St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1892-02-25

FOR YELLOW GOLD.

ran out the small DuckDOard; but
when there were more than four
passengers, the big mudwagon was
''put on" This was a blackboard
day, for there was not a single
passenger What was more to the
point, as the Gold Butte Mining COM
panv regarded it, was that under the
drivers seat was a box with $10,-
900 in the newest of new tens and
twenties in it.
The driver had looked very blue
when he drove his four mustangs
from the post-office-where he took
on a very fat leather bag, which
spoke loudly of the incapacity
or dissemination of the Thimble
Spring people for letter-writing-
over to the railroad station, where
he was to take on the box. Things
were going all wrong at home. That
was why his brown face looked so
haggard that was why he held so
loosely to the lines that was why
he chewed so hard on the bit of
plug" in his mouth.
Such hard scratchin l never seed
afore," was what he had said as he
had listlessly thrown the mailbag
into the wagon; cant get no decent
Job nowadays. Nothin' ter be he'd
by prOspectin'- tibet time an
ag'in; eff git anything, it peters out
inside of a week l might make
strike over ter Sand Gulch, but it's a
derned long way off, an me an Sue
an the kids hez moved so often at
we cant raise nOthin' ter move on
now Why in Sam Hill did Sue hev
ter git that rheumatic jes now. when
Yves so hard up, an afore she wean-
ed the baby? It's a shame. Why
can't Bill git somethin' ter do p
great. big, lunk-headed cuss. Eff 1
he'd a brother, poorer'n Il crow,
dye think I'd go an live on him, an
live on him, till thar warn't nuthin'
ter eat in the house? Sho, Zach
Springer, you're a blamed fool.
Bill hain't done that. He amt ter
blame fer getting his leg broke that
time Bill's all right, but he's on
lucky. Been trying fur month ter
git a job, an can't get in nowhere.
He's willin' ter work. He'd stan
knee-deep in the creek all day long
washin' out tailin's, eff he could make
his salt at it. Tried it fer six weeks
an didn't git enough to buy o gum
boots. Whoa, Buckskinl He'd jam
right inter the station platform ct
yer didn't saw his teeth eout."
And then the box was taken on
and the EXPRESS agent had something
to say. That something" was not
to Zach Springer's liking. He chew
ed harder than ever on the bit of
he h nd he of
the mustangs by an unnecessary
yanking of the reins. 1t was posi-
tive relief to be able at last to whack
his lash down upon the sides of the
nervous brutes and turn them loose
for the forty-mile run to Gold Butte.
Why had he needed a lecture from a
hireling of the express company, and
why should that smoothjowled
agent have looked at him with such
dark suspicion?
They think COS l got stood up
down ter Black Rocks las time
had big load O. gold that l need to
be preached to every time [ go out
now with full box. Stoop-shoulder-
ed, desk-settin' hounds! I'd like ter
see one on 'em handlin' the ribbons
when thar's a Winchester lOOkin' at
'em with an eye as big as bar'l-
head Can't tell me they wouldn't
give in! The sweet scented, calf
skin booted young ladies Thar
aim a man among EN-"
Zach Springer's indigna ton was
now in more complete possession OF
him than had been his feeling of blue
ness a little earlier. What he had
delivered himself of just now was not
what he would have said had he
voiced his true sentiments with
reference to the express-agent's lee
ture In between the words ran the
thought they" had suspected him
of having hand in the Black Rocks
robbery 1t had come to him before
in what he called 'left-handed'
wav, and he had had other outbursts
of righteous Indignation, but noue
in which the upheaval was so great
as that of the present. Had that
been the reason the stage company
had cut down his pay to sixty" a
month The chances were that it
was. 1t was too blamed mean for a
lot of swine, like these people, to
come it so mechanically over poor
man who only wanted his own
Wouldn't it serve them just right
if
The white dust of the desert rolled
up from the mustangs hoofs, and
sprays of it, powdery fine, followed
the turn of the wheels halfway up
there to be caught by the breeze and
drifted behind in a long cloud that
followed the blackboard like haunt
ing spirit. Sometimes, as the light
breeze shifted, it came back upon the
blackboard and its driver like heavy
thoughts on the conscience of a guilty
man.
1t would serve them just right
Besides that, only think-ten thou
sand! What would the people dowr
In Mexico or Guatemala where be