The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1898-07-21

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 canyon was prospected pretty well
after that, but nothin was found. The
specimen was sold and the money divid-
ed between Bill Wilkins and Nuggets
daughter, who had to take carc o him.
Wilkins went over into Calaveras soon
after that and fell down a shaft about
900 feet deep.
well, time went by, and the law
stopped hydrauleeklng, and purity much
every one left the town that could git
out o. it, and it amt been worth d-n
sence.
Nuggets daughter she married Bob
Hittel, who was teamster and didn't
have much o. it to do either. They was
PORE but they managed to make liv-
in and keep old Nuggets besides.
Course you know the old man couldn't
words told you of.
Every one was kind to him, except,
perhaps, Jake Openheimer, who kept
the principal store then. He youster rile
him good deal aud josh him and ask
him when he was goin to open her up,
but | reckon he didn't mean "a great
deal o. harm.
Every now and then Nuggets nd
wander over into Rattlesnake canyon
and spend nigh on to a day there. When
he'd come back, he'd be worse TUX than
ever and go moonin around and sayin
those words: Changed all the trees i'll
the Northumberland 'em and mixed
'em all up. Might a-been dream, but
l don't think So
Bout this time his little gran son
was CROWN up, and Nuggets began for
to take him along with him in his trips
to the canyon. Mrs Hittel, she objected
at first, but when she seen the boy liked
to go and her father was dead set on
havin him with him she didn t make no
more objections. The boy used to say
that while they was i'll the canyon Mug
gets spent most o his time huntin for
something he couldn't find.
cone evenin in the summer time,
bout ten years ago-I was here then
myself-Nuggets and the boy KEN into
town and gave 1t surprise that 1T ain t
got over sence. You can believe it 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 myself-just think he'd
got his mind set on one thing and
couldn't get it off
but he was purity near crazy with
happiness He'd an old rusty knife III
his hand, and he kept sayin to us all
the time, 'Twarn't no dream after all,
'twarn't no dream. Seems when they
was in the canyon the boy got to playin
around and crawled under a big tree
that 'ad been blown down and found
the knife stickin in it underneath.
Course you know what that meant.
"Well, Nuggets is all right now. So
was his claim. He sold it for purity
nice sum to a couple O. big mining men
down below. See those smokestacks in
the trees over in the canyon? Well,
there's IA stamp mill on the spot
where that knife was found
bob Hittel runs this store we're
a-sittin i'll front of, and Bob wife owns
her own house. Nuggets has a mort
gage on about everything Jake Open
heimer's got left, and the boy-the
gran son, you know-he's down below
in business for himself
"That's about the story old Nuggets
IL tell you when you meet him. Some
O. it's true | know myself for fact, and
reckon, mebbe, some o. it's-well, you
know, Nuggets is "a Missourian and a
purity good liar himself. "
The stranger arose, stretched himself,
and, striding up the street, encountered
the one legged druggist standing i'll the
doorway of his store
Great story | just heard, said the
stranger.
"Been talking to the old pioneer"
pioneer? Why he's not a forty
miner F"
mo, but he's forty Fighter
"Who is he, anyhow"
Him? Oh, that's Nuggets. Will
liam a. Taaffe in Argonaut.