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

one Dy the name q wilkins. one
day til y KEN into this town with q
nugget that was q corker. Was as
big as your hatred cinnabar, with
chunks o. pure gold stickiu' out OF il
all around. The jeweler offered 'em
$500 for it, but they wouldn't sell it.
Nuggets said there was more of it where
it KEN from, but no one believed him.
Everybody thought that Nuggets and
wilkins had found a small pocket, and
that was all there was to it; but some
o. these pockets are good enough for q
pore man, anyhow.
THAT right there was an awful
windstorm, and two days afterwards
Nuggets was found comm out o. Rat
tlespake Canon over there plum crazyi
They brought him into town. and oil
they could get out of 'em was string
of the foolishest words ye ever heard
Of. He didn't say much else for a
good many years Acknowledgements
sit around the town here and get it off
to himself. Went somethin' like this /:
Changed oil the trees in the
Acknowledgement 'em and mixed
'em all up. Might a been dream.
but 1 don't think so. Ask Bill-he
knows. Put 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'tblaze 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
q 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 h blame sence. Nuggets's
daughter she married Bob Hittel, who
was teamster and didn't have much
of it 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 I told We 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 great
deal o. harm.
Every now and then Nuggets 'ud
wander over into Rattlesnake Canon
and spend nigh onto a 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 EN- and mixed 'em all up.
Might a. been dream, but don't
think So.
"'Bout this time his little grandson
was GROWN up, and 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 to go and her father was
dead set on bavin' him with him, she
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
find.
"One evening in the summer time,
bout ten years ago--I was here then
myself--Nuggets and the boy KEN
into town and gave it o surprise
that il amt 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 taikin' 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 it of.
But he was purity near crazy with
happiness. He'd an old rusty knife
in his hand, and he kept saying to
rs 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 |
nnder big tree that 'ad been blown
down and found the knife stickin' in
i underneath. Course We know what
hat meant.
"Well, Nuggets is all right now.
so was his claim. He sold II for q
purity nice sum to couple Of big |
mining men down below. See those
'mokestacks in the trees over in the
canon. Well, there's fourteen-s stamp !
mill on the spot where the knife was
Iound.
''Bob Hittel runs this store we're
l-sittin in front OF, aud BoD's wife |
'wps her own home. Nuggets has q