Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1898-08-12

day th y KEN into this tcwa with a
nugget that was corker. Was as
big as your hatred cinnabar, with
chunks o. pure gold stickin' out OF il
all around. The jeweler offered 'em
$1,000 for it, but they wouldn't sell il.
Nuggets said there was more Oft where
il KEN from, but no one believed him.
Everybody thought that Nuggets and
wilkins had found small pocket, and
that was all there was to il; but some
o. these pockets are good enough for O
pore man, anyhow.
THAT night there was an awful
windstorm, and two days afterwards
Nuggets was found comm tout o. Rat
tlesDake Canon over there plum crazyj
They brought him into town. and all
they could get out OF 'em was string
of the foolishest words We ever heard
of. He didn't say much else for a
good many years acknowledgement
sit around the town here and get il off
to himself. Went somethin' like this:
Changed all the trees in the
Rattlesnake 'em and mixed
'em all up. Might a been dream,
but don't think so. Ask Bill-he
knows. Put a shot in her. Seen
rock in my time, but no rock like
that. Bill, old fool, gifts scared, and
we kivered her up to come back to.
Didn't blaze no tree, but my old knife's
stickin' on the moss side o. that tree.
Might "a been dream. Ask BILL
Course you can Bet your life that
old cauon was prospected pretty we'll
after that, but nothin' was found. The
specimen was sold and the money di-
vided between Bill wilkins and Mug
gets's daughter, who had to take care
o. him. wilkins went over into Gala
veras soon after that and fell down
shaft about 500 feet deep.
swell, time went by, and the law
stopped hydrauleeking, aud purity
much everyone left the town that
could git out OF il, and it amt been
worth n blame sence. Nuggets's
daughter she married Bob Hittel, who
was q teamster aud didn't have much
Of IL to do neither. They was pore,
but they managed TO make aliving and
keep old Nuggets besides. Course
We know the old man couldn't do
nothin' but sit around and talk those
words / told ye OF. Everyone was
kind to him, except, perhaps, Jake
Openheimer, who kept the principal
store then. He youster rile him
good deal and josh him and ask him
when he was goin' TO open her up,
but / reckon he didn't mean q great
deal o. harm.
Every now and then Nuggets 'ud
wander over into Rattlesnake Canon
aud spend nigh onto day there.
When he'd come back he'd be worse
TUX than ever and 60 moonin' around
and sayin' those words: Changed
oil the trees IN the Rattlesnake -
moved 'sm and mixed EN- all up.
Might'a' been a dream, but don't
think so.
"'Bout this time his little gran'son
was GROWN up. aud Nuggets began
TO take him along with him in his
trips to the canon. Mrs. Hittel she
objected at first but when she seen
the boy liked 10 go and her father was
dead set on havin' him with him, che
didn't make no more objections. The
boy yoused to say that while they was
in the canon Nuggets spent most Of |
his time huntin' for something he
couldn't find.
Zone evening in the summer time,
bout ten'years ago--I was here then
myself--Nuggsts and the boy KEN
into town and gave 1t . surprise
that il amt got over sence. Yon can
believe il or not as you want TO, but |
he'd got back his mind all right and
talked as sensibly as I'm talkin' now.
Don't believe he ever was crazy my
seif--just think he'd got HIS mind set
on one thing and couldn't get il of.
But he was purity near crazy with
He'd an old rusty knife
in his hand, and he kept saying to
us all the time: ''Twarn't no dream
after all--'twarn't no dream Seems
when they was in the canon the boy
got to playin' around and crawled |
under big tree that 'ad been blown
down and found the knife stickin' Ia
IL underneath. Course We know what
that meant
well, Nuggets Is all right now. |
So was his claim. He sold II for Z
purity nice sum to couple of big |
mining men down below. See those
smokestacks in the trees over in the
canon. Well, there's fonrtesn-stamp
mill on the spot where the knife was
found
Bob Hittel runs this store we're
a-sittiu' in front OF, and BoDs wife
owps her own home. Nuggets has q