Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-11-26

LllS ONS 80 ~ ~ eiiNt "a
they could get out O him was a string
O. the d--dest, foolishest words you
ever heard Of He didn't say much else
for a good MANY years afterward-
youster sit around the town here and
get it off to himself. Went somethin
like this:
Changed all the trees in the Rat
tlesnake-moved 'em and mixed 'em all
up. Might "a been a dream, but / don't
think so. Ask Bill-he knows. Put u
shot in her. Seen rock in my time, but
no rock like that. Bill, id 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 a dream.
Ask Bill
"Course you a 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 care O. him.
Wilkins went over into Calaveras 500
after that and fell down a shaft about
500 feet deep.
"Well, time went by, and the law
stopped hydrauleeking, and purity much
every one left the town that could git
out O. it, and it amt been worth a d-n
sence.
Nuggets daughter she married Bob
Hittel, who was a teamster and didn't
have much O. it to do either. They was
pore, but they managed to make a liv-
in and keep old Nuggets besides
Course you know the old man couldn't
do nothin but sit around and talk those
words I told you of.
"Every one was kind to hiln, except,
perhaps, Jake Openheimer, who kept
the principal store then. He youster rifle
him a good deal and josh him and ask
him when he was goin to open her up,
but l reckon he didn't mean "a great
deal O. harm.
EVERY now and then Nuggets 'uo
wander over into Rattlesnake canyon
and spend nigh on to a day there. Whel
he'd come buck, he'd be worse TUX than
ever and 60 moonin around and sayil
those words: Changed all the trees il
the Rattlesnake-moved 'em and miXet
'em all up. Might a-been a dream, bu
I don't think So
"'Bout this time his little gran'sol
was GROWN up, and Nuggets began fo
to take him along with him in his trip
to the canyon. Mrs Hittel, she objected
at first, but when she seen the boy Liked
to go and her father was dead set OF
havin him with him she didn't make NJ
more objections. The boy used to sa.
that while they was in the canyon Mug
gets spent most O his time huntin TO
something he couldn't find.
Zone evenin in the summer time
bout ten years ago-I was here thel
myself-Nuggets and the boy KEN int
town and gave it a surprise that it ain
got over sence. You can believe it O.
not as you want to, but he'd got bacl
his mind all right and talked as sensibl,
as I'm talkin now. Don't believe HI
ever was crazy m~yself-just think he't
ROU LIS 1u1lIu SOU ol olO til1LS VII
couldn't get it off.
"But he was purity near crazy witt
happiness. He'd an old rusty knife il
his hand, and he kept sayin to us al
the time, ''Twarn't no dream after all
'twarn't no dream Seems when the,
was in the canyon the boy got to playil
around and crawled under a big tire
that 'ad been blown down and fount
the knife stickin in it underneath
Course you know what that meant.
"Well, Nuggets is all right now. S
was his claim. He sold it for a purt,
uice sum to a couple O. big mining me
down below. See those smokestacks il
the trees over in the canyon? Well
there's a IA stamp mill ON the spo
where that knife was found.
"Bob Hittel runs this store Weir
a-sittin in front of, and Bob's wife own
her own house. Nuggets has a mort
gage on about everything Jake Open
heimer's got left, and the boy-th
grandson, you Knowles down below
in business for himself.
"That's about the story old Nugget
III tell you when you meet him. Som
o. it's true I know myself for fact, ant
7 reckon, mebbe, some O. it's-well, yo1
know, Nuggets is a Missourian and
purity good liar himself"
The stranger arose, stretched himself
and, striding up the street, encountere
the one legged druggist standing in tn
doorway of his store.
"Great story I just heard" said tn
stranger.
"Been talking to the old pioneer?"
"Pioneer? Why he's not a forty
miner"
"No, but he's a forty-eighter."
"Who is he, anyhow"
Him? Oh, that's Nuggets. wi
I;oro A Tooffo IN Arpopo,1t