The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1882-03-24

rs hungry looking and generally diIapi-
dated as [ was myself.
Where he came from never knew
but, looking into his half-human ewes
we speedily entered into sort of dumb
compact to trudge on together. l found
that the poor fellow Q never could call
him brute) had sore knee, infiamed
and bleeding. tore strip off from
my last handkerchief to bind it M
and, IN place of the Good Samaritan'S q
oil and VINE, gave him my last scrap of
cold bacon. 1t is strange. but. foriorn
s L was in those days, 1 recall them
With tender pleasure almost unac-
cuntable. If had been raised Brain
Din Iwould nave believed that some i'm
Mortal spirit of unfailing cheerfulness % nd
mendlng resources was imprisoned in
tat dogs body. Did you ever read the
AIRY legend of the White Cat who,
after she had persuaded the young
rrlnce, her lover, to cut off her head
and tail and throw them in the fire,
suddenly stood before him woman.
fair as Aurora? Fritz, for that was the
name by which / called the dog, looked
at me with Jennie's brown eyes, half
rogmsh, half thoughtful, and together
1 v. L
have followed In the wake of the Young
Prince, even had L known the result
would have been similar, for Fritz. the
dog, was invaluable just as he was. All
loneliness was gone now that he rarely
lett my side, and although our shadows
had grown less by the time we reached
the bar our immaterial entities were
In prime order for everything in the
shape of adventure. Have never seen
any gold dug. Then I'll not at this
late day spoil your first impression OF a
miners camp by describing mine as
| approached Bidwell's bar, l NAV say.
though, that one might have supposed
an earthquake or tornado had been at
work there, tearing up the hundreds of
thousands of cubic feet that had been
moved and removed by mortal hands in
their frantic, persistent search for gold.
1.-THE bar was a world IN miniature.
/ Almost every nationality was there rep
resented, and almost every feature of
human kind but humanity. Armed with
a pick. pan and shovel, /, like thousands
4 of others, began to dig and burrow and
wash dirt. But my labor and its results
| would not balance, for somehow my little
leather bag of gold dust got no heavier,
| toll as I would Wages being good, l
stopped digging and hired myself as
camp scuIlion. 1 did every kind of job
! bing within the range of miners wants.
Washing dirty flannel shirts and cotton
overalls, patching leather trousers and
cooking fiapiacks, is not the most digni-
| fed and fiower-sUrewn path of fortune,
you must know; and to a boy whose
ideas of chivalry, independence and deeds
of knightly valor were purely Byronic
such fate, you must acknowledge, was
a sort of poetic injustice. My aim,
| though, was to earn enough money with
which to buy a certain claim of which l
knew; and that had in advance labeled
Bonanza
~ - i:S -, - g.
I Jays and weeks lay uneonseie ." at the
/ tender mercy of a few rough Welsh
miners with human hearts. Ny little
hoard of money and my energy melted
away together like spring snow. But
/ for Fritz I'd have died of disappoint-
ment alone. He had adopted the never
! say die motto, and L often read IN his
| glorious eyes the sentence, You grest
old coward At him again 2 as a terder
and appfeciative sympathy which the
/ gift of speech could not have maze more
assuring. My nurses had pitshed me a
tent on the south side of low hull and
had left me to get well o. my leisure.
/ My bottom dollar had 2wlndled to the
value of a dime, my legs to the thick
ness of pair of tongs (for all appetite
was gomez, and one evening hope failed
me. Believing was going to die, L re-
solved to do the fair thing by Jennie,
apprise her of the event and advise her
to forget me. BY the fickering hight OF
a bit of tallow candle l began the letter,
the first 1 had written for months. L
thought aloud and wrote, Fritz lay be
side me, his nose wedged between ms
paws, but 1 knew by the twltch OF ms
ears that he understood every "oru
was writing.
"I had reached The climax OF rehun-
citation and wxetchedness-or, rather, my
exnressior of it-when he suddenly rose
and vent out. L soon heard him paving
and tearing and scratching the earth
about six feet from me, as though he
was under contract to dig tunnel to
China before daylight. Thinking he had
found the burrow of wolf or fox, L
called him off, but he was as deaf as
rat to my voice. Seizing the candle,
hurried to the spot, around which lay
half busbel of gravel, which he had loos-
ened. when my eye caught the gleam OF
a dulI red streak that veined piece of
ouartz about the size of an egg lying
among The free earth. Would you be-
Geye It? That streak was worth sou,
for it was virgin gold. Nor was 1t the
only one upon that hillside. Fritz had
found lode thanks to gopher), ana
thereby had found fortune. AS soon
as possible had the gold OF that pre-
cious stone wrought OF my own design
ing. all of it, at least, but the contents
iTlI
rouchness. had mounted as simple
brooch. Sending these to Jennie, L"
can act of great generosity, sir, L
think" interrupted Ruth, with laugh
able clint in her eve. Zone would have
thought you would have preserved such
a piece of rare good fortune as memo
rial stone"
"You anticipate me, madam. 1t was
as memorial that I sent my first bit
of treasure, but I expected to get 1t
back again in two years, the girl with
it
"And did you?"
"No: nor even received a letter of
Acknowledgement that my offer had been
accepted. Nothing finds gold quicker
than gold, when man has once got .
fair share of it, and In two years had,
IN vario11s ways, secured 500, 900. In
yestinq it. as / thought, safely, L re-
+,,rned TO Philadelphia in all the pride Of
a conouering hero My story ought to
end here. to wind up with chime OF
1raddino-bells and beautiful Rachel as
NV reward for faithful serving, but / had
scsrcely arrived when heard, inci-
dentally, that Jennie had gone with her
father to Europe, nor left one sign that
sbe ever remembered me.
"You certainly did not let that TACT es.
dampen the ardor of yIg your pursuit SUI 9 Z,
queried Ruth; "you followed her' Oh
course"
at did no such thing, madam re,
+nrned to San Francisco ana Pluneeu
into the excitement OF gold-nunslns
with a recklessness that woman nan. tha, ta
| WIN Ss-.tandE Six months after tnat