The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1894-10-24
A LUCKY FALL.

one went out TO sketch In the hills oil
old Mexico, and while looking for n
brook fell into bed of gold nuggets.
She jumped from poverty to COM
parative riches in the twinkling of an
eve. Her find netted her 80, 700.
Miss Kemp is now in Chicago on her
way to Paris, France, where she pro-
poses to study art in the h,pe of be-
coming grea painter She was in
Charharipari, little settlement at the
mountains foot, six hard days riding
from any railroad. She says:
"There was some magnificent
scenery near this quiet little place of
80 souls and passed many a plea
SAINT day sketching. In this fashion
month passed, and it became very
monotonous, and began t. think of
going somewhere where / might be
among white folks. The only Eng
lish-speaking persons there were Mil
Ter, landlord of the little hotel, and
a little quaint Italian who was handy
man for the more pretentious shops.
One afternoon l started out from the
town with my sketch book under my
arm, and after brief walk came to n
rolling, rather steep hill. Curious to
see what was beyond went on up and
over its brow. Before me lay one of
the widest scenes l have ever seen
before or since.
"The tall orchard trees stood close
together, slanting down the hill, the
top of the last ones fading into the
misty blue that filed the basin of the
canon. The intersections were filed
with twining, twisting mass of I'M
dergrowth, from which grew all sorts
of rare and beautifully colored flow
ers, while on the sides of the two hills
to the left, standing out in menacing
splendor, were rocks of gigantic size.
from the depths of blue below. IL
sounded tempting, and l started for
it. As / went on down the sides /
tore my skirts in the jagged under
growth, but 1 kept on and marking
my way by breaking low limbs, Isoou
came in sight of the stream, and was
turning to make my way to the left
to find slant that would take me to
the bank of it, when / found myself
sinking down and down. reached
out for something to clutch, but some
thing always gave way, and l finally
landed on sandy bit of beach in
little cove that the horizontal wall of
the mountains base made at the edge
of the stream. was not hurt My
fall had been gradual. 1 had fallen
through growth that covered the
side of the hill above me fully thirty
feet. / scanned the sides of the rock
that made the cove. There was no
retreat that way. looked down the
stream. There was waterfall not
ten feet away, whose distance I could
not measure, but it seemed as if it
was great deal. Up the stream it
seemed as bad; the water was fully
twenty feet across and looked deep,
although here at the edges it was shall
low enough, but the sharp projection
of stone stood well out into the water
and it meant wade of proportions I
had yet to ascertain.
81 secured from the hillside sinu-
GUS vine and made rope, fastened it
to a solid point of the rock, and then.
as it was early, sat down to sketch
the canon as it stretched away in the
blue depths could see down over the
waterfall. reclined on the sand with
my back to the hillside. While con-
templating the view I absently picked
up pebbles and threw them into the
water. One of them I happened to
notice as l held it in my hand. 1t was
of odd shape and peculiar color where
the dried earth didn't cover it.
washed it off in the stream. 1t look
ed suspiciously like gold. 1 looked
where l had been sitting, and there in
an oblorg rift of the rocks was hat
full of just such clods as / held in my
hand. 1 had seen nuggets of gold,
but had never heard of them in such
quantities as met my gaze. Hoping
it was gold, but not sure, and with
thoughts of Monte Cristo-like splen-
dor in my mind, placed those that
were loose in niche as high up the
bank as / could reach, and made my
way around the point of rock to find
a way home with the nugget securel,