, 1890-02-06

true son Of the Emerald Isle, light heart
ed and 'aisy goin',' and, as wa natural,
he and Tompy struck up a 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"
~ think l 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 o found the big
diamond that's been waiting for you
these long years down in your pitt
"'Faith, me bhoys, yez kin joke az
much az yez loikes, but, begorral it'll be
moy tonne to joke whin olive found the
jewel, as OF will some tonne. Whist! We
spalpeens, don't OF tell yez olive seen it
in me dhrames? Mike was a thorough
believer in dreams.
His pit was IN old one that had been
unsuccessfully worked for a few weeks
by a delicate young fellow, whom no.
body knew anything about. He had be-
come more and more disheartened at his
i'll luck, and, at last, he was found dead
in the pit one morning, with a bullet
hOIc III hlo htdhi dlu d plSlOl III nIS ldlu
Poor boyl 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 Mikes APP
pearance in camp a regular out and out
Yankee struck the district. He was a
good ono and no mistake.
Zone night he sauntered into our hut.
Mike wasn't around, strange to say, and
sitting down by the fire, began to talk
n 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 1 must say he downed
Tompy, SO to speak, on every point the
latter would bring up. Finally, as a
clincher to a particularly strong argu-
ment, he ran his hand deep into his
pocket and brought out what 1 thought
at first was a large, uncut diamond.
There said the Yankee, do you
think you Englishmen can make such
an imitation jewel as that? See how it
flashes ever though in the roughl'
"'Poohr said Tompy, not a bit abashed,
"a g%reenhorn could tell that wasn't genu-
inc. That will do to fool Americans
with
"'Will itY replied the Yankee, with
his peculiar drawl, and he was about to
replace the false stone in his pocket-at
at that instant a brilliant idea struck
Tompy.
Hold on, my friend he said; Let's
look at That a 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 a larger shower of
nicotine juice than usual.
"Well, to make short work of it, they
dickered around till, finally, Tompy
traded a stone worth five pounds for the
paste jewel. AS soon as the Yankee was
gone, Walters, the Lancashire lad, and l
spoke up.
"'What the devil did you do that for?'
we cried in a breath.
"'Never you mind replied fTompy,
coolly. I'll nave some fun u of Mike
McShane and this paste diamond yet
1.-THE next morning, while we were
eating breakfast, we were startled by a
terrible racket coming from the other
end of the camp.
"'What's that?" l asked.
"Give it up said Tompy, with an odd
sort of smile. Guess you'd better take a
look outside
"Walters and 1 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, caperipg 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 la 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 1t az long as yez
wants.
Just then a big rawboned S%cotchman
spoke up, saying:
1.-the mons b~ewitched. He's got ma
dammit
"'Bewitched is it, cried Mike, excit-
eddy, all roight, me bhoys, he SEE 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 md.
"As we filed into the low ceilinged
room used by the assayer, that individ-
ual looked up from his work. He was
examining some gold ore that had been
brought in from the Transvaal and was