The native Virginian. [volume] (Orange Court House, Va.) 1867-187?, 1870-02-11
DICK BAKERS CAT.
BY MARK TWAIN.

Speaking Of sagacity reminds me of
Dick Baker, pocket-niinero of Deadhorse
Gulch. Whenever he MAS out of luck
and little downhearted, he would fall
to mourning over wonderful cat he
used to own for where women and
children are not, men of kindly impuls-
es take up with pets, for they must love
something.) And he always spoke of
the strange sagacty of that cat with the
air of man who believed In his secret
heart that there Was something human
about it-may be even supernatural.
| heard him talking about this ami
NAL once. lie said, "Gentlemen, used
to have cat here by the name of Tenn
Quartz, which you'd took an interest
in, reckon-most anybody would. l
had him here year--aud he was the
remarkablest cat ever see. He was
large grey, one of the Tom specie, and
he had more real nat'ral sense than any
man in this camp-and power OF dig
nity-he wouldn't let the Guv'nor of
California be familiar with him. He
never ketched a rat in his life-'peared
to be above 1t. He never cared for any
thing but mining. He knowed more
about mining. that cat did. than any
man | ever see. You couldn't tell him
nothing about placer dggins and rs
Tor pocket mining, why he was just
bora for it. He would dig out after me
and j i'm when we went over the hills
prospecting, and lie would trot along
behind us for az much as five mile, five
went SO far. And he had the best judg-
ment about mining ground-why you
went to work he'd scatter glance a.
ha Il In l. o.,
say, "Well, I'll have to get you to ex-
he'd hyste his nose in the air and shove
for home. Buff the ground suited him
he would lay low and keep dark till the
last pan was washed, and then he would
slide up and take look, and if there
was about six or seven grains of gold he
was satIsfied-he didn't want ilo better
prospect n than tha.--and then he
would lay down on our coats and snore
like steamboat till we'd struck the
pocket, and then get up and superin-
tend.
"Well, by and by, up comes this
quartz excitement. Everybody was
into it-everybody was picking and
blasting instead ofshoveIing dirt on the
lillside-everybody was putting down
II
Nothing would do Jim but we must
tackle the lodges, too, and so we did,
We commenced putting down shaft
and Tom Quartz he began to wonder
what In the Dickens it was all about. =
He hadn't seen any mining like that be-
fore, and he was all upset, as you may
say-he couldn't come to right under
standing OF it no way--it was too many
for him. He was down on it, too, you
bet ---hc was down on it powerful
and always appeared to consider 1t the
cussedest Joolishness out. But that
cat, you know, he was always agin new
tangled arrangements---som he
never could abide EN-, You know how
it is with old habits. But by and by
Tom Quartz begin to git sort of recon-
ci.ed Y little, though he never could al
| together understand that eternal sink
ing of shaft and never panning out
any thing. At last he got to come dow
in ths shaft hisselt to try to cipher 1t
out. And when he'd get the blues, and
feel kind o. scuffy, aggravated and dis
gusted-- knowing, as he did, that the
| bills were running up all the time and
| he wasn't making a cent--he would curl
| ~, =, q gunny sack in the corner and
w ~ si,cn. Tall. one day when the
! 1.
Shaft was down about e',ssht ieet' inc
| rock got so hard that we had to put II :
blast-the first blasting we had ever
done since Tom Quartz was bern. And
| then we lit the fuse and clumb upaho
got off about fifty yards, and forgot ano
lett Tom Quartz fast asleep on the gun
nv sack. In about q minute we seen I
puli of smoke bust up out of the hole
and then everything let 60 with an aw
ful crash, and about four million tons
rocks and dirt and smoke and splinter
shot up about mile INTO the air, ant
by George, right into the midst OF
was old Tom Quartz going end owe
end, and snorting and sneezing, ant
clawing, and a reaching for thing
like all possessed. But 1t waFnt n
use, you know, it waru't no use. AM
that was the last we see Of him for abou
Two minutes and ahalf, and then all Q
a sudden it began to rain rocks and run
bage, and directly he came down ke
whoD about ten feet off from where W
stood. Well, l reckon he was Prhnp
! the orneriest looking beast you eve
soc. One ear was Sot back on his neci
and his tail was stove up, and his ey
whiskers was singed off and he was a
blacked up with powder and smoke, an
0 all sloppy with mud and siush from on
end to tile other. '.Well, sir, It warn
Q no use to try is apslogize--we eouldn
o say word. He tRep took a sort OF dl
gnsted look at hlsself and then ne Ioei
ed at us-and II was Just exactly II