Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1884-02-08

the pile of mineral specimens on the
rude shelf beside the door sparkled in
the sunshine; the dog basked upon the
chips; the burros rubbed their necks to-
gether at the watering place; the fire
was swapping in the rude Jorge, and
miner was heating and pounding his
drills and picks Other men were sit
ting on the shaftino tim! ers which were
piled around, smoking their pipes and
talking of the sick boy who Law thin.
Little John had already made sway
To these strangers hearts.
He was not deliriOus now. But he was
pale. and wore hopeless look that was
pitiful. No one OF them thought he had
yet come out from the dark shadow,
and there was sadness in their faces
and hush in their voices.
After few hours Bill came. The
miners proposed to go to the railroad
station for physician and such deli
cac es rs mining camps do not af-
ford. Bill accepted the proposition in
regard to the dclicacies, but insisted
that he himself would be nurse and
physician.
Under his rough but gentle care the
boy rapidly improved, and at the end OF
the week Bill called the two Half-Moon
men out for little talk.
kid?"
Both answered that they had not.
They left everything to him.
Well, then, hev; an I'm goin' to
say to you two what I've never said TO
! any man for more'n thirty year When
they wuZ all goin' to Californy, in 40,
l wanted to 90, too. / vuZ Kid, then.
younger than this un. lived in York
State. There wuz on'v one % me.
Mother wuz widow. She didn't want
me 20 SKIP out, but | stole seventy dol
| rs-all the money she had--an' lii
out wuz goin' to go back in year
or two, with thousands - dollars, an
make the old lady comfortable for the
balance o her life But somehow
didn't git back. Bimeby word come she
died NV a broken heart
"Iher' amt been MANI nights since,
! pards, when i wuZ sober. that | ain {
| seen her; an pards, so help me God.
that night on Red Mountain, she went
with me from the cabin at timhcr-line,
an all the while, back'ards and for
'ords, she TIikcf beside me. an helped
me pack that Their trail, until We came
Then she went away. / could never
done it alone, HardS-neverl
We'll, this kid wuz clear-headed at
the cabin on tother side. an him an
me talked an talked. We've talked
here. An, YOU see, he was clerk OF
sOmethin' in a bank. back i'm Ohio: an
there was money stole! They took him
up for stealin' it; but somehow they
NJ -
turn him loose. But mary people said
he stole it all the same. an he couldn't
bear the disgrace. an so come to the
mountains. His mothers poor. What
he got in the burned bank wuz all both
ON 'em had. Since he come to Peblc
he's fOun' ont who lid steal that money.
But he hain't got 4 sinner to 20 back
with an set himself right. That's how
he's here.
Now. pards, I've got nineteen
thousand odd i'm the Leadville Bank.
paid in on my Belden sale hahn t
got pcsky relation in the world. an il
] Git my hands on that me ncy I'll likely
blow it in. So I'm goin' TO send that
KID home. an give ten thousan' To his
mother. The balance is big enough,
stake fur me; an then. We see, if do "a
good thing Tor htS mother may BE- II II
count agin the Internal meanness did
mine! SO we II take him down To Hay
dcn's an one - YOU can STAY with him
an tother 20 up with me To Leadville
an get some money an n draft-Pvo
got her name an whar she lives-an'
then we II come back an' send him
hom' an send the draft to his mother
Dye see?"
Three days afterwards they put Little
John in a sleeping-car, with a ticket
and fifty dollars in his pocket, and on
the same day draft for ten thousand
dollars was mailed To his. mother in q
letter of remittance signed: IAN UN-
KNOWN FRIEND
Two hours afterwards Bill Lewis in.
suited a respectable stranger and pro
vOked a fight ut the railroad station
and before morning WAS arrested fol
Gu ting a man in a gambling house.
ILim n. Parsons, ib TIE C,Hrcn
(CHcIgO).