 " REGULATORS " ASSIST THE SHERIFF. to put the occasional counterfeits which they received into the drawer with their good notes, and pass them when un- conscious of the fact ; but at the time referred to the bad notes were all on the same bank, and it was not easy work to persuade the natives to accept even the genuine issues. The merchants sent for the sheriff, and the sheriff questioned hostlers, liquor-sellers, ferry-owners, tollgate-keepers, and other people in the habit of receiving money ; but the ques- tions were to no effect. These people had all .suffered, but at the hands of respectable citizens, and no worse by one than by another. Suddenly the sheriff seemed to get some trace of the counterfeiters. An old negro, who saw money so seldom that he accurately remembered the history of all the cur- rency in his possession, had received a bad note from an emigrant in payment for some hams. A fortnight later, he sold some feathers to a different emigrant, and got a note which neither the store-keeper or liquor-seller would accept ; the negro was sure the wagon and horses of the second emi- grant were the same as those of the first. Then the sheriff mounted his horse and gave chase. He needed only to ask the natives along the road leading out of Bunkerville to show him any money they had received of late, to learn what route the wagon had taken on its second trip. About this time the natives of Bunkerville began to wonder whether the young sheriff was not more brave than prudent. He had started without associates (for he had never appointed a deputy); he might have a long chase, and into counties where he was unknown, and might be dangerously delayed. The final decision or the only one of any consequence was made by four of the " regulators," who decided to mount and hurry after the sheriff and volun- teer their aid. By taking turns in riding ahead of their own party, these volunteers learned, at the end of the first day, that Charley could not be more than ten miles in advance. They determined, therefore, to push on during the night, so long as they could be sure they were on the right track. TO THE SHERIFF'S RESCUE. 85 An hour more of riding brought them to a cabin where they received startling intelligence. An emigrant wagon, drawn by very good horses, had driven by at a trot which was a gait previously unheard of in the case of emigrant horses ; then a young man on horseback had passed at a lively gallop ; a few moments later a shot had been heard in the direction of the road the wagon had taken. Why hadn't the owner of the house hurried up the road to see what was the matter ? Because he minded his own business and staid in the house when he heard shooting, he said. "Come on, boys!" shouted Bill Braymer, giving his panting horse a touch with his raw-hide whip ; " perhaps the sheriff's needin' help this minute. An' there's generally rewards when counterfeiters are captured mebbe sheriff '11 give us a share." The whole quartet galloped rapidly off. It w r as growing dark, but there was no danger of losing a road which was the only one in that part of the country. As they approached a clearing a short distance in front of them, they saw a dart mass in the centre of the road, its outlines indicating an em- igrant wagon of the usual type. " There they are ! " shouted Bill Braymer ; " but where's sheriff? Good Lord! The shot must have hit him!" "Reckon it did," said Pete "Williamson, thrusting his head forward ; " there's some kind of an animal hid behind that wagon, an' it don't enjoy bein' led. along, lor it's kickiii' mighty lively shouldn't wonder if 'twas Mansell's own pony." " Hoss-thieves too, then?" inquired Braymer; "then mebbe there'll be two rewards ! " " Yes," said Williamson's younger brother, " an' mebbe we're leavin' poor Charley a-dyiii' along behind us in the bushes somewhere. Who'll go back an' help hunt for .him!" The quartet unconsciously slackened speed, and the members thereof gazed rather sheepishly at each other through the gathering twilight. At length the younger 86 MAKING HIS WILL ON A GALLOP. Williamson abruptly turned, dismounted, and walked slowly backward, peering in the bushes, and examining all indica- tions in the road. The other three resumed "their rapid gallop, Pete Williamson remarking : " That boy alwus wos the saint of the family look out for long shot, boys ! and if there's any money in this job, he's to have a fair share of that is sheriff 's horse, sure as shootin' he shall have half of what I make out of it. .How'll we take 'em, boys ? Bill right, Sam left, and me the rear? If I should get plugged, an' there's any money for ,tli3 crowd, I'll count on you two to see that brother Jim ets my share he's got more the mother in him than all four of us other brothers, and why don't they shoot, do you s'pose ?" " P'r'aps ther ain't nobody but the driver, an' he's got his hands full, makin' them hosses travel along that lively," suggested Bill Braymer. " Or mebbe he h'ain't got time to load. Like enough he's captured the sheriff, an' is a-takin Jiim off. We've got to be keerful how ice shoot." The men gained steadily 011 the wagon, and finally Bill Braymer felt sure enough to shout "Halt, or we'll fire!" The only response was a sudden flash at the rear of the wagon ; at the same instant the challenger's horse fell dead. " Hang keerfulness about firm'!" exclaimed Braymer. ""/'ra a-goin' to blaze away." Another shot came from the wagon, and Williamson's horse uttered a genuine cry of anguish and stumbled. The indignant rider hastily dismounted, and exclaimed : " It's mighty kind of 'em not to shoot us, but they know how to get away all the same." " They know too much about shootin' for me to foller 'em any more," remarked the third man, running rapidly out of the road and in the shadow caused by a tree. " They can't keep up that gait for ever," said Bill Bray- mer. " I'm goin' to foller 'em on foot, if it takes all night; I'll get even with em for that hoss they've done me out of, " JIM WILLIAMSON'S DISCOVERY. 87 " I'm with you, Bill," remarked Pete Williamson, " an* mebbe we can snatch their hosses, just to show 'em how it feels." The third man lifted up his voice. "I 'How I've had enough of this here kind of thing," said he, " an' I'll get back to the settlement while there's anything for me to get there on. I reckon you'll make a haul, but I don't care I'd rather bs poor than spend a counterfeiter's money." And pff he rode, just as the younger Williamson, with refreshed horse, dashed up, exclaiming : " No signs of him back yonder, but there's blood-tracks baginnin' in the middle of the road, an' leanin' along this way. Come on ! " And away he galloped, while his brother remarked to his companion : " Ef he should have luck, an' get the reward, you be sure to tell him all the good things I've said about him, won't you?" Jim Williamson rode rapidly in the direction of the wagon until, finding himself alone, and remembering what had befallen his companions, he dismounted, tied his horse to a tree, and pursued rapidly on foot. He soon saw the wagon looming up in front of him again, and was puzzled to know how to reach it and learn the truth, when the wagon turned abruptly off the road, and apparently into the forest. Following as closely as he could under cover of the tim- ber, he found that, after picking its way among the trees for a mile, it stopped before a small log cabin, of whose exist- ence Jim had never known before. There were some groans plainly audible as Jim saw one man get out of the wagon and half carry and half drag another man into the hut. A moment later, and a streak of light appeared under the door of the hut, and there seemed to bo no windows in the structure ; if there were, they were covered. Jim remained behind a sheltering tree for what seemed two liouis, and then stealthily approached the wagon. No 88 THE SHEMFF AND " HEE " FATHER. one was in it. Then lie removed his boots and stole on tip- toe to the hut. At first he could find no chink or crevice through which to look, but finally, on one side of the log chimney, he spied a ray of light. Approaching the hole and applying his eye to it, Jim beheld a picture that startled him into utter dumbness. On the floor of the hut, which was entirely bare, lay a middle-aged man, with one arm bandaged and bleeding. Seated on the floor, holding the head of the wounded man, and raining kisses upon it, sat Bunker County's sheriff! Then Jim heard seme conversation which did not in the least allay his astonishment. " Don't cry, daughter," said the wounded man, faintly, " I deserve to be shot by you I haven't wronged any one else half so much as I have you." Again the wounded man received a shower of kisses, and hot tears fell rapidly upon his face. "Arrest me take me back send me to State's prison," continued the man ; " nobody has so good a right. Then I'll feel as if your mother was honestly avenged. I'll feel better if you'll promise to do it." " Father, dear," said the. sheriff, "I might have suspected it was you oh ! if I had have done ! But I thought I hoped I had got away from the roach of the cursed business- for ever. I've endured everything I've nearly died of lone- liness, to avoid it, and then to think that I should have hurt my own father." " You're your mother's own daughter, Nellie," said the counterfeiter ; " it takes all the pain away to know that I haven't ruined you that some member of my wretched family is honest. I'd be happy in a prisoner's box if I could look at you and feel that you put me there." "You sha'n't be made happy in that way," said the sheriff. I've got you again, and I'm going to keep you to myself. I'll nurse you here you say that nobody ever found this hut but but the gang, and when you're better the wagon shall take us both to some place where we can live THE SHERIFF KISSES THE PRISONER. 89 or starve together. Tlie county can get another sheriff easy enough." " And they'll suspect you of being in league with counter- feiters," said the father. " They may suspect me of anything they like ! " exclaimed the sheriff, " so you love me and be be your own best self and my good father". But this bare hut not a comfort that you need no food nothing oh, if there was only some one who had a heart, and could help us ! " " There is ! " whispered Jim "Williamson, with all his might. Both occupants started, and the wounded man's eyes glared like a wolf's. " Don't be frightened," whispered Jim ; " I'm yours, body and soul the devil himself would be, if he'd been standin' at this hole the last five minutes. I'm Jim William- son. Let me help you miss sheriff." The sheriff blew out the light, opened the door, called softly to Jim, led him into the hut, closed the door, relighted the candle and blushed.. Jim looked at the sheriff out of the top of his eyes, and then blushed himself then he looked at the wounded man. There was for a moment an awkward silence, which Jim broke by clearing his throat violently, after which he said : " Now, both of you make your minds easy. Nobody'll never find you here I've hunted through all these woods, but never saw this cabin before. Arm broke ?" " No," said the counterfeiter, " bufr but it runs in the family to shoot ugly." Again the sheriff kissed the man repeatedly. " Then you can move in two or three days, said Jim, " if you're taken care of rightly. Nobody '11 suspect anything wrong about the sheriff, ef he don't turn up again right away. I'll go back to town, throw everybody off the track, and bring out a few things to make you comfortable." Jim looked at the sheriff again, blushed again, and started for the door. The wounded man sprang to his feet,, and hoarsely whispered : 90 KISSES THE PRISONER'S HAND. " Swear ask God to send you to hell if you play false- swear by everything you love and respect and hope for, that you won't let my daughter be disgraced because she hap- pened to have a rascal for her father ! " Jim hesitated for a moment ; then he seized the sheriff's hand. " I ain't used to swearin' except on somethin' I can see," said he, " an' the bizness is only done in one way," with this he kissed the little hand in his own, and dashed out of the cabin with a very red face. "Within ten minutes Jim met his brother and Braymer. " No use, boys," said he, " might as well go back, There ain't no fears but what the sheriff '11 be smart enough to do 'em yet, if he's alive, an' if he's dead we can't help him any." " If he's dead," remarked Bill Braymer, " an' there's any pay due him, I hope part of it '11 come for these horses. Mine's dead, an' Pete's might as well be. " Well," said Jim, " I'll go on to town. I want to be out early in the mornin' an' see ef I can't get a deer, an' it's time I was in bed." And Jim galloped off. The horse and man which might have been seen thread- ing the woods at early daybreak on the following morning, might have set for a picture of one of Sherman's bummers. For a month afterward Jim's mother bemoaned the unac- countable absence of a tin pail, a meal-bag, two or three blankets, her only pair of scissors, and sundry other useful articles, while her sorrow was increased by the fact that she had to replenish her household stores sooner than she had expected. The sheriff examined so eagerly the articles which Jim deposited in rapid succession on the cabin- floor, that Jim had nothing to do but look at the sheriff, which he did industriously, though not exactly to his heart's content. At last the sheriff looked up, and Jim saw two eyes full of tears, and a pair of lips which parted and trembled in a manner very unbecoming in a sheriff. THE SHERIFF'S KETUKN. 91 " Don't, please," said Jim, appealingly. " I wish I could have done better for you, but somehow I couldn't think of nothin' in the house that was fit for a woman, except the scissors." " Don't think about me at all," said the sheriff, quickly. " I care for nothing for myself. Forget that I'm alive." " I I can't," stammered Jim, looking as guilty as forty counterfeiters rolled into one. The sheriff turned away quickly, while the father called Jim to his side. "Young man," said he, "you've been as good as an angel could have been, but if you suspect her a minute of being my accomplice, may heaven blast you ! I taught her engrav- ing, villain that I was, but when she found out what the work really was, I thought she'd have died. She begged and begged that I'd give the business up, and I promised and promised, but it isn't easy to get out of a crowd of your own kind, particularly when you're not so much of a man as you should be. At last she got sick of waiting, and ran away then I grew desperate and worse than -ever. I've been searching everywhere for her ; you don't suppose a smart smart counterfeiter has to get rid of his money in the way I've been doing, do you ? I traced her to this part of the State, and I've been going over the roads again and again trying to find her ; but I never saw her until she put this hole through my arm last night." "I hadn't any idea who you were," interrupted the sheriff, with a face so full of mingled indignation, pain and tenderness, that Jim couldn't for the life of him take his eyes from it. " Don't let any one suspect her, young man," continued the father. " I'll stay within reach deliver me up, if it should be necessary to clear her" " Trust to me," said Jim. " I know a man when I see him, even if he is a woman." Two days later the sheriff rode into town, leading behind him the counterfeiter's horses, with the wagon and its con- tents, with thousands of dollars in counterfeit money. The 92 * DECLINES TO KUN FOR CONGRESS. counterfeiter had escaped, be said, and he had wounded him. Bunkerville ran wild with enthusiasm, and when the sheriff insisted upon paying out of his own pocket the value of Braymer's and Williamson's horses, men of all parties agreed that Charley Mansell should be run for Congress on an independent ticket. But the sheriff declined the honor, and, declaring that he had heard of the serious illness of his father, insisted upon resigning and leaving the country. Like an affectionate son, he purchased some dress-goods, which he said might please his mother, and then he departed, leaving the whole town in sorrow. There was one man at Bunkerville who did not suffer so severely as he might have done by the sheriff's departure, had not his mind been full of strange thoughts. Pete Williamson began to regard his brother with suspicion, and there seemed some ground for his feeling. Jim was un- naturally quiet and abstracted ; he had been a great deal with the sheriff before that official's departure, and yet did not seem to be on as free and pleasant terms with him as before. So Pete slowly gathered a conviction that the sheriff was on the track of a large reward from the bank injured by the counterfeiter ; that Jim was to have a share for his services on the eventful night ; that there was some disagreement between them on the subject, and that Jim was trying the unbrotherly trick of keeping his luck a secret from the brother who had resolved to fraternally share any- thing he might have obtained by the chase. Finally, when Pete charged his brother with the unkindness alluded to, and Jim looked dreadfully confused, Pete's suspicions were- fully confirmed. The next morning Jim and his horse were absent, ascer- taining which fact, the irate Peter started in pursuit. For several days he traced his brother, and finally learned that he was at a hotel on the Iowa border. The landlord said that he couldn't be seen ; lie, and a handsome young fellow,. THE SORT OF DEER HE GOT. 93 with, a big trunk, and a tall, thin man, and ex-Judge Bates, were busy together, and had left word they weren't to be disturbed for a couple of hours on any account. Could Pete hang about the door of the room, so as to see him as soon us possible ? he was his brother. Well, yes ; the landlord thought there wouldn't be any harm in that. The unscrupulous Peter put his eye to the keyhole ; lie saw the sheriff daintily dressed, and as pretty a lady as ever was, in spite of her short hair ; he heard the judge say : <; By virtue of the authority in me vested by the State of Iowa, I pronounce you man and wife ;" and then, with vacant countenance, he sneaked slowly away, murmuring : " That's the sort of reward he got, is it? And," con- tinued Pete, after a moment, which was apparently one of special inspiration, " I'll bet that's the kind of deer he said he was goin' fur 011 the morning after the chase." MAJOR MARTT'S FRIEND. EAST PATTEN was one of the quietest places in the world. The indisposition of a family horse or cow was cause for animated general conversation, and the displaying of a new poster or prospectus 011 the post-office door was the signal for a spirited gathering of citizens. Why, therefore, Major Martt had spent tne whole of three successive leaves-of-absence at East Patten, where he hadn't a relative, and where no other soldier lived, no one could imagine. Even professional newsmakers never as- signed any reason for it, for although their vigorous and experienced imaginations were fully capable of forming some plausible theory on the subject of the major's fondness for East Patten, they shrank from making public the results of any such labors. It was perfectly safe to circulate some purely original story about any ordinary citizen, but there was no knowing how a military man might treat such a matter when it reached his ears, as it was morally sure to do. Live military men had not been seen in East Patten since the Revolutionary War, three-quarters of a century before the villagers first saw Major Martt ; and such soldiers as had been revealed to East Patten through the medium of print were as dangerous!}' touchy as the hair- triggers of their favorite weapons. So East Patten let the major's private affairs alone, and was really glad to see the major in person. There was a scarcity of men at East Patten of interesting men, at least, EAST PATTEN WAS ONE OF THE QUIETEST PLACES IN THE WOULD 95 THE MAJOR NOT A MARRYING T.IAK 97 for the undoubted sanctity of the old men lent no special graces to their features or manners ; while the young men were merely the residuum of an active emigration which had for some years been setting westward from East Patten. When, therefore, the tall, straight broad-shouldered, clear-eyed, much-whiskered major appeared on the street, looking (as he always did) as if he had just been shaved, brushed and polished, the sight was an extremely pleasing one, except to certain young men who feared for the validity of their titles to their respective sweethearts should the major chance to be affectionate. But the major gave no cause for complaint. When he first came to the village he bought Rose Cottage, opposite the splendid Wittleday property, and he spent most of his time (his leave-of-absence always occurring in the Summer season) in his garden, trimming his shrubs, nursing his flowering-plants, growing magnificent roses, and in all ways acting utterly unlike a man of blood. Occasionally he played a game of chess with Parson Fisher, the jolly ex- clergyman, or smoked a pipe with the sadler-postmaster ; he attended all the East Patten tea-parties, too, but he made himself so uniformly agreeable to all the ladies that the mothers in Israel agreed with many sighs, that the major was not a marrying man. It may easily be imagined, then, that when one Summer the major reappeared at East Patten with a brother officer who was young and reasonably good-looking, the major's popularity did not diminish. The young man was introduced as Lieutenant Doyson, who had once saved the major's life by a lucky shot, as that chieftain, with empty pistols, was trying to escape from a well-mounted Indian ; and all the } 7 oung ladies in town de- clared they knew the lieutenant must have done something wonderful, he was so splendid. But, with that fickleness which seems in some way com- municable from wicked cities to virtuous villages, East Patten suddenly ceased to exhibit unusual interest in the G 98 THE WIDOW LAYS ASIDE HER WEEDS. pair of warriors, for a new excitement had convulsed the village mind to its very centre. It was whispered that Mrs. Wittleday, the sole and widowed owner of the great Wittleday property, had wearied of the mourning she wore for the husband she had buried two years previously, and that she would soon publicly announce the fact by laying aside her weeds and giving a great entertainment, to which every one was to be invited. There was considerable high-toned deprecation of so early a cessation of Mrs. Wittleday's sorrowing, she being still young and handsome, and there was some fault found on the economic ground that the widow couldn't yet have half worn out her mourning-garments ; but as to the pro- priety of her giving an entertainment, the voices of East Patten were as one in the affirmative. Such of the villagers as had chanced to sit at meat with the late Scott Wittleday, had reported that dishes with un- remembered foreign names were as plenty as were the plainer viands on the tables of the old inhabitants; such East Pattenites as had not been entertained at the Wittle- day board rejoiced in a prospect of believing by sight as well as by faith. The report proved to have unusually good foundation. Within a fortnight each respectable househoulder received a note intimating that Mrs. Wittleday would be pleased to see self and family on the evening of the following Thursday. The time was short, and the resources of the single storo at East Patten were limited, but the natives did their best, and the eventful evening brought to Mrs. Wittleday's hand- some parlors a few gentlemen and ladies, and a large number of good people, who, with all the heroism of a forlorn hope, were doing their best to appear at ease and happy. The major and lieutenant were there, of course, and both in uniform, by special request of the hostess. The major, who had met Mrs. Wittleday in city society before her THE MAJOR ADVISES THE SUBALTERN. 99 husband's death, and who had maintained a bowing-acquaint- ance with her during her widowhood, gravely presented the lieutenant to Mrs. Wittleday, made a gallant speech about the debt society owed to her for again condescending to smile upon it, and then presented his respects to the nearest of the several groups of ladies who were gazing invitingly at him. Then he summoned the lieutenant (whose reluctance to leave Mrs. Wittleday 's side was rendered no less by a bright smile which that lady gave him as he departed), and made him acquainted with ladies of all ages, and of greatly vary- ing personal appearance. The young warrior went through the ordeal with only tolerable composure, and improved his first opportunity to escape and regain the society of the hostess. Two or three moments later, just as Mrs. "Wittle- day turned aside to speak to stately old Judge Bray, the lieutenant found himself being led rapidly toward the veranda. The company had not yet found its way out of the parlors to any extent, so the major locked the lieutenant's arm in his own, commenced a gentle promenade, and re- marked : " Fred, my boy, you're making an ass of yourself." " Oh, nonsense, major," answered the young man, with considerable impatience. " I don't want to know all these queer, old-fashioned people ; they're worse than a lot of plebes at West Point." " I don't mean that, Fred, though, if you don't want to make talk, you must make yourself agreeable. But you're too attentive to Mrs. Wittleday." " By George," responded the lieutenant, eagerly, " how- can I help it ? She's divine ! " "A great many others think so, too, Fred I do myself but they don't make it so plagued evident on short ac- quaintance. Behave yourself, now your eyesight is good sit down and play the agreeable to some old lady, and look at Mrs. Wittleday across the room, as often as you like." The lieutenant was young ; his face was not under good 100 "STEADY, FEED STEADY!" control, and he had no whiskers, and very little mustache to hide it, so, although he obeyed the order of his superior, it was with a visage so mournful that the major imagined, ^vhen once or twice he caught Mrs. "Wittleday's eye, that that handsome lady was suffering from restrained laughter. Humorous as the affair had seemed to the major before, he could not endure to have his preserver's sorrow the cause of merriment in any one else ; so, deputing Parson Fisher to make their excuse to the hostess when it became possible to penetrate the crowd which had slowly surrounded her, the major took his friend's arm and returned to the cottage. "Major!" exclaimed the subaltern, "I I half wish I'd let that Indian catch you ; then you wouldn't have spoiled the pleasantest evening I ever had ever began to have, I should say." " You wouldn't have had an evening at East Patten then, Fred," said the major, with a laugh, as he passed the cigars, and lit one himself. " Seriously, my boy, you must be more careful. You came here to spend a pleasant three months with me, and the first time you're in society you act, to a lady you never saw before, too, in such a way, that if it had been any one but a lady of experience, she would have imagined you in love with her." "I am in love with her," declared the'young man, with a look which was intended to be defiant, but which was noticeably shamedfaced. " I'm going to tell her so, too that is, I'm going to write her about it." "Steady, Fred steady!" urged the major, kindly. " She'd be more provoked than pleased. Don't you sup- pose fifty men have worshiped her at first sight ? They have, and she knows it, too but it hasn't troubled her mind at all : handsome women know they turn men's heads in that way, and they generally respect the men who are sensi- ble enough to hold their tongues about it, at least until there's acquaintance enough between them to justify a little confidence." " Major," said poor Fred, very meekly, almost piteouly, COULDN'T STAND STILL AND BE SHOT AT. 101 " don't don't you suppose I could make her care something forme?" The major looked thoughtfully, and then tenderly, at the cigar he held between his fingers. Finally he said, very gently : " My dear boy, perhaps you could. Would it be fair, though? Love in earnest means marriage. Would you tor- ment a poor woman, who's lost one husband, into wondering three-quarters of the time whether the scalp of another isn't in the hands of some villainous Apache ? " The unhappy lieutenant hid his face in heavy clouds of tobacco smoke. " Well," said he, springing to his feet, and pacing the floor like a caged animal, " I'll tell you what I'll do ; I'll write her, and throw my heart at her feet. Of course she won't care. It's just as you say. Why should she ? But I'll do it, and then I'll go back to the regiment. I hate to spoil your fun, major, if it's any fun to you to have such a fool in your quarters ; but the fact is, the enemy's too much for me. I wouldn't feel worse if I was facing a division. I'll write her to morrow. I'd rather be refused by her than loved by any other woman." " Put it off a fortnight, Fred," suggested the major ; " it's the polite thing to call within a week after this party ; you'll have a chance then to become better acquainted with her. She's delightful company, I'm told. Perhaps you'll make up your mind it's better to enjoy her society, during our leave, than to throw away everything in a forlorn hope. Wait a fortnight, that's a sensible youth." "I can't, major!" cried the excited boy. "Hang it! you're an old soldier don't you know how infernally un- comfortable it is to stand still and be shot at ? " "I do, my boy," said the major, with considerable emphasis, and a far-away look at nothing in particular. " Well, that'll be my fix as long as I stay here and keep quiet," replied the lieutenant. " Wait a week, then," persisted the major. " You don't 102 THE MAJOR'S COWARDICE. want to be ' guilty of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman,' eh ? Don't spoil her first remembrances of the first freedom she's known for a couple of years." " Well, call it a week, then," moodily replied the lo.ve-sick brave, lighting a candle, and moving toward his room. " I suppose it will take me a week, anyway, to make up a letter fit to send to such an angel." The major sighed, put on an easy coat and slippers, and stepped into his garden. " Poor Fred ! " he muttered to himself, as he paced the walk in front of the piazza; "can't wait a fortnight, eh? Wonder what he would say if he knew I'd been waiting for seven or eight years if he knew I fell in love with her as easily as he did, and that I've never recovered myself? Wonder what he'd do if some one were to marry her almost before his very eyes, as poor Wittleday did while I was longing for her acquaintance? Wonder what sort of fool he'd call me if he knew that I came to East Patten, time after time, just for a chance of looking at her that I bought Rose Cottage merely to be near her that I'd kept it all to myself, and for a couple of years had felt younger at the thought that I might, perchance, win her after all ? Poor Fred! And yet, why shouldn't she marry him? women have done stranger things ; and he's a great deal more attractive-looking than an old campaigner like myself. Well, God bless 'em both, and have mercy on an old coward ! " The major looked toward the Wittleday mansion. The door was open ; the last guests were evidently departing, and their beautiful entertainer was standing in the doorway, a, flood of light throwing into perfect relief her graceful and tastefully dressed figure. She said something laughingly to the departing guests ; it seemed exquisite music to the major. Then the door closed, and the major, with a groan, retired within his own door, and sorrowfully consumed many cigars. The week that followed was a very dismal one to the major. He petied his garden as usual, and whistled softly "A FELLOW FEELING MAKES US WONDEROUS KIND." 103 to himself, as was his constant habit, but he insanely pinched the buds off the flowering plants, and his whistling sometimes plaintive, sometimes hopeless, sometimes wrathful, sometimes vindictive in expression was restricted to the execution of dead-marches alone. He jeopardized his queen so often at chess that Parson Fisher deemed it only honorable to call the major's attention to his misplays, and to allow him to correct them. The saddler post-master noticed that the major usually a most accomplished smoker now consumed a great many matches in relighting each pipe that he filled. Only once during the week did he chance to meet Mrs. Wittleday, and then the look which accompanied his bow and raised hat was so solemn, that his fair neighbor was unusually sober herself for a few moments, while she wondered whether she could in any way have given the major offense. As for the lieutenant, he sat at the major's desk for many sorrowful hours each day, the general result being a large number of closely written and finely torn scraps in the waste-basket. Then coatless, collarless, with open vest and hair disarranged in the manner traditional among love-sick youths, he would pour mournful airs from a flute. The major complained rather frequently for a man who had spent years on the Plains of drafts from the front windows, which windows he finally kept closed most of the time, thus saving Mrs. Wittleday the annoyance which would certainly have resulted from the noise made by the earnest but unskilled amateur. For the major himself, however, neither windows nor doors could afford relief; and when, one day, the sergeant accidentally overturned a heavy table, which fell upon the flute and crushed it, the major enjoyed the only happy mo- ments that were his during the week. The week drew very near its close. The major had, with a heavy but desperate heart, told stories, sung songs, brought up tactical points for discussion he even waxed enthusias- tic in favor of a run through Europe, he, of course, to bear 104 FRED ASKS A FAVOR. all the expenses; but the subaltern remained faithful and obdurate. Finally, the morning of the last day arrived, and the lieutenant, to the major's surprise and delight, appeared at the table with a very resigned air. " Major," said he, " I wouldn't mention it under any other circumstances, but I saved your life once ? " ''You did, my boy. God bless you!" responded the major, promptly. " "Well, now I want to ask a favor on the strength of that act. I'll never ask another. It's no use for me to try to write to her the harder I try the more contemptible my words appear. Now, what I ask, is this : you write me a rough draft of what's fit to send to such an incomparable being, and I'll copy it and send it over. I don't expect any answer all I want to do is to throw myself away on her y but I want to do it handsomely, and hang it, I don't know how. Write just as if you were doing it for yourself. Will you do it?" The major tried to wash his heart out of his throat with a sip of coffee, and succeeded but partially ; yet the appeal- ing look of his favorite, added to the unconscious pathos of his tone, restored to him his self-command, and he replied : " I'll do it, Fred, right away." " Don't spoil your breakfast for it ; any time this morning will do," said the lieutenant, as the major arose from the table. But the veteran needed an excuse for leaving his- breakfast untouched, and he rather abruptly stepped upon the piazza and indulged in a thoughtful promenade. " Write just as if you were doing it for yourself." The young man's words rang constantly in his ears, and before the major had thought many moments, he determined to do exactly what he was asked to do. This silly performance of the lieutenant's would, of course, put an end to the acquaintanceship of the major and Mrs. Wittleday, unless that lady were most unusually gracious. Why should he not say to her, over the subal- THE MAJOR WRITES A LOVE LETTER. 105 tern's name, all that he had for years been hoping for an opportunity to say ? No matter that she would not imagine who was the real author of the letter it would still be an unspeakable comfort to write the words and know that her eyes would read them that her heart would perhaps probably, in fact pity the writer. The major seated himself, wrote, erased, interlined, re- wrote, and finally handed to the lieutenant a sheet of letter- paper, of which nearly a page was covered with the major's very characteristic chirography. " By gracious, major ! " exclaimed the lieutenant, his face having lightened perceptibly during the perusal of the letter, " that's magnificent ! I declare, it puts hope into me ; and yet, confound it, it's plaguy like marching under some one else's colors." " Never mind, my boy, copy it, sign it, and send it over, and don't hope- too much." The romantic young brave copied the letter carefully, line for line ; he spoilt several envelopes in addressing one to suit him, and then dispatched the missive by the major's servant, laying the rough draft away for future (and proba- bly sorrowful) perusal. The morning hours lagged dreadfully. Both warriors smoked innumerable cigars, but only to find fault with the flavor thereof. The lieutenant tried to keep his heart up by relating two or three stories, at the points of each of which the major forced a boisterous laugh, but the mirth upon both sides was visibly hollow. Dinner was set at noon, the usual military dinner-hour, but little was consumed, except a bottle of claret, which the major, who seldom drank, seemed to con- sider it advisable to produce. The after-dinner cigar lasted only until one o'clock ; newspapers by the noon-day mail occupied their time for but a scant hour more, and an attempted game of cribbage was speedily dropped by unspoken but mutual consent. Suddenly the garden gate creaked. The lieutenant 106 " IT'S FOB THE MAJOE, SAR." sprang to Ms feet, looked out of the window, and ex- claimed : " It's her darkey he's got an answer oh, major ! " "Steady, boy, steady!" said the major, arising hastily and laying his hand on the young man's shoulder, as that excited person was hastening to the door. " ' Officer and gentleman,' you know. Let Sam open the door." The bell rang, the door was opened, a word or two passed between the two servants, and Mrs. Wittleday's coachman appeared in the dining-room, holding the letter. The lieutenant eagerly reached for it, but the sable carrier grinned politely, said : " It's for de major, sar wuz told to give it right into his han's, and nobody else," fulfilled his instructions, and de- parted with many bows and smiles, while the two soldiers dropped into their respective chairs. " Hurry up, major do, please," whispered the lieutenant. But the veteran seemed an interminably long time in opening the dainty envelope in his hand. Official communications he opened with a dexterity suggesting sleight-of-hand, but now he took a penknife from his pocket, opened its smallest, brightest blade, and carefully cut Mrs. Wittleday's envelope. As he opened the letter his lower jaw fell, and his eyes opened wide. He read the letter through, and re-read it, his countenance indicating considerable satisfaction, which presently was lost in an expression of puzzled wonder. " Fred," said he to the miserable lieutenant, who started to his feet as a prisoner expecting a severe sentence might do, " what in creation did you write Mrs. "Wittleday ?" " Just what you gave me to write," replied the young man, evidently astonished. " Lst me see my draft of it," said the major. The lieutenant opened a drawer in the major's desk, took out a sheet of paper, looked at it, and cried : " I sent her your draft ! This is my letter ! " " And she imagined I wrote it, and has accepted me I n gasped the major. "YOU'LL HAVE TO MARRY HER." 107 The wretched Frederick turned pale, and tottered toward & chair. The major went over to him and spoke to him sympathizingly, but despite his genial sorrow for the poor boy, the major's heart was so full that he did not dare to show his face for a moment ; so he stood behind the lieu- tenant, and looked across his own shoulder out of the win- dow. "Oh, major," exclaimed Fred, "isn't it possible that you're mistaken ? " " Here's her letter, my boy," said the major ; " judge for yourself." The young man took the letter in a mechanical sort of way, and read as follows : " July 23d, 185. " DEAR MAJOR I duly received your note of this morn- ing, and you may thank womanly curiosity for my knowing from whom the missive (which you omitted to sign) came. I was accidentally looking out of my window, and recog- nized the messenger. " I have made it an inflexible rule to laugh at declarations of ' love at first sight,' but when I remembered how long ago it was when first we met, the steadfastness of your regard, proved to me by a new fancy (which I pray you not to crush) that your astonishing fondness for East Patten was partly on my account, forbade my indulging in any lighter sentiment than that of honest gratitude. "You may call this evening for your answer, which I suppose you, with the ready conceit of your sex and pro- fession, will have already anticipated. ' Yours, very truly, HELEN WITTLEDAY." The lieutenant groaned. "It's all up, major! you'll Jiave to marry her. 'Twould be awfully ungentlemanly to let her know there was any mistake." "Do you think so, Fred?" asked the major, with a per- ceptible twitch at the corners of his mouth. 108 TUT OUT OF MISERY. " Certainly, I do," replied the sorrowful lover; " and I'm sure you can learn to love her; she is simply an angel a, goddess. Confound it ! you can't help loving her." "You really believe so, do you, my boy?" asked the major, with fatherly gravity. "But how would you feel about it ? " " As if no one else on earth was good enough for her as if she was the luckiest woman alive," quickly answered the young man, with a great deal of his natural spirit. " 'Twould heal my wound entirely." " Yery well, my boy," said the major ; " I'll put you out of your misery as soon as possible." Never had the major known an evening whose twilight, was of such interminable duration. "When, however, the darkness was sufficient to conceal his face, he walked quickly across the street, and to the door of the Wittleday mansion. That his answer was what he supposed it would be is- evinced by the fact that, a few months later, his resignation was accepted by the Department, and Mrs. Wittleday became Mrs. Martt. In so strategic a manner that she never suspected the truth, the major told his fiancee the story of the lieutenant's unfortunate love, and so great was the fair widow's sympathy, that she set herself the task of seeing the young man happily engaged. This done, she offered him the position of engineer of some mining work on her husband's estate, and the major promised him Eose Cottage for a permanent residence as soon as he would find a mistress for it. Naturally, the young man succombed to the influences exerted against him, and, after Mr. and Mrs. Doyson were fairly settled, the major told his own wife, to her intense amusement, the history of the letter which induced her to change her name. BUFELE. HOW lie came by his name, no one could tell. In the early days of the gold fever there came to California a great many men who did not volunteer their names, and as those about them had been equally reticent on their own advent, they asked few questions of newcomers. The hotels of the mining regions never kept registers for the accommodation of guests they were considered well-appointed hotels if they kept water-tight roofs and well-stocked bars. Newcomers were usually designated at first by some peculiarity of physiognomy or dress, and were known by such names as "Broken Nose," "Pink Shirt," "Cross Bars," " Gone Ears," etc. ; if, afterward, any man developed some peculiarity of character, an observing and original miner would coin and apply a new name, which would after- ward be accepted as irrevocably as a name conferred by the holy rite of baptism. No one wondered that Buffle never divulged his real name, or talked of his past life ; for in the mines he had such an unhappy faculty of winning at cards, getting new horses without visible bills of sale, taking drinks beyond ordinary power of computation, stabbing and shooting, that it was only reasonable to suppose that he had acquired these abilities at the sacrifice of the peace of some other community. He was not vicious even a strict theologian could hardly have accused him of malice ; yet, wherever he went, he was 109 110 A GAME UP AT BUFFLE'S. promptly acknowledged chief of that peculiar class which renders law and sheriffs necessary evils. He was not exactly a beauty miners seldom were yet a connoisseur in manliness could have justly wished there were a dash of the Buffle blood in the well-regulated veins- of many irreproachable characters in quieter neighborhoods- than Fat Pocket Gulch, where the scene of this story was- located. He was tall, active, prompt and generous, and only those who have these qualities superadded to their own virtues are worthy to throw stones at his memory. He was brave, too. His bravery had been frequently recorded in lead in the mining regions, and such records- were transmitted from place to place with an alacrity which put official zeal to the deepest blush. At the fashionable hour of two o'clock at night, Mr. Buffle was entertaining some friends at his residence ; or, to use- the language of the mines, "there was a game up to- Buffle's." In a shanty of the composite order of architec- ture it having a foundation of stone, succeeded by logs, a gable of coffin misfits and cracker-boxes, and a roof of bark and canvas Buffle and three other miners were play- ing " old sledge." The table was an empty pork-barrel; the seats were respectively, a block of wood, a stone, and a raisin-box, with a well-stuffed knapsack for the tallest man. On one side of the shanty was a low platform of hewn logs, which constituted the proprietor's couch when he slept ; on another was the door, on the third were confusedly piled Buffle's culinary utensils, and on the fourth was'a fire- place, whose defective draft had been the agent of the fine frescoing of soot perceptible on the ceiling. A single candle hung on a wire over the barrel, and afforded light auxiliary to that thrown out by the fireplace. The game had been going largely in Buffle's favor, as was usually the case, when one of the opposition injudiciously played an ace which was clearly from another pack of cards. COME IN," ROARED BUFFLE'S PARTNER. " COME IN, HANG YKR, IF YER LIFE'S INSURED ! ' THE DOOB OPENED SLOWLY, AND A WOMAN ENTERED. 112 WHY BUFFLE DROPPED HIS PISTOL. 113 inasmuch as Buffle, who had dealt, had the rightful ace in his own hand. As it was the ace of trumps, Buffle' s indig- nation arose, and so did his person and pistol. "Hang yer," said he, savagely; "yer don't come that game on me. I've got that ace myself." An ordinary man would have drawn pistol also, but Buffle' s antagonist knew his only safety lay in keeping quiet, so he only stared vacantly at the muzzle of the revolver, that was so precisely aimed at his own head. The two other players had risen to their feet, and were- mentally composing epitaphs for the victim, when there was heard a decided knock on the door. " Come in !" roared Buffle's partner, who was naturally the least excited of the four. " Come in, hang yer, if yer life's insured." The door opened slowly, and a woman entered. Now, while there were but few women in the camp, the sight of a single woman was not at all unusual. Yet, as she raised her vail, Buffle's revolver fell from his hands, and the other players laid down their cards ; the partner of the guilty man being so overcome as to lay down his hand face upward. Then they all stared, but not one of them spoke ; they wanted to, but none knew how to do it. It was not usually difficult for any of them to address such specimens of the gentler sex as found their way to Fat Pocket Gulch, but they all understood at once that this was a different sort of woman. They looked reprovingly and beseechingly at each other, but the woman, at last, broke the silence by saying : " I am sorry to disturb you, gentlemen, but I was told I could probably find Mr. Buffle here." " Here he is, ma'am, and yours truly," said Buffle, remov- ing his hat. He could afford to. She was not beautiful, but she seemed to be in trouble, and a troubled woman can com- mand, to the death, even worse men than free-and-easy miners. She had a refined, pure face, out of which two 114 "NO MAN KEBKIES VISITIN'- CARDS." great brown eyes looked so tenderly and anxiously, thai} these men forgot themselves at once. She seemed young,, not more than twenty-three or four ; she was slightly built, and dressed in a suit of plain black. " Mr. Buffle/' said she, " I was going through by stage to- San Francisco, when I overheard the driver say to a man seated by him that you knew more miners than any man in California that you had been through the whole mining country." "Well, mum," said Buffle, with a delighted but sheepish look, which would have become a missionary complimented on the number of converts he had made, " I Tiev been around a good deal, that's a fact. I reckon I've staked a claim purty much ev'rywhar in the diggins." "So I inferred from what the driver said," she replied, "and I came down here to ask you a question." Here she looked uneasily at the other players. The man who stole the ace translated it at once, and said : "We'll git out ef yer say so, mum ; but yer needn't be afraid to say ennything before us. We know a lady when we see her, an' mebbe some on us ken give yer a lift ; if we can't, I've only got to say thet ef yer let out enny secrets, grizzlies couldn't tear 'em out uv enny man in this crowd. Hey, fellers?" " You bet," was the firm response of the remaining two, and Buffle quickly passed a demijohn to the ace-thief, as a sign of forgiveness and approbation. " Thank you, gentlemen God bless you," said the woman, earnestly, jf " My story is soon told. I am looking for my husband, and I must find him. His name is Allan Berryn." Buffle gazed thoughtfully in the fire, and remarked : " Names ain't much good in this country, mum no man kerries visitin'-cards, an' mighty few gits letters. Besides, lots comes here 'cos they're wanted elsewhere, an' they take names that ain't much like what their mothers giv 'em. Mebbe you could tell us somethin' else to put us on the trail of him ?" "HE ALWAYS WORE IT OYER HIS HEART. " Hez he got both of his eyes an' ears, mum?" inquired one- of the men. " Uv course he hez, you fool !" replied Buffle, savagely. "The lady's husband's a gentleman, an' 'tain't likely he's- been chawed or gouged." " I ax parding, mum," said the offender, in the most abject manner. " He is of medium height, slightly built, has brown hair and eyes, and wears a plain gold ring on the third finger of his left hand," continued Mrs. Berryn. " Got all his front teeth, mum ?" asked the man Buffle had rebuked; then he turned quickly to Buffle, who was frowning suspiciously, and said, appeasingly, "Yer know,. Buffle, that bein' a gentleman don't keep a feller from losin' his teeth in the nateral course of things." " He had all his front teeth a few months ago," replied Mrs. Berryn. " I do not know how to describe him further he had no scars, moles, or other peculiarities which might identify him, except," she continued, with a faint blush a wife's blush, which strongly tempted Buffle to kneel and kiss the ground she stood on " except a locket I once gave him, with my portrait, and which he always wore over his heart. I can't believe he would take it off," said she, with a sob that was followed by a flood of tears. The men twisted on their seats, and showed every sign of uneasiness ; one stepped outside to cough, another suddenly attacked the fire and poked it savagely, Buffle impolitely turned his back to the company, while the fourth man lost- himself in the contemplation of the king of spades, which- card ever afterward showed in its centre a blotch which seemed the result of a drop of water. Finally Buffle broke the silence by saying : " I'd give my last ounce, and my shootin'-iron besides, mum, ef I could put yer on his trail ; but I can't remember no such man ; ken you, fellers ?" Three melancholy nods replied in the negative. :i I am very much obliged to you, gentlemen," said Mrs* 116 A DASH OF CAMP GALLANTRY. Berryn. " I will go back to the crossing and take the next stage. Perhaps, Mr. Buffle, if I send you my address when I reach San Francisco, you will let me know if you ever find any traces of him ?" " Depend upon all of us for that, mum," replied Buffle. " Thank you," said she, and departed as suddenly as she had entered, leaving the men staring stupidly at each other. " Wonder how she got here from the crossin' ?" finally remarked one. " Ef she came alone, she's got a black ride back," said another. "It's nigh onto fourteen miles to that crossin'." "An' she orten't to be travelin' at all," said little Muggy, the smallest man of the party. "I'm a family man or I wuz once an' I tell yer she ort to be where she ken keep quiet, an' wait for what's comin' soon." The men glanced at each other significantly, but without any of the levity which usually follows such an announce- ment in more cultured circles. "This game's up, boys," said Buffle, rising suddenly. " The stage don't reach the crossin' till noon, an' she is goin' to hev this shanty to stay in till daylight, anyhow. You fellers had better git, right away." Saying which, Buffle hurried out to look for Mrs. Berryn. He soon overtook her, and awkwardly said : "Mum!" She stopped. " Yer don't need to start till after daylight to reach that stage, mum, an' you'd better come back and rest yerself in my shanty till mornin'." " I am very much obliged, sir," she replied, " but " " Don't be afeard, mum," said Buffl@, hastily. " We're rough, but a lady's as safe here as she'd be among her family. Ye'll have the cabin all to yerself, an' I'll leave a revolver with yer to make yer feel better." " You are very kind, sir, but it will take me some time to get back." "Horse lame, p'r'aps?" " CLEAR GOLD ALL THE WAY DOWN TO BED-ROCK." 117 "No, sir; the truth is, I walked." " Good God !" ejaculated Buffle ; " I'll kill any scoundrel of a station-agent that'll let a woman take such a walk as- this. I'll take you back on a good horse before noon to-morrow, and I'll put a hole through that rascal right before your eyes, mum." Mrs. Berryn shuddered, at sight of which Buffle mentally consigned his eyes to a locality boasting a superheated atmosphere, for talking so roughly to a lady. "Don't harm him, Mr. Buffle," said she. "He knew nothing about it. I asked him the road to Fat Pocket Gulch, and he pointed it out. He did not know but what I had a horse or a carriage. Unfortunately, the stage was- robbed the day before yesterday, and all my money was taken, or I should not have walked here, I assure you. My passage is paid to San Francisco, and the driver told me that if I wished to come down here, the next stage would take me through to San Francisco. When I get there, I can soon obtain money from the East." " Madame," said Buffle, unconsciously taking off his hat, " any lady that'll make that walk by dark is clear gold all the way down to bed-rock. Ef yer husband's in California, I'll find him fur yer, in spite of man or devil /will, an' I'll be on the trail in half an hour. An' you'd better stay here till I come back, or send yer word. I don't want to brag, but thar ain't a man in the Gulch that'll dare molest any- thin' aroun' my shanty, an' as thar's plenty of pervisions thar plain, but good yer can't suffer. The spring is close by, an' you/11 allers find firewood by the door. An' ef yer want help about anythin', ask the fust man yer see, and say I told yer to." Mrs. Berryn looked earnestly into his face for a moment, and then trusted him. " Mr. Buffle," she said, " he is the best man that ever lived. But we were both proud, and we quarrelled, and he left me in anger. I accidentally heard he was in California, through an acquaintance who saw him leave New York on 118 A LOOKING-GLASS AND "WOETEK," fche California steamer. If you see him, tell him I was wrong, and that I will die if he does not come back. Tell Mm tell him that." "Never mind, mum," said Buffle, leading her hastily toward the shanty, and talking with unusual rapidity. " I'll bring him back all right ef I find him ; an' find him I will, *ef he's on top of the ground." They entered the cabin, and Buffle was rather astonished at the appearance of his own home. The men were gone, but on the bare logs, where Buffle usually reposed, they had spread their coats neatly, and covered them with a blanket which little Muggy usually wore. The cards had disappeared, and in their place lay a very .small fragment of looking-glass ; the demijohn stood in its accustomed place, but against it leaned a large chip, on which was scrawled, in charcoal, the word Worter. " Good," said Buffle, approvingly. " Now, mum, keep up yer heart. I tell yer I'll fetch him, an' any man at the Gulch ken tell yer thet lyin' ain't my gait." Buffle slammed the door, called at two or three other shanties, and gave orders in a style befitting a feudal lord, and in ten minutes was on horseback, galloping furiously out on the trail to Green Flat. The Green Flatites wondered at finding the great man -among them, and treated him with the most painful civility. As he neither hung about the saloon, "got up" a game, nor provoked a horse-trade, it was immediately surmised that he was looking for some one, and each man searchingly questioned his trembling memory whether he had ever done Buffle an injury. All preserved a respectful silence as Buffle walked from -claim to claim, carefully scrutinizing many, and all breathed freer as they saw him and his horse disappear over the hill on the Sonora trail. At Sonora he considered it wise to stay over Sunday not to enjoy religious privileges, but because on Sunday sinners from all parts of the country round flocked into Sonora, to THE MINERS' OFFERINGS. 119 commune with the spirits, infernal rather than celestial, gathered there. He made the tour of all the saloons, dashed eagerly at two or three men, with plain gold rings on left fore-fingers, disgustedly found them the wrong men beyond doubt, cursed them, and invited them to drink. Then he closely -catechised all the barkeepers, who were the only reliable directories in that country; they were anxious to oblige him, but none could remember such a man. So Buffle took .his horse, and sought his man elsewhere. Meanwhile, Mrs. Berryn remained in camp, where she was cared for in a manner which called out her astonish- .ment equally with her gratitude. Buffle was hardly well out of the Gulch when Mrs. Berryn heard a knock at the door ; she opened it, and a man handed her a frying-pan, with the remark, " Buffle is cracked," and hastily disappeared. In the morning she was awakened by a crash outside the -door, and, on looking out, discovered a quantity of firewood ready cut ; each morning thereafter found in the same place & fresh supply, which was usually decorated with offerings