The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1890-01-24
VOL. XII. RISING SUM- CECIL COUNTY, Md FRIDAY, JAl

the name Of Mike McShane. He was a
true son of the Emerald Isle, light heart
ed and 'aisy goin',' and, as was natural,
he and Tompy struck up warm friend
ship. He used to come down to our
/ quarters almost every night, and many
is the good yarn that he and Tompy used
to spin to while away the evening. All
that the rest of us needed to do was to
lie around and laugh at the right time" :"
81 think can hear Tompy now, as he
used to ask Mike, when the latter would
come up to our hut of an evening:
"Well, Mike, have you found the big
diamond that's been waiting for you
these long years down in your pitP'
"'Faith, me bhoys, yez kin joke az
much az yez loikes, but, begorra! it'll be
moy tonne to joke whin olive found the
jewel, as oi will some tonne. Whist! We
spalpeens, don't oi tell yez olive seen it
in me dhramesY Mike was thorough
believer in dreams.
"His pit was an old one that Aad been
unsuccessfully worked for few weeks
by delicate young fellow, whom no.
body knew anything about. He had be-
come more and more disheartened at his
ill luck, and, at last, he was found dead
in the pit one morning, with a bullet
hole in his head, and a pistol in his hand.
Poor boy! he had given it up. For a
long while the pit stood empty-none of
the miners would go near it, for they
declared it was haunted by the ghost of
the dead man; but when Mike McShane
came into the district he Immediately
took possession of it, saying that the
spook would guide him to the right spot
to dig.
About eight months after Mixes ap-
pearance in camp regular out and out
Yankee struck the district. He was
good one and no mistake.
"One night he sauntered into our hut.
Mike wasn't around, strange to say, and
| sitting down by the fire, began to talk
and to spit tobacco juice at one particu-
lar flame. Somehow the conversation
gradually drifted on to the relative abili-
ty of the English and Americans Tompy,
as usual, did most of the talking for Old
England, while the Yankee defended the
United States; and must say he downed
Tompy, so to speak, on every point the
latter would bring up. Finally, as
clincher to particularly strong argu-
ment, he ran his hand deep into his
pocket and brought out what thought
at first was large, uncut diamond.
"'There,' said the Yankee, do you
think you Englishmen can make such
an imitation jewel as that? See how it
flashes even though in the roughp
"'Pooh! said Tompy, not bit abashed,
a greenhorn could tell that wasn't genu-
inc. That will do to fool Americans
WITH
"'Will it?' replied the Yankee, with
his peculiar drawl, and he was about to
replace the false stone in his pocket-at
at that instant brilliant idea struck
Tompy.
"'Hold on, my FRIEND he said; Lets
look at that minute.'
"The Yankee handed the false stone
over to Tompy, and the latter turned it
over and over in his hand. Presently he
looked up and said
"'You don't want to sell this piece of
glass, do you, stranger
"'That depends said the Yankee la
conically, as he neatly extinguished the
bright little flame by larger shower of
nicotine juice than usual.
"Well, to make short work of it, they
dickered around till, finally, Tompy
traded stone worth five pounds for the
paste jewel. AS soon as the Yankee was
gone, Walters, the Lancashire lad, and 1
spoke up.
"'What the devil did you do that for?'
we cried in breath.
"'Never you mind replied Tompy,
coolly. I'll have some fun out of Mike
McShane and this paste diamond yet
''The next morning, while we were
eating breakfast, we were startled by
terrible racket coming from the other
end of the camp.
"'What's that?" I asked.
""Give it up said Tompy, with an odd
sort of smile. Guess you'd better take a
look outside.
"Walters and rushed for the door,
and Tompy followed more leisurely. A
laughable sight met our eyes. At the
head of a crowd of miners was Mike Nc
Shane, capering about like mad, and yell
ing and singing by turns, but all the
while advancing towards our hut, and
crying:
"'Hooray! Hooray! me bhoys, olive
found it at last, OF said OF would, and yez
see me dhrames have come true. Och!
Nora, me darlint, yer fartune's made
"At that instant happened to look at
Tompy, and saw that he was trying to
keep from laughing, and it Immediately
occurred to me that he had perpetrated
some joke on Mike, and that the paste
jewel was at the bottom of it. Appar-
emily, Walters thought the same thing,
for he said to Mike, in his quiet way:
"'Let us see your find, Mike
"'Not yit! not yitr answered Mike
But yez must come with me to the as
sayer's to see how much it's worth.
Thin yez can look at it az long as yez
wants.
Just then big rawboned Scotchman
spoke up, saying:
"'The mons bewitched. He's got ma
dammit
"'Bewitched Is it? cried Mike, excit-
edly, 'all roight, me bhoys, he sez dim
bewitched. Come along to the assayer's
Office and see.'
So saying, Mike led the way toward
the government buildings, in which the
assayer's Office was established. The
crowd followed, and we joined them, be-
ginning to wonder how this strange joke
would a,I