Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1872-12-14
FIVE.


self unobseryed.
We heard him. for all that, for he sat Just
outside the cabin. under the she'd, watching,
between the whiffs OF his pipe, the drip, drip
from the shingles, while the four of us dropped
away at dravpoker inside.
The "bar" was fourishing just then; men
were drifting rapidly into Tuolomne, attracted
by the report Of rich diggngs, and there was
hardly square inch on the bar that was not
staked on with claim. The one-streeted town
was busting. the cloth-houses, stores and sa-
looms, with the usual losfers, were drawn up in
dress parade along the thoroughfare, in which
pack trains meandered TO and from the outer
world. The balf-doors OF the Bella Union"
and the "Blue Wing continually swung open,
as the boys went in and out for their hourly
comforts. The devotees of the gaming table
reverted over the cloths, and empty. pouches
and ringing heads were the morning bulletins.
Our cabin stood little withdrawn from the
main street, the home of five of US for many
months. Those Gays are past and gone, when
JACK used TO toss his steaming slspj acks up the
chimney and deity catch them ON the outside-
those days OF almost unyaryiDg pork and beans,
with a very semi-occasionsl touch OF flesh beef.
We knew quite well each others history, as
far as general points went-all save that OF
Five, who was an enigma. OF him the only
tangible and discoverable mark was blue "5'
worked between his thumb and forednger-and
so he earned his title. spare, nervous little
man, with black, sweeping moustache, cafe
worn countenRnce and restless eye. Tae force
that draws men together in pioneer times is in
eXpilcable. I" Sim" had been a minister; had
slipped from grace, and h9ated to the gold
country. "John Bunyan' was broken down
merchant from Troy, fond of his tipple, aud
master hand at a story. Brannan had last come
from Calcutta, where he had been a missionary
he said; but he thumbed Jack too well for
that This was before the era of genteel clergy
man. Five and |, runaway from home, made
up our household.
Five, we used at first to ply with questions,
but gaining nothing by our trouble, gave it up.
lis only companion was his dog. a brndlad
suiky, sBappish brute, with stumpy tail His
taithfuinesS and love. Withdrawn from every
one else, centered in his master. Fives Chief
solace was his violin.
When others sought saloons, he took his violin
and whiled away the hours with touching melo-
dies, soft, dreamy airs of home, or anon, wild,
wailing strains that thrilled the soul. Many
time have seen knot of rough fellows hang
ing around a cabin at evening, listening to the
music as the quiet air bore it swiftly to them,
and thus Fiyes violin was a minister of COM
fort to many lonely man. He would rarely
play when asked, and then only some ditty like
the Wrecker's Daughter, f" or =" Tom LIgbee's
SNAKE" which would put FITS into fellows
heels-reserving for his communion the strains
that were so benefitting' to all. And In this
way he found a compaDiOnship that cOmpensa-
TED him for lack of friends. He was COM
monty set down a musical Portugee, but the
sequel Will show that the conjecture was far
from right.
Hot! hot! terribly hot were the summer days,
and L, unused to hard wor x, dropped my shovel
one burning afternoon, and went up to the
shanty tired out and dis gusted was surprised
to find Five at the house and in his bunk, for he
steady worker.
Sick, old mani"
Yes. LAD, very sick, dead sick. Bruce, lie
down."
Fer the dog at his head growIed viciously as
put my hand on Fiye's forehead aud found it,
almost blistering with fever.
" Not 30 bad as that, old man, you re good for
many day yet. Have drink?'
= don't Observation-Disclosures COOL
fetched him pan Of water, and he drank it,
" What are you doing here at this hour of the
I'm tuokered out, Five, and had to give it
"wen, am obliged to you,v and he sank
slUmber.
The next morning he ws right again, but
after he recovered he seemed to open his heart
TO me, and often in the dim, uncertain hours we
talked OF men Gnd things.
heard his sohlOqly, a said before, and not
long after, tired of the cards, went out to nj N.
now?"
Z" can hardly say. lad, but mostly Of home.~
8 Then you have home?"
80 be sure"
Well, we always have our doubts about it,"
4" don't know how much OF a home it is nov
hut had a wife and two children and mother
Ili-ia", which last WAS y ISOned. and L hope has
boited into another and better world. You see
it's hard Davigatin' in a sh0al place; and a
mOther-in-iaw Is the shoalest thing I've struck.
"No."
Don't You ever marry any one but an Or
phan, then"
WHY so2U
:" III tell yer my experience. i came from
Rhode Island, and anciently was a captain, and
have sailed the purtiest creature that ever
skinned the water. got on well till met a
little blue-eyed girl from Maine, and thought
she would do to cast anchor with, which l did,
and we were as happy as two barnacles on a
sunny log. Jill her mother came to live with US;
arter that the compass had q continual yaria-
ton, and things got to be no better in short
metre. That ar mother-in-law, she tried to be
steward, and bo's'n, and first mate, and had her
eye on the captains cabin, and we was in mu-
tiny all the time. L told the wife / would pen
sion OFF the old hunk and drag her into safe
harbOr, and then she had me and the babies,
, which =, there were two Of 'em, would go off
wife wouldn't. L am told that vim men think
they can allus get husbands, but they never can
have but one mother-so they sticks to her.
Blessed If see what they wants of any mother
after they gifts man To fill the bre4d-locker
and buy 'eIn new studdinsels. So [ bought
little house with my savings, and put 'em all in,
and when the gold news came, came out here.
tell yer If there's a. cranky mother-in-lsw on
the quarterback the ship won't keep her
course. Everything goes souson by moth, as the
S devil steered the windlass, and the captain is
everything but my fiddle and dog, and came
out here. P'raps when I've made my pile I'll
little Maggie, my purity little one, she never
turned agin her father, though thy father did.
And if can only see her, and take her little
hand, and walk out among the birds and flow
ers, and hear her talk, L think can be happy
again. And if she will only cali me father
once. want nothing more" and the old man
brushed away a tear with his sleeve.
This was Fives story, sad to him and when
the fellows were disposed to jeer at him for his
oddities, and told them that his heart was al.
most broken by troubles at home, an uncon-
scious pity was felt for him forever after.
The mines did not tempt me to remain long
there. The road to fortune was rugged and
steep, and II was long after that babe alden to
California and returned to civilization, to tell
wondering auditors the stories OF the distant
land. Five was the last to say goodbye, and
even Bruce came and licked my hand.
Twenty years! a fe-time to many, a weary
waste to some. Where once a few scattered
houses stood find to day thriving city, a
wealthy people. Forests of ships line the
wfarves, and white sails futter over the bay
where once the occasional steamer plOughed
her busting way. The broad acres where ran
queries drove their herds and called 1t waste
land, the hard listed sons of toll have dotted
with thriving farms, and the railroads Join their
forces as beverage in aid OF progress. Tue
Colonel and had been ranging up aud down
the San joaquin Valley, running out the land,
and worn with struggling through quicksands
and sloughs, had sought the shelter gladly from
a pelttDg rain that set in at nigdtfail. A won
derful yalley-this San Joaquin! Three hun
dred level miles by seventy-fve, between two
mountain rQnpea and aioDu the wastarn S;d