The Press. (Stafford Springs, Conn.) 1883-1935, 1898-10-20

Ter about savin it. They was all about
alike, and after a fellow had worked
purity hard for awhile and cleaned up a
little pile he'd get to thinkin he needed
relaxation, and down he'd go to Frisco
and blow in his pile.
''Then he'd strike the trail for. the
goldfields for another stack o. blue
chips
Course every one had q partner in
them days, and this here Nuggets had
one by the name o. wilkins One day
they KEN into this town with nugget
that was corker. Was as big as your
hatred cinnabar, with chunks of pure
gold stickin out of it all around.
''The jeweler offered 'em 81, 500 for
it, but they wouldn't sell it. Mug
gets said there was more O. it where it
KEN from, but no one believed him,
Everybody thought that Nuggets
and Wilkins had found small pocket,
and that was all there was to it, but
some o. these pockets are good enough
for pore man anyhow.
"That night there was an awful
windstorm, and two days afterward
Nuggets was found comm out o. Rattle
snake canyon over there plum crazy.
They brought him into town, and all
they could get out O. him was q string
o. the d--dest, foolishest words YOU
ever heard of. He didn't say much else
for 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 dream, but don't
think So Ask Bill-he knows. Put
snot in her. Seen rock in my time, but
mo 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 dream.
Ask Bill.
"Course you can bet your life that
old canyon was prospected pretty we'll
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 soon
after that and foil down 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 ain been worth 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 make4a liv-
in and keep old Nuggets besides
Course you know the old man couldn't
do nothin but. sit around and talk those
words told you of.
every one was kind to him, except,
perhaps, Jake Openheimer, who kept
the principal store then He youster rifle
him good deal and josh him and ask
him when he was goin to open her up,
but I reckon he didn't mean great
deal o. harm. l..
every now and then Nuggets 'ud
wander over into Rattlesnake canyon
and spend nigh on to 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 in
the Acknowledgement 'em and mixed
'em all up. Might a-been dream, but
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 It make no
more objections. The boy used to say
that while they was in the canyon Mug
gets spent most o. his time huntin for
something he couldn't find.
Zone evenin in the summer time,
bout ten years ago-I was here then
myseh-Nuggets and the boy KEN into
town and gave it surprise that it 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 in
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 a purity
nice sum to couple o. big mining men
down below. See those smokestacks in
the trees over in the canyon? Well,
there's II stamp mill ON the spot
where that knife was found.
''Bob Hittel runs this store we're
a"sittin in front of, and Bob's wife owns
her own house. Nuggets has 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
II tell you when you meet him. Some
o. it's true l know myself for fact, and
I reckon, mebbe, some o. it's-weIl, you
know, Nuggets is Missourian and q
purity good liar himself -
The stranger arose, stretched himself,
and, striding up the street, encountered
the one legged druggist standing in the
doorway of his store.
"Great story just heard, y said the
stranger.
'Been talking to the old pioneer?''
Pioneer? Why he's not a forty
miner.
''No, but he's forty Fighter"
"Who is he, anyhow"
Him? Oh, that's Nuggets. Will
liam A Taaffe in Argonaut.
Wasted.