Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1904-08-19
LLOYD'S LUCK.

w that he H%s sod t1 the fs sPa a a"a
that they were going to spend
the summer camping out, Lloyd. was
very much delighted. His father and
two other men had formed a partner
ship and were going to spend the sum-
mer in mining. They bought their pro-
visions and mining outfit, and loading
them in two wagons, they started.
Loyd's father and mother, with Lloyd
and the provisions, We're In one Wag-
pn; in the other were the two partners,
with the picks, shovels, gold pans and
the lumber for sluice boxes and rock
ers.
When, after several DAYS travelling,
they arrived at the place where they
intended to mine, the men cut down
some trees. and in the course Of a week
built a log cabin. They had planned
to work q placer claim" 1t had been
mined long ago, when gold was first
discovered in California, but not very
thoroughly. Lloyd liked to watch the
men shovel the dirt into the sluice box
rs and see the swift muddy water wash
the rocks and coarse gravel out at the
other end. They found the dirt was
not very rich, and some days when
they made a cleanup they would
find very small quantity Of gold dust
In their rifles, less than half an ounce
for a whole days run.
Lloyd soon grew tired of watching
the men work; he wished to do some
mining all by himself; so his father,
one evening after his own work, made
him little rocker out Of the thin light
boards of a dry goods box, and every
day Lloyd would play he was a miner
Finally he carried his rocker up the
stream nearly quarter Of a mile
above where his father was working.
One of the men had called to him,
Hello, rocker, where are you going
with that boy?'
Lloyd looked back and said, Were
going up the creek to find Il claim Of
our own"
We'll. go ahead. and good luck to
you!' they called after him.
Lloyd did not find much color"
along the creek, so he carried his rock
er up a dry gulch that led into that
stream
Next day Lloyd dug till his hands
were blistered and his back ached. He
had been digging a hole where the
ground was wet and soggy, so thai. he
could get water to rock with. When
he went back next morning he found
that the hole was nearly full Of muddy
water that had seeped in from the
spring. There was enough water to
run the rocker for some time
In one place at the Lowest part of
the gulch, near where his rocker was
set, rock cropped out a few inches.
He did not know it at the time, but
he had gone to the best place possible.
4 few inches below the surface he
struck bedrock. 1t was quite irregular
He took his shovel and scraped the
rock, piling the gravel beside his rock
er. He threw q shovelful of dirt into
the hopper, dipped up some water and
started to rock. When the dirt and
gravel had washed through the hopper,
he lifted it off to throw away the
coarser gravel and rocks that would
not pass through the holes in the sheet
iron bottom of the hopper. AS he did
so he noticed a pretty rock he had
thrown out 1t ives white, with yellow
streaks in 1t. He found several more
pieces, and put them in his pocket to
ask his father what they were He
did not know that he had found some
very rich gold quartz, but when he
lifted up the hopper and saw line Of
yellow along both of the r6les on the
upper apron. he was enough Of miner
dirt The gold dust was coarse, some
of it being as large as grains Of rice.
He went to the camp and got a gold
pan so that he could clean up the
rocker.
That night, when the men came to
supper, Lloyd's mother said to her hus~
band:
We'll, how did you do to-day? Did
you have a good cleanup
LIoyd's father sighed and said: "No,
little woman; I am sorry to say that
our pay dirt is running out. am
afraid we made mistake in not stick
ing to the farm"
well, Lloyd, how did your cleanup
turn out?' his father asked?
Lloyd brought QUE che gold pan and
the pretty rocks, and handed them to
bis father. When the men caught sight
Of the. coarse gold dust and Nuggets in