Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-08-30

closing of one eye. "1t is q better pros
pect than have seen in the New Placers.
Such dirt ought to pay five pesos the day
or more, if one can find the paystreak.
And know just where dug the biggest
palmilla, for l noticed it had so fat a
root, and there am going this very now.
Perchance thou wilt not have to sell the
serape, nanita-only wait me, till see if
we do not find much goldr'
For six days the old jacal saw very
little of Rodolfo. Exactly where he had
pried out the root of the big palmilla was
now a square hole nearly four feet across
and eighteen feet deep. 1t was on the
bank of the little dry stream bed at the
bottom of the big arroyo. At each side
of the shaft a stout young pinon trunk,
with fork at the top, was driven firmly
into the ground, and across these two
forks lay his primitive windlass-an-
other pinon trunk with stout oblique
branch Left at one end for crank. A
strong rope was on the windlass, and at
its lower end dangled stout rung to be
passed through the handles of the curl
GUS bucket gripsack of rawhide. Thus
far he had worked alone, and very tire
some work it was, loosening with his
pick that tumble of gravel and rocks
which the swift turbulence of summer
torrents had packed and repacked in the
narrow gorge, and lifting it out by the
bucketful.
AS the hole grew deeper he had to
swing down by his rope, fill the rawhide
sack with gravel, climb the rope again
hand over hand, and laboriously wind
lass the heavy load to the surface and
empty it upon the dump. And now the
bottom of the shaft was at bedrock
the smoothish, sloping blanket of por-
phyry, coated with a peculiar gray ce-
ment which underies all that great
plateau. Soon he would know if all that
digging and hosting had been in vain.
| AS he started for home that evening his
tattered coat pulled heavy on blistered
| hands-for in it he was carrying load
of the very last gravel, which he had
carefully brushed up from the bedrock.
There was no water in the arroyo, and
to pan his dirt he must carry it home
or bring water two miles to the shaft.
"Ya sa acabor now it's done) he
cried gayly to his mother, dropping the
heavy load from his aching shoulders.
"And tomorrow begin to drift for the
paystreak. But now will pan this dirt
before the sun goes and see if it be
good"
Five times he panned out the bowl
half full Of that shabby looking gravel,
and each time the tiny patch of wet gold
dust which he pushed out upon a smooth
stone was swelled little. And in the
last pan was a small, waterworn lump,
which came very near escaping with the
first coarse pebbles-a nugget of fully
two dollars, at which the tired mother
wept for joy, while Rodolfo danced
about her, crying:
cay, nanal Already there is like four
pesos! Very soon we will be rich ones!'
The sun was not nearly up the farther
side of the Oroque peaks on the morrow
when Rodolfo and his mother were
trudging away toward the arroyo, driv
ing ahead patient burro borrowed from
Cousin Pablo. Poor Flojo had very
uncomfortable load; for two big kegs Of
water were balanced in opposite ends Of
q woolsack across the queer little pacl
saddle, and bumped his either side. Ro
dolfo carried on his head a rude "rocker,
hastily made from a box, and in hi
hands a heavy, double pointed steel bar
His mother brought the wooden bowl
and on her head a large ola full o
water was confidently poised. The tim
had come when both must work, ant
, little Chona would have to care for tn
l young babies at home through the day.
In tho earth near his shaft Rodolfo hat
dug basin five feet long and three fee
, wide and lined it with tight packed clay
so that the precious water might not b
wasted. At the upper end was laid a BIZ
fiat slab of sandstone from the ledge il
= the side of the arroyo, and on this "foun
: dation" he set his rocker. 1t was merel
Il stout box with one end knocked out
two rude wooden rockers like those O
. an old fashioned cradle under it, stron
handle nailed to one side, and fitting int
L its top small square box with bottor
q of coarse wire screen. Under this scree
- was a canvas apron nailed to fran
. and sloping backward. The rocker itsel
. pitched forward, and across its slopin
l bottom were nailed cleats few inche
- apart.
:, Flojo was soon relieved and turne
u out to Craze, his forefoot hobbled wit
- little rawhide handouts, that he migl
~ not stray too far. The rocker was 81
= up ready for work and beside it a key {
water with q gourd dipper.
y DIOpp44lS Ills A0dty OdA NOWA u
- shaft-for the pick would be of no us
" in the close quarters in which he ws
- now to work-and tossing after it ii
y basin, which would be handler than
"a shovel, Rodolfo grasped the rope an
u slid lightly down.
~ Taking the steel bar in both hands
~ began to jab it against the close packe
II gravel on the up stream side Of tt
u shaft. Frying out first the bigger ston
e. to height of two feet above bedroc,
~ and then the coarse gravel, he soon hs
" started tiny tunnel some two feet
- diameter. AS fast as he filed the ray
W hide bucket he dragged it out to the ce
- ter of the shaft and passed the eros
-, stick on the rope through the rawhi'
~ handles, and his mother, Injured to Il
, hard work of the frontier, windlassed
"a to the surface. The rock she thre
10 away out in the streambed, but Il
no gravel was carefully emptied upon