San Andreas independent., 1857-09-26

size lnan common space down into the
cavernous depths of a broad striped,
fiashy pair of pants and brought up that
great, red hand, full as it could hold, of
shining twenty dollar gold pieces
Don't yer think can stand these ere
Chicagers for one fourteen hours ~
A nod of assent from three or four, and
smile of curiosity from the rest, an
swered his question in the affirmative.
" You must have been in luck, stran-
GER said an envious- looking little man
you've more than your share of gold"
II have, ch? Well, | reckon not /
came honestly by it. Nats so! And
there's them living who can remember
this child when he went around the
p'raries trapping p'rrary hens and the
like, to get nights lodging, or pair of
shoes, to keep the massasaugers from
biting his toes; Eve hung myself up more
than one night in the timber to keep out
of the way Of the wild varmints; best
sleeping in the world, in the crotch of a
tree-top. Now, | reckon you wouldn' t
believe i, but I've gone all winter with
out shoe to my foot; and lived on wild
game when [ could catch it. That's So,
Didn't stunt your growth" said a
voice near
"Not a bit of it. 1t brought me up
right. The p rarries are wonderful roomy.
| thought one spell | would let myself
out entirely, but me and mother held a
corcus, and decided that as she was Get
ting old, and blind like, it TUX too long,
and cost too much to sew up the legs of
my trowserS, end 50 | put 4 stop to it, and
concluded that six feet FIVE would do for
feller that couldn't afford the expensive
luxury ot a wife to make his breechcs. 1t
was only my love for my mother that
stopped my growth. If I'd had au idea
of sewing machine, there's no telling
what | hi chit have done"
:" You have so many gold pieces in your
pocket, you can afford to get your trowsers
made now. Why don't you and your
mother hold another corcus and see what
you can do? If she would let you expand
yourself, you might sell out to Barnum,
aud make Il fortune travelling with Tom
Thumb, and take the old woman along. -
Sraneer,' said the rough, great man,
and his whole face loomed up with a
mingled expression of pain and pridc,-
Stranger, | spoke word here | ddn t
mean to; slightly word, like, about my
mother. I would give all the gold in my
pocket to bring her back for one hour, to
look upon this country as it is now. She
had her cabin here when Chicager was
nowhere here she raised her boys-she
couldn't give them larnin', but she taught
them better things than books can give !:
to be honest, and useful, and industrious.
She taught them to e faithful and true ::
to stand by friend, and be generous to
an enemy. It'sthirty years, stranger, since
We dug her grave by the lake side with
our own hands and with many tear and
sob, turned ourselves away from the cabin
where wee been raised-the Indians had
killed our father long before, and We d
nothing to keep us-and so we went to
seek our fortunes. My brother, he took
down to St. Louis, and got married down
there SOM ers; and just went where the
wind bowed, and when I'd scrapcd money
enough together, cum back and bought
few acres of land around my mothers
old cabin, for the place where I'd lain
her bones We're sacred like Well, in the
course of time it turned up right in the
middle of Chicagcr couldn'tstand that.
| loved my old mother too well to let
omnibusses rattle over her grave, so I cum
back about fifteen years ago, and quietly
moved her away to the buryn ground ::
and then | went to Texas. and wrote to
an agent arteward to sell my land. What
cost few hundred to begin on, | sold for
over forty thousand-if I'd a kent # till
now, 'twould have been worth ten times
that; that's SO, but 7 got enough for it. I
soon turned that forty thousand into
eighty thousand. and that into twice as
much, and so on, till [ don't know nor
don't care what I'm worth; that's 50. 7
work hard, am the same rough customer
remember every day in my life what my
mother taught me never drink. nor frht !;
wish | didn't swear and chew; but tbem's
get to be kind a second naturlike and
the only thing that troubles me is nv
inoney-haven' got no wife nor children.