The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1881-07-15

[ had none. He was as proud as IncL
fer, and MS ambitious for his daughter =
he was proud. felt that could 'moN
a mountain, if could find a mountaS
to move; SO Jennie and / said good-be
one afternoon under an old oak in Fai.
mount Park, and in the very depths 4
my heart 1 believed that she wou6
be true to me. 1t was not n
we're seven days ride in n palace or
fuom New York to San Francisco IN
those days, and the tall, slender, hungg.
penniless lad who tramped along hue
twenty years ago, seeking his br-
tune like another Dick Whittingbn.
was weary and homesick one as wdl y
"By here, which YOU have tWce
used, do you mean this veritable Valley
of the Sacramento?' said Ruth.
The very same. My obiectiye poiat
was n place now famous IN the annals OF
that period, called 'Bidwells Bar, on
account of rich bar in the Feather
River, full of golden sand, which was
discovered by General Bidwell. The
place was many miles from me; the
country was thinly settled; l did not
know a soul (for even tramps were scarce
in those early days, and so my courage
and nay legs gave out together. Pulling
off my boots about 5 o'clock one sultry
day. barred my blistered feet to the
cool evening breeze, and, creeping into
a clump of young manzanitas, fell
asleep, hoping that would never awake
again this side of the stars / did, how
ever, conscious that my toes were being
licked in a gentle fashion, and discovered
that 1t was being done by q brown setter
dog, about as hungry looking an6 gener-
ally dilapidated as was myself.
"Where he came from l never knew,
but, looking into his half-human EYES,
we speedily entered into sort of dumb
compact to trudge on together. found
that the poor fellow Il never could cal
him n brute) had sore knee, infiamed
and bleeding. tore a strip off from my
last handkerchief to bind it up, and, N
place of the Good Samaritan's oil and
wine, gave him my last scrap of cod
bacon. 1t Is strange, but fOrlorn as ]
was in those days: recall them with
tender pleasure almost unaccountable
If | had been raised a Brahmin l would
have believed that some immortal spirR
of unfailing cheerfulness and unendin
resources was imprisoned in that dogs
body. Did you ever read the fairy h
bOAANA VI biAO w AANC 0dts nAAOp aAtN
she had persuaded the youy
Prince, her lover, to cut off he
head and tail and throw them in the fire
suddenly stood before him woman, 8
fair as Aurora. Fritz. for that was The
name by which l called the dog, lookd
ut me with Jennie's brown eva
half roguish, half thoughtful, and t.
gether we resumed our journey. Nc
I L fcl1,r,-o1 s,fk
young Prince, even had l known the re
suit would have been similar, for Fritz
the dog, was invaluable Just as he was
All lonesomeness was gone now that b
rarely left my side. and, although on
shadows had grown less by the time "
reached the bar, our immaterial eptitiaA
were in prime order for everything ii tlal
shape of adventure. Have never seeu
any gold dug Then I'll not at this late
day spoil your first impressions of min
er's camp by describing mine as L ap-
preached Bidwell's Bar 1 may say
though, that one might have supposed
an earthquake or tornado had been there
tearing up the hundreds of thousands Of
cubic feet that had been moved and re-
moved by mortal hands in their frantic
and persistent search for gold.
1.-The bar was world in miniature.
Almost every nationality was there repre-
sented, and almost every feature of hu-
man kind but humanity. Armed with
pick, pan and shovel, l, like hundreds Of
others, began to dig and burrow and
wash dirt. But my labor and it's results
would not balance, for somehow my lit
tie leather bag of gold dust got no
heavier toll as | would. Wages being
good, stopped digging and hired my
self as a camp-scullion. / did every kind
of lobbing within the range of a miners
wants. Washing dirty flannel shirts and
cottons overalls, patching leather troa-
sers and cooking fapiacks is not the
most dignified and hower-strewn path to
fortune, you must know; and to a boy
whose ideas of chivalry, independents
and deeds of knightly valor were pureB
and intensely Byronic, such fate ven
must acknowledge, was Il sort of poetic
injustice My aim, though, was to earn
enough money with which to buy a GER
tain claim of which I knew, and that
had, in advance, labeled Bonanza
II might have succeeded, but was
prostrated by a malarial fever, and for
days and weeks lay unconscious at the
tender mercies of few rough Welsh
miners with human hearts. My little
hoard of money and my energy melted
away together like spring snow. But for
Fritz I'd have died of disappointment
alone. He had adopted the Never say
die motto, and as often read in hls
glorious eyes the sentence, You great
cowardl At him againI as tender and
appreciative sympathy which the gift OF
speech could not have made more assur-
ing. My nurses had pitched me tent
on the south side of low hill, and had
left me to get well at my own leisure
My bottom dollar had dwindled to the
value of dime, my legs to thickness q
pair of tongs (for all appetite was
gone and one evening hope failed me
Believing L was going to die, resolved
to do the fair thing by Jennie, apprSe
her of the event and advise her to forget
me. By the Pickering light of a bit Of
taIlow candle began the letter, the first
/ had written for months. / thought
aloud and wrote Fritz lay beside me,
his nose wedged between his paws, bat
/ knew by the twitch of his ears that
he understood every word / was wit
ing.
Il had reached the climax of renun-
citation and wretchedness-or rather,
my expression of it-when he suddenly
rose and went out. L soon heard him
paving and scratching and tearing The
earth about six feet from me, as though
he we're under contract to dig tunnel
to China before daylight. Thinking he
had found the burrow of wolf or fox I
called him off; but he was as deaf as a
rock to my voice. Seizing the candle
hurried to the spot, around which LAY
half bushel of gravel which he had los
ened, when my eye caught the CLEAN of
a dull, red streak that veined a pieceof
quartz about the size of an egg lying
among the fresh earth. Would you be-
lieve it? That streak was worth $50, ,for
it was virgin gold. Nor was it the ely
one upon that hillside. Fritz had fond
a lode (thanks to the gopher), and /
thereby had found fortune. AS soon
as possible 1 had the gold Of
that precious stone wrought into a ing
of my own designing of it, at lest
but the contents of one blunt coner.