Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1897-10-25

i
divided the broad ditch into as many
corrals as he chose. The sheep were
fat and carried heavy feeces.
Whalen had for help two boys, who
had wandered there and asked for
work. He had proposed to hire one
of them, but the boys protested that
they had never been separated, and
that if they got jobs at different ranches
''the other one wouldn't know where
the other one was," contingency
which they could not abide. So
Whalen offered to take the two at the
price of one, and on that basis they
shared with him the shack, herded the
flock and cooked the grub. They soon
knew as much, or as little, about
sheep as Brick himself; and the pro-
prietor found opportunity to break the
monotony of camp life by occasional
trips to the railroad and once to San
Francisco.
''I'm going to see my friend Martini"
he told the boys. "Now tend to bust.
ness and don't let any get away" And
the boys gave their word that not one
should escape.
During Whalen's absence in the city
he went out of the sheep business even
more abruptly than he went into it the
previous autumn. The instruction to
the boys was fulfilled to the letter.
not any got away.
1t happened on hot day in June,
when, contrary to usual custom, the
boys brought the flock to camp and
the shade of sheds at noontime. II
never rains in that arid region, but
sometimes pours. This was one OF
those times. Charged with ice and
water great black cloud came drift.
ing down the wind and emptied out its
load upon the camp and the hillside
above it. The canal, curving around
it's base, formed an ve-trough for
the whole mountain and poured several
thousand inches of water into
Whalen's improvised sheep sheds.
The flood very soon subsided, but
when the cloud had passed and the
sun again shone forth, there were no
living sheep. Not many minutes are
required to drown rat in hole.
Meanwhile the boys, greatly
frightened by the sudden storm, and
with no thought for the safety of the
flock, were in the shack. The hail
pounded and the wind shook it. Water
covered the floor.
"Pray, Billy" said the one on the
barrel.
"No, you do it," he answered from
the tabletop.
The shack had no window, and,
with the door closed it was pretty
dark in there. When Whalen reached
home two hours later, the floor was
still wet, and the boys were yet roost-
ing on table and barrel, but outside,
in the bright sunlight, the ground
appeared already almost dry. A
solitary goat stood upon the shed
roof; he had been among the sheep in
the pen.
"You can't keep good man down
any more than you can goat" was
Bricks comment ON the catastrophe.
While Whalen was working the boys
double time at pulling the wool from
the dead sheep, he had the happy
thought of stocking his ranch with
bees. Having money enough for the
proceeds of his wool sale to buy q
hundred stands, he promptly carried
the thought into effect.
Again he sat down in the door of his
shack to "double his money"
'"Ihis is better than Sheep" said
he; "for they herds themselves. And
they are like mules in one thing-yor
are liable to get hurt if you fool with
'em."
This wave of prosperity broke up as
soon as former ones had done, for he
had imported bad case of foul brood,
and within q year the hundred
swarms had petered out. When we
went down there last summer in the
interest of a new company which has
taken up the work of completing the
canal, Whalen gathered the bones out
of the old shed in the cut and hauled
them to the railroad, where he sold
them for fertilizer, realizing enough
to buy two more mules. With his
four-mule team he is at work in the
ditch for days wages. Somewhat
grizzled now, and not so brick-red of
hair and whisker as formerly, he is
happy as ever, and sanguine that he
will double his money
"Here's hoping" that he may
Argonaut.