Weekly Trinity journal., 1876-12-23
" eaverville, December %, 1876.
Written for the TRINITY JoURXAL.I
THE DITCH-TENDER'S LOVE.
A Story of Two Christmas Days.
BY T. E. JONES.


Steady as an old clock, aud always to
be found at his post was "Old Jake. -
Not that he was in truth an old man, for
he had not yet reached the period ofmid-
die age, but his habits of life were such
that the cognomen bestowed upon him,
more in jest than anything else, bid fair
to stick to him until he should be right
fully entitled to it, Folks said Jake was
"close," and maybe he was. One thing
was quite certain that he was seldom, if
ever, found in the places of either gaiety
or dissipation to which the honest miners
Of Coon Hollow generally repaired to
while away their hours of leisure. And
then the rig" which Jake wore tended
to confirm the impression of his "close-
ness" 1t was pretty much the same
one year with another-a blanket coat,
gray shirt and duck pants for working
hours, and the same tor those occasions
when business called him to the cluster
of stores and dwellings which by com
mon consent had been dignifed with the
name OF the town. Only the shirt and
pants OF these semi-holiday occasions
were fresh from the hand of the laundress
that is if Jake had laundress. For
desire to be strictly veracious in this
narrative forces me to the confession that
Jake kepC in his wood shed the lower
half of what had once been whisky bar.
rel and on Saturday afternoons when the
water had been shut out Of the ditch,
did hi own washing.
Be thi, as it may Old Jake was the
right man in the right place, upon the
ditch Of the Coon Hollow Water Com
pany. Summer and Winter; in sun
shine or storm he could be found at his
post. With the early morn, when the
first beams Of the rising sun were gild
ing the highest peaks of the lofty granite
mountains, and while yet the canyon
below lay buried in the gloom of night,
the blanket coat of Jake could be dimly
seen moving along the line of the ditch
as it wound its tortuous course like
great serpent, along the steep mountain
sides far above. Bill Sykes held firmly
to the opinion that when Old Jake "pass-
ed in his checks" his ghost would walk
the ditch the same as in life. Without
expressing any view as to the correctness
of this opinion, we will hazard our own
that Il ghost would have to find very un-
comfortable quarters in that land Of
which we know nothing to return to
ditch tending under any circumstances.
And regular to the hour did Jake make
his appearance on the flats below to regu
lste the flow of water and see that each
patron of the Coon Hollow Water Com
pauy had the number of inches for which
he paid. The little conversation which
took place at the various claims were
Invariably short and confined strictly to
the business matters under consideration.
No wonder, then, that the bone and mus
Gle of Coon Hollow set down Old Jake as
being something of miser, caring for
nothing, thinking Of nothing but the
lapse of time which brought the monthly
day of payment around and enabled him
add the wages of the month to his already
good sized store.
But the truth Of history requires me to
record that there was one claim at which
Old Jake made II longer stay than seem
ed actually necessary to setting the gates
and learning the wants and wishes Of its
owners. This was the claim Of old man
Moser, and rumor, always busy with
the hopes and prospects Of the mining
fraternity had it that the claim had sud
denly developed unexpected richness
1t WAS even hinted that in drift the old
gentleman had run during the dry season
back channel was found where as high
as three dollars to the pan in the gravel
had been obtained. 1t was not quite pos
sibe to trace these rumors to any very
credabe source, for the old gentleman
worked alone in the drift and was very
reticent as to his prospects and expecta-
tions. What gave color to the rumor,
however, WAS the fact he had closed the
drift, employed men to cut up the bed
rock bitches to the bank and gone to
great expense to fit up the claim in splen-
did condition for working. So those who
were at first doubtful of the truth of gos-
siping Jack Wise, who was always
sneaking around to find out his neighbor's
business began to give his stolen infor-
nation little more credence.
The demeanor of the old man was not
such as TO invite acquaintancship he was
a. tacturn in his way as was the ditch
tender in his. Nevertheless, the facts
are a. | have stated, that the Mosier
claim was the only one at which Jake
seemed inclined to linger and exchange
condolences. | shall not undertake to
give reason for this. Perhaps it was
because it was the last claim he came 10