Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-08-24

little would be better than this uncer-
tainty.'
The man seemed provoked in moment
agnes Hale, giving up never used to
run in our family; but you are developing
the quality amazingly lately. The idea
of running back just because one is a little
tired, and leaving fortune sticking out
of the ground-perhaps not exactly stick
ing out" Suddenly remembering the days
hard work that failed to uncover it,, "but
it is there. l know that by every min
eral indication. Men do every day just
what you are wanting of me. Look at
Gid Harmon, for instance. He went off
and left just such lead as mine. Old
Halliday came along and took up the
work just where he left off. Now, while
the Harmon family are fairly on the town,
down there in camp, Old Halliday is liv-
ing in Denver on the top shelf. No,
madam, you will never see me give up"
'But, Frank, Bessie is not WE'LL The
little thing is losing flesh every day, has
no appetite, and seems to tire SO easily. |
am sure the latitude is too high for her."
"Stuf and nonsensel Now, Aggie, that
is one word for Bess and two for yourself;
you are so set on going back. As for her
being sick, why she is as bright as chip
munk all day long. But, of course, if she
doesn't eat her dinner it is all owing to
altitude, you think. Everything is alti-
tude in this country. 1t is all the same if
it is measles or cutting teeth, contracted at
this hight above the level of the sea- /
remember of being tired myself when |
was youngster. The child is growing,
that is alln
Agnes made no answer She tucked
Bessie in her little hard bed, and crooned
an old lullaby, as we'll as she could for her
tears, to soothe her to sleep.
Mr.. Hale sought his pillow soon after,
and the wife took the seat by the fire,
trying for hours vainly to soothe an ach-
ing tooth over the Goals, having no medi-
cine for the pain.
The weeks dragged slowly by and it
came the fall season. Still the s'Bessie'
lode was obstinate, and Agnes thought of
the approach of winter with a sickening
dread. She did her best to make the
home comfortable and the daily meals APP
petizing; but every day the resources
diminished, and she felt the sure ap-
proaches of singing poverty.
Mr.. Hale was less cheerful now, and was
fast growing morose with disappointment.
Even in the love of his sweet child
there was no longer comfort rather the
reverse, for her delicate face was con-
slant reproach. She had often now 10 re-
mind him of his old caresses.
Sitting by the fire one evening, gloomily
smoking, her piaintive little voice sud-
denly reused him:
"Papa, Pm so tied. Wouldn't you jes'
hoP me little whi-ul ?"
Then he took the baby girl from her
bed, and never will keener anguish cut
his heart than when he felt how thin the
tiny form had grown, how pale and pinched
the once rosy face.
One day, after fercer toll than he could
remember ever having done in his life, he
found the result what he had been dread
ing for days: the "Bessie" vein "pinched
out"-was suddenly lost No more mineral
was in sight, nor could he conceive the
slightest idea, by any mineral indications,
where to set his drill once more to find it
again. The fercest toll failed to uncover
anything in the least degree resembling
the old vein. The walls were uninter-
rupted cold, grayish white stone wherever
his eyes could see.
Despair came with dull heaviness upon
him. His body seemed suddenly to have
been killed and only his brain left active
to endure the wretchedness of the worlds
losses. He was never afterward able in
diligently to describe the experience or
what he did. He only knew that he piled
his tools together outside the tunnel en-
trance and started down the mountain
side, stumbling about among the rocks and
boulders, dreading to 60 home, and yet
with the cabin and its helpless inmates
continually uppermost in his mind. While
vet a long way off he heard his wife's voice
calling him.
'Frank. Frank! O, Frankw she
screamed, in tones of so much agony that,
instead Of quickening his steps, seemed al
most to paralyze his feet. "Frank p she
cried again, "Come quick Bessie-Bessie
is dying! Quick
She fell on her knees and threw up her
hands to the skies, with cry that must
have pierced its way to the mercy seat.
All the words she could speak were
simply:
"God have pitym Then, up again, she
ran as fast as possible back to the cabin,
leaving her husband to follow as well as he
could.
The terrible collapse, which sometimes
sets in after fever, had come to baby Bess.
and in a moment, when even the anxious
mother least expected the approach of
death, the little one suddenly sank into I'M
consciousness.
1t was no time then for Mr.. Hale to go
ten miles away for a physician. Bessie's
feet were cold and the awful chill was fast
creeping upward over the precious body.
All the night long they worked for her
life, rubbing her, applying every
restorative in their power run
ming back and forth from the fire
with warm hannels, which wastes
the valuable tissues like the fretting away
of years. They could not hope, and yet
they chung to that cold form, that Tiny,
pinched face, as if it had been all of earth
or heaven to them. Toward morning the
little one stirred on her couch, and when
she opened her blue eyes and said
sweeetly:
"Dess you'd better tome to bed, mamma"
the father fell on the ground beside the
little bed, in the very dust of penitence.
But his thankful heart could only send up
one petition:
God be merciful to me, a sinner
81 can carry her in my arms two thou
sand feet below here to-day" Frank Hale
said, forgetting all the past-everything
but the necessity In hand. 1--WE will take
her to the ranch FIVE miles below u.s.
And he did it.
AS soon as the sun came out warm, as it
can shine in Colorado, Agnes gathered to-
gether few necessaries, and the husband
lifted up his tender burden-protected by
an abundance of blankets-and the two
started down through the wild, rough can
yon. AS they descended, reaching green
leaves and birds and heavier air, baby Bess
breathed more easily and gently slept in
her fathers arm.
BY night they had secured the shelter
of hosritable ranch house, physician
and more experienced nursing, so that in a
degree the burden of anxiety was lifted
from the parents shoulders.
'We will pull her through now, never
fear"
A long time afterward, as the two
watched the little one at play again down
in camp, and the father hammered away
on convenient anvil as industriously as
he had ever done on the walls of the
"Bessie mine;;" he said, with peculiar
smile lighting up his handsome face:
Looks like The Bessie would pan