, 1883-09-15

was casting his eye around, the boy
sat on the bank and whistled, "Oh
Gosh my own Jemima."
Having finished his survey, Sam
went up and sat down beside the iu-
nocent juvenile. ,
Club" said he, 81 We heard that
that this is a rich claim, and it does
look pretty well. Now tell the hon
est truth, what does your father
want to sell out for if it's as rich as
they say ?"
The small boy stopped whistling,
cooked his head to one side, closed
one eye and squintod thoughtfully at
Sam with the other.
stranger have you got half dol
lar about you? II you have perhaps
1 wouldn't mind telling you."
Sam forked over the half dollar,
and the boy looked at it a moment
and whistled, "Get out of the Wild
erness."
"Well, feller, bein' as it is you, l
don't object to saying that the rea-
son dad wants to sell this here
claim, is cause it is too RICH"
"Too rich! Played out" put in
Sam.
"Now, stranger, you jest hold yer
hosses till l get through, and Pll ex-
plain it to you. You see this amt
like other claims where the gold is
in sandy gravel and mostly in bed
rock, but the bank here is nearly all
clay, and there's heaps and gObs of
fine gold all through it. The clay is
the all-fredest stickiest stuff that
ever wuz, and you can't begin to
work it. When dad gets to work
down there he naturally gets the
darned stuff all over him, and when
he comes in at night he's jest coated
with it about six inches deep more
or less, and this clay is plum full Of
gold"
81 don't see that that's any reason
for his wanting to sell out" inter-
rupted Sam.
"Well, old hoss, you keep cool and
don't get rampagious and I'll tell
you how it is. When dad comes in
at night he's mighty tired, but mann,
you see, is such an awful economical
woman that she don't like to see 50
much gold wasted as dad has about
him in the clay every night, so mann
she alters turns in and cleans him
up. At first she used to be satisfied
with scraping him down with a hoe
and panning him out. She made
lots of money at that. He used to
pan out rich, tell you. But pretty
soon mann got unsatisfied cause it
took too long to pan him out every
night, and besides, she didn't get
half the gold. The clay was so sticky
it wouldn't wash good. Then she
got string Of sluices out in front Of
the house and put up Il little hydru-
lie and used to pipe him of. Dad
was dreadful mad about it. He said
it was too wearin' for man to work
in the drain all day and then he
worked hisself at night. lie had to
give in, though. Nam said he
shouldn't board with her If he didn't
and that fetched him you bet"
"Things ran on in this way for
sometime. The old woman made
two or three hundred dollars a week
reg'lar. But as l told you before,
she was awful savin' and she found
she couldn't pipe him off clean and
lost ever so much in the tailin's. You
don't know how sticky the clay is
around here. The only way in which
you can work it clean is to chuck it
into kettle of bilin' water and bile
it for two or three hours. That's the
way the fellow what first struck the
claim used to work the rich crevices.
Nam heard of this, and she thought
if she could work the old man in
some such way, she could save the
gold. OF course didn't expect to
bile him right down, you know.
That wouldn't have been exactly on
the square, but she thought if she
could let him stand in middlin' hot
water for an hour or two every night,
she could run him through the hy-
draulic then and wash him off pretty
clean.
"Well, stranger, you mightn't
think it, but dad was so pesky con-
trary that he wouldn't do it. Nam
said he'd got to do it, cause she
wasn't gOin' to see money thrown
away by no such contrariness. Meth
er one of 'em wouldn't give in, so
they concluded to split the difference
by lettin' dad sell out and go below
and buy ranch," @
'"Thats jest how 1t is, stranger; il
you amt married and want to buy
this claim, you can make a mighty
good thing of it, but If you've got
wife she won't let you rest for tTyin'
to work you to good advantage"
Here the unsOphisticatPd infant
finished and walked away, calmly
whistling, 81 wish l was u Daisy"
while Sam retired to reflect on the
matter, for he was, and is, married.