The record-union., 1894-02-17
( For the RECoRD-UNIoN.
THE RHYME OF THE ANCIENT
MINER.

Twas young, and he was old;
An Old, old man was he,
And many gruesome tale he told
In the twilight hours to me.
For he had uug in the hills tor gold
Full half century.
His hair was white as Sierra's snow,
And his face was full OF lines;
Each line mark OF the long ago
WhCn first he sought the mines;
And through the hills went 10 and fro
In the shadows OF the pines
His form was bent with the weight of years,
With burdens of toll and pam,
And his eyes would often I'LL with tears,
When he thought DER his life again,
For dreary enough the world appears
To man who has lived in vain.
Aye, he was an old, time-twisted man,
AND as poor as he was old;
And ali he owned was pick and pan,
In a land that was rich with gold;
Aud sometimes, SO the story ran,
He had nothing at ali but cold.
But he sat each day in the eventide,
And SMOKED his pipe OF clay,
When the sunset bars in the sky spread wide
Like banners, far away.
And the beetles droned In the canyon side
A monody tor the day.
Upon the hill, beneath the pines,
Where the shadows come and go,
Where the moss hangs low ana the tangled
vines
Swinging softly to and fro,
He showed me grave, hard by the mines,
grave Of the long ago.
Where" said he, "there lies the bones
There lies the bones O. Bill;
lie was my partner-BllliOuS Jones'
What found gold in the hill.
There lies his bones among the stones
He's quiet now, an still.
''An' l be he as laid em there
Along with his pick an pan,
An covered i'm up with greatest care
All clean an sptck an span,
But not afore ia scraped EN- bare,
| For was cannibal man!
There was a storm-O, how it showed
An many harm it done.
| How many was killed was never knOWed,
But kin remember one.l
An when the spring thaw came it showed
Full many skelIlngton
"There was only Jones an me, we Two,
An not another niSh,
An the snow came sittn', slftin through
Like feathers from the sky.
An what could we poor fellerS do
But starve TO death and Gle?
ave had no grub at all. you see,
AN the snow kept comm down
| I'LL II covered every bush an tree
An us twenty miles from town;
An [ looked ut Jones an he looked at me
IN study tnat was Drown.
zone week it showed, one week it bloWed,
Three weeks il showed. an four,
An then 1t showed an blowad an showed
An then II showed some more.
An all the time We thinner groWed
Than we had been afOre
''Said Jones TO me: I've ct each boot
I've ct EN-, strap an sole;
There's nothln' else.to follow suit,
Not a thing do l behol;
An ii appears that we must scoot
Pretty soon for the Shinin goal!
''Sez to Jones' What is your think?'
An then, seZ Jones TO me:
| We've gotta plenty here to dlink,
But nothln' TO eat SeZ he,
| 'Unless-an' then ne Winxed wink
we deVour each other Tree
"An that same night Jones left his bed
An stumbled again chair,
An beln' weak he broke his head
On Sledge what was Iayin there;
An III the mornin' he was dead
Was dead al Tree from care.
Il had him billed an | had him fried,
An / had him friccassee;
had him stewed an had him pied,
An 1 had him grilled with tea.
was awful sorry that he died,
But deVoured him free.
AN when the snow was gone-poor Jones
l buried him among the stones
In the shadGers OF the pines
An stuck u stick above his bones,
An trimmed away the vines.
'An' when the johnny-jump-ups come
a blOomin bright am brave,
l allus goes an gathers some
An puts 'em on his grave;
An hopes his soul is safe at home,
Where snowstorms never rave"
Q, he was an Old timetwisted man
And he was meek and mild,
And his heart was as soft as the brook that
By his shack in the canyon wild;
And never lied so L understand,
Since he was little child.
"A. V. HOFFMAN.