The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1871-08-10
Thirty Proposals.
a CALIroENIA LOVE STORY.

| A CAIIFoRNIA LOVE STORY.
'You don't say that is his wife, Wep
she is a sumner, and no mistake | con
lc,s 10 m overwhelming curiosity con
ccrnin@ that marriage. Why, in tnt
States he was considered an invctcratt
| bachelor. Somehow he never cared to gC
round with the girls rs the rest Of us did
bnt always took his mother everywher,
and waited upon her as though she hat
been queen of England All the girl
liked him, and if he ever vcnturcd where
they were they would iluttcr round him
but il WAS plain that he never gave them
| a second thought. His mother used tC
say, IF my SON ever malrios, twill be
y very superior women, quite different
from the Girls one ordinarily meetS.N
| When we heard at home that he was
married. the girls said, q little spitctully
| | reckon ''Thcrc must lie one wonderful
woman in California;, and they hoped
She would be "supcror' enough TO teacl
the old bachelor u lesson ortwo. How is
it ? Is She likely TOP"
"Well. thcr's more TO her than you'd
/ think al first sight She must be reel good
| herself, or she never would have appre,
ciatcd our friend. He is solid and sub
stantial, but not very snowy Eve known
him Intimately for years, and | never
| knew him to say or do 4 mean thing. He
deserves his good luck, and | will own
| il: thou~h to be honest. wanted that
| woman tor my wife, and have not reach
| ed Il point Vet where | can take much
/ pleasure in thinking Of the wedding
! Come over here under the trees. and I'll
| tell You how il came about; but you'd
| better not let ON you know it, for Ills 3
sort of understood thing that we are te
keep il ON the square, and it's rather 4
tender subject with Us boys.
''lt was in the summer of GO, we lived
over the canon | was telling you about
| there were thirty OF us in the gang, and
we had four cabins. with storehouse,
which were public property. We work
ed hard through the week. and on sun
days did our washing and brought oul
| house work up 4 little. suppose We
| should be called n hard set, bnt we Were
not any rou ghcr than men generally who
/ Get Il living hy themselves ion year ol
| two.
Eight Of " campol together, and each
of us had rs distinct an individuality n
| Somehow or other we had acquired g
| soulriquct which WAS acknowledged to
| hc characteristic, and we We're called by
! il in camp To the complete Ignoring OF o'n
real names.
| There was Hal Wintcrtnn, q Southerncr,
and Il fierce sccessioti7t; we called him
South Carolna" Dave Austin, = Con
necticut man and regular sell, we called
| him 'Nutmcg." 'Dandic' stuck te
| Charlie Chaplin, for he was regular Top
Then there was Ned Simpson, a regular
''Aunt Betty'-you'd know his name al
the first glimps without my saying a word
Oils Allen would faint if he .i9mmed his
finger or had sight of blood. He was
"Our Baby" Jack Cummings was n
wa@, and he certainly deserved his cog
| nomen, '',Jarb the Wiclled.' Jim Wood
ruff was known all over the country by
the appcllation of ''Judge," and you
| humble servant. from his black eyes
swarthy complexion, and ietty locks, per
| haps something, too, in my manner, was
| styled "Scnor."
| Wen, we were good natured set OF
fellows, always making allowance lol
each others peculiarities, and never hay
ing any friction in the camp. Sometimes
| used to think we iol1cd ''.iunt Betty
and "Our Baby rather numerically, bat
aword from our Judge" would straig ghtcn
| us at once.
| If one was sick, we all took . turn
about in nursing and watching, but the
| Judge was one that knew Just what 10 do,
| and was always near to do it. Tender
and patient rs 2 woman. we all honored
| him. and held him little higher in our
| estimation than we did any one else in
| the camp.
forgot to tell you that a month before,
and when ''Dandy' and "Armt Betty
were rot of our number. we had in THEN
place VIII Browning, who was equal to
| two men. any day. Good to work and
good to play, as smart as need be, and
true to the core ] think most any of us
| would have been glad to have gone with
| VIII over the mountains, but he said ''No,
| stay where you are, boys; you are doing
we'll, and if find anything better, will
let you know at once Then come all
hands Of You, and ii will be n Jolly time
when we get together again.
| You know it wasn't the pleasantest
| travelling in the world to get around two
years ago.
| We hadn't heard q word from Will,
| though he had been gone for y long time
| Several letters had come for him, but
Of course we couldn't forward them, hav-
ing no idea of his whereabouts, and we
| had to come to the conclusion that he
would walk in upon us some time dead
| broke, and cured of his rowing disposition.
| We had finished work one day, and sup
ped off three BIS, rs we called our beans
and bacon and bread the table stood
| lust where we had left it for you know
miners are not flstidious in their notions
! We were sitting on n rude bench which
| reached across the end of our rude cabin,
talking over our days work, and specu-
| latino ON what the boys were doing over
to the left side of us, when all at once a
Young woman stood right in our cabin
| door
Now woman in those days was a
curiosity among bucks here among the
hills, and there were men in our camp
who hadn't sci eyes on one ior better than
two years. She stood still, just looking
at us. don't know what the rest thought,
| but Aunt Betty said alterward 'that 1T
seemed like u warning to some OF us,
and he was wondering whose time had
come. The Judge sat on the edge OF the
bench, and he arose and took off his hat.
| One after another followed his example
slowly, cach one getting Up In turn an'l
taking off his hat.
We must have looked comical. for we
all had on wooden shirts, our sleeves were
rolled up and our collars turned back.
Our pants were tied about our waists, and
tucked up in no very careful manner into
our rubberboot-legs Add to our costume
cieht faces mshaven AMI unshorn fol
weeks, and you can catch some idea of
our general appearance.
The pale light of our sputtering candle
added to the weirdness of the scene, and
when Jack the Wicked murmured, ''To
your knees, boys, all at once,' l guess