The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1877-12-15

plugged up my six shooter, give my
bowie whetting, and lay in wait fol-
him coming back.
1t was nice time that, as | set there
seeing in fancy him kissin' her sweet
little face, and she hanging on him. i
was most mad afore, | was ten time:
worse now; and when | heerd Hez com
in. | stood there on a shelf of rock
where the track came along, meaning tt
put half dozen plugs in him, and then
pitch him into the Gulch. But | wa:
that mad that when he came up, CHEEKY
and singing, | forgot all about my shoot
ing iron and bowie, and went at him like
a bar, hugging and wrastling him till we
fell together close to the edge of the
Gulch, and / had only to give him 8
shove and down he'd ha' gone kelch on
the hard rocks ninety feet below.
"Now, Hez, how about your darling
now? You'll cut in afore better man
again, will yer?" says.
" Yes, if | live" he says, stout-like, 50
as l could not help liking the grit he
showed. "That's right" he said, s'pitch
me over, and then 90 and tell little Jael
what you have done. She will be fine
and proud of yer then, Abinadah
Scales"
He said that as l had got him hanging
over the rocks, and he looked me full in
the face, full of grit, but he was as help
less as a baby; but l did not see his face
then, for what [ see was the face of Jael,
wild and passionate, asking me what I'd
done with love, and my heart swell so
that | gave a sob like woman, as |
swung Hez round into safety, and taking
his place like, Shove me over" I says,
and put me out of my misery"
Poor old Hez. | hated him like
pyson; but he wasn't that sort. Stead
of sending me over, now he had the
chance, he claps his hand on my shout
der and says, Dab, old man, we can't
all find the big nuggets, and if I am in
luck, don't be hard on yer mate.''
Then he held out his fist, but could
not take it, but turning off, | ran hard
down among the rocks till / dropped,
bruised and bleeding, and didn't return
to my tent that night
got bit wilder after that. Hez and
Jael were spliced up and | allus KEEP
away Hez used to come to me, but
warned him off. Last time he come
across me, and tried to make friends,
Hez," says ], keep away Pm DIES.
prit like, and l won't say / shan't plug
yer"
Then Jael came, and she began to talk
to me about forgiving him; but it only
made me more mad nor ever, and so /
went and pitched at the lower end of the
Gulch, and they lived at t'other.
Times and times I've felt as if I'd &c
and plug Hez on the quiet, but | never
did, though got to hate him more and
more, and never half so much as / did
nigh two years arter, when | came upon
| him one day sudden, with his wife Jael
| looking pootier than ever, with a little
white-haired squealer on her arm. An
! it riled me above bit to see him SC
smiling and happy, and me turned into a
bloodshot, drinking, raving savage, that
half the Gulch was feared on, and t'othel
half daren't face
Early one morning, as | lay in my rag
ged bit of a tent, | woke up sudden-like
to roaring noise like thunder; and then
there came whirl and rush, and | was
swimmin' for life, half choked with the
water that had carried me off. Now il
was hitting my head, playful like, agen
/ the hardest corners of the rock it could
/ find in the Gulch; then it was hitting me
in the back, or pounding me in the front,
with trunks of trees swept down from the
mountains. for something had bust-a
lake, or something high up-and in about
wink the hull settlement in Yaller
Gulch was swep away.
WALL" | says, getting hold of a
branch and drawing myself out, some on
'em wanted good wash, and this'll give
it EN-" for you see water had been
scarce lately, and what there was bad all
been used for cleaning the gold.
| sot on bit O rock, wringing that
water out Of my hair-leastwise, no; it
was some one else like who sot there,
chaps knowed, you see; and there was
| the water rushing down thirty or forty
foot deep, with everything swept before
it-mules, and tent, and shanties, and
store, and dead bodies by the dozen.
"Unlucky for them," / says; and Just
then | heard wild sorter shrek, and
looking down, / see a chap half-swim-
ming, half-swept along by the torrent,
trying hard to get at tree that stood
! t'other side
-" Why, it's you, is it, Hez?' | says to
myself, as | saw his wild ewes and strain
ed face, on which the sun shone full
/ You're a gone coon, Hez, lad; so you
may just as well fold yer arms, say
amen, and 90 down like man. How |
could pot you now, lad, if I'd got a
shooting iron; put you out O yer misery
You'll drown, lad"
He made a dash, and tried for branch
/ Ho,, Il
swept against the rocks, where he showed
his arm between two big bits; but the
water gave him wrench, the bone went
crack, and as | sat still there [ see him
swept down lower and lower, till he
clutched at bush with his left hand
and hung on like grim death.
"Sarve you right" | says, coolly
Why shouldn't you die like the rest
If I'd had any go in me | should have
plugged yer long ago"
"HalloaW | cried then, giving 6
start at amt is-tarnationi il
can't be-"
But it was.
There, on t'other side, fifty yards low.
er down, was bit of shelf of earth that
kept crumbling away as the water
washed it, was Jael, kneeling down with
her young 'un; and as | looked, some
thing seemed to give my heart jigg
just as if some coon had pulled string
Well, he's bout gone," l says
and they can't hold bout three min
utes; then they'll all drown together
and she can take old Hez his last baby
to nuss, 'cuss 'em! Pm safe enough
What's it got to do with me? | sham
move"
| | took out my wet cake of 'bacca. anC