The record-union., 1898-03-04

fool questions and snowy parade to the
stately strains of Munchausen's we'd
ding march.
| 1T was one Sunday afternoon when
Bill brought his wife home, and as he
came into the cabin where Tim was
| sittin' readin', followed by the girl an
three or four other squaws, he steadied
himself as we'll as he could--he was
| jist about paralyzed-and said: .Misther
Mooney, allow me to interduce yo
! to my wife'--then his knees gave way
an ne sprawled out on the floor.
/ We'll, like the Irishman who fell
down the WE'LL Tim was .spacheless.
Then Re got mad an dragged Bill to his
bunk and kicked every blessed squaw
out the door-yes, strand Charles
gray eyes danced again-'he lifted them
out with his boot toe and told 'em to
git back to camp or he'd kill 'em. They
all went up the trail fast as they could
dig, except Bilrs wife. She could talk
purity good English for a squaw an she
| told Tim that Bill had married her an
she intended to stay-an' she staid."
! We We're within four or five miles
! of French Corral now. Above US
stretched Garden Prairie, a barren
stubble field, lying between two hills
heavily covered with gray nut pines,
green poison oaks and thickets of man.
zanita and chaparral. Below us there
was nothing but the woods, stretching
down, down, down, for the distance OF
mile to where bit of the South Yuba
/ could be seen-a thread of dull yellow.
Around that hillside wound the Marys-
vile read. crawling up from Bridgeport
painfully and slowly, but ever higher
until French Corral is reached. AL
most, though not quite, beneath us, was
| the famous hosiery known as the
Deadfall, little further on the unsav-
DRY BCttermilk Bend house. The road
we were travelling comes into the
| Marysville road a short distance above
the Buttermilk, and here / was to leave
| Clark, as he was going down towards
Bridgeport. l wished him to finish his
story by the time we reached the other
road, and SO brought him back to his
| subject.
well, Bill and Tim came very near
havin' a big row when Bill got sober
again, but Tim was a good hearted fell
Ter, an Bill was good natured, too an
| felt kind o. 'shamed over marryin' a
| Besides they had been pards a long
time, an they sort O hated to bust up.
But they did bust up later on" Clark
pulled his horses in to let them walk up
a little hill, and as we logged slowly up
! that hill, the yellow dust rising now
and Their from the slow wheels and the
| horses hoofs and casting thin, f1eeting
wells between our eyes and the brown
| landscape, he told the rest of the story.
You see, it came round like this:
| Bill couldn't keep from whisky, an af-
| ter while, when the honeymoon had
worn off, Bill ulster come home drunk
| and beat Annie-which was his wife's
name. Now Tim had a natchel respect
| fer womenfo!ks, if he did kick some
! heightened ladies out of his cabin once,
an so when Bill would start in to dis
! figure Annies beautiful an classical
| liniments, Tim generally stepped in an
pulled him off an put him to bed. AS
! Bill never recollected much about these
things when he got sober, they caused
no ll-feeling between him an Tim. But
| it did cause q feeling on Armies part
| a feelin' Of hate for Bill an love for
Tim. Finally, one day this state of af-
| fairs dawned upon Bill, an then hell
was to pay, an no pitch hot. He threat
| ened to kill Tim, an did half kill Annie,
an so Tim packed up his things an
pulled out. He told Bill before he lert
that he didn't care cuss for his dam
squaw, but Bill wouldn't believe him.
| Tim went down the river bout a half
mile where there was an OF shanty,
and took up another claim, an went to
work on his own hook. Mabbe you seen
the place this mornin'-just at the bend
of the river above where them China
men have their water wheels?
Did you ever hear of the time when
| Bowman's dam broke? Bowman's dam
was great big dam away up here in
the mountains above Nevada City. 1t
held hell-slough of water, an one day
tn wall jist pushed right out an let
the whole business into the North
Yuba It came roarin' down the mar
row canyon in a solid wall, sixty feet
| high, I've been told an it washed away
every bridge it came to. There was lots
of Cinnamon workin' long the river
then-I fergit what year it was-an' the
flood wiped out every pig tail. You see
it got down here way long towards
mornin', an everybody was sound
| asleep-everybody but Annie. 1t seems
that Annie was awake, or the sound of
the comm water woke her. The river
| is straight for a mile above where Big
| Bits cabin stood, an her sharp Ingin
ears heard it. She crawled out OF bed,
an went outside to See what it was,
| but il was black as a stack o. black
cats, an she couldn't see nothin'. But
she knew what it was-mabbe she'd
| heard the OF tar-heads tell of such