Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1875-09-16
A CALIFORNIA STORY.
No Matter Whether True or NOT Its good
Reading.

A correspondent of the San Francisco
Chronicle, who writes from Lower Lake,
Lake County, CAL, tells of the adventures OF
two Juveniles in that locality: There is good
stu1f IN those youngsters of Dr. Bakers
every one of them; but my yarn only con-
Germs the two younger ones of the lot Last
Sunday the little one, Jenny, girl of six or
seven years, made her appearance in her
mothers room and demanded permission to
go out deer-hunting with her brother. Claude
is twelve years old, and killed a deer about
! the size Of buck rabbit one day last week,
since when he can't rest moment in the
daytime, and scarcely sleeps of night 1t
was 10 o'clock when the children started,
| taking a dog with them. The mother thought
no more of them until dinner time in the
! evening. Then she became alarmed. Night
approaching she was half wild All hands,
| consisting of some ten or twelve miners
started out, some on horseback and some on
foot. Night came; darkness settled down
on the still valley with a quiet that seemed
like death. The mother became frantic.
She heard an occasional gun fired off and
kneW kI,f that it was the Doctor and men in pur-
sul! o! ~. lost children She cnn'a NO. ~e
main in the house another minute. She took
the direction of the guns report as well as
she could, and started after the crowd. It
was midnight when she came up to them
There was scarcely half garment of any
kind on her body. She seemed to have pas
sed through dozen deaths-all but the
dying. From the time she joined her hus-
band and the other men she led the crowd
until, about 3 o'clock in the morning, she
heard dog bark, and in another moment
was with the children, who were instantly
awakened by the noise Then it was,
Do 30
papa?' and ''Aint this a splendid tree to
keep house under?:' ''We had to fight for it,
though" said Claude. ''See here-we had
to kill the first settler,' and sure enough
there lay California lion, one of the largest
size, with ball through his brain. Claude
had shot him after dark. They had been
lost, but the boy imag lined he had struck the
home trail and kept running on until he met
the lion and shot him. Jenny says he was
crouched down like a cat, and not further
away than across the room when they shot
him. He sprang right into the air and tum-
bled at their very feet. Before starting from
the house one of the men had put some bis
cults in his pockets, thinking the children
would be hungry. and these he offered them
'No, thank you,' said Jenny, 1--WE had quails
for supper They had taken matches, and
Claude had shot the quails; these they had
roasted on a stick, and of course they were
not hungry. 1t was an elder sister of these
two plucky youngsters who was out on horse
back in very wild tract of country. She
was about 10 years old at that time, and had
been hunting stock All at once she saw |
pair of bright eyes looking at her from a |
bunch of tall grass. I'm going to see what
you are, anyhow she said. She got down |
from her horse and soon found that the eyes |
belonged to ''the prettiest little darling she |
ever saw There were more of them, but |
she only captured one specimen and climbed |
back to her saddle. She had not gone half |
mile before she heard something loping be-
hind her. She turned around and saw lion.
She put her horse to his best speed and al
most flew, she says, but the horrid thing
gained on her: ''Of course knew what she |
said the child, 'sbut didn't intend
to humor her selfishness. l didn't take but
one, and | left her two, and that's as generous
as any one need be. But she couldn't seem
10 see it. Anyhow, she Just flew at us; and
Did Phil-talk about his being fast horse.
wanted to break his neck. The lion gained
IN us at every step, till at last took her baby
md threw it at her. Now take it and leave,
YOU stingy old thing said and she did
she just grabbed it up in her mouth and put
IF, and | came home" The mother saws
hat nothing would give her more comfort
han to know that her children were all
Ifraid of their own shadows. But not one
If them has ever shown particle of cow
lrdce in their lives, nor their father before