Arizona republican., 1905-04-30

knows. Maybe it was because she was gone on me, which l oughtn't to say, neither, but she sure was. l did heap of thinking. She had grit and gentIeness. and the feelings of a lady. which is what every woman that calls herself such hasn't got. and the more saw of her the better I liked her. So when I got we'll l had a pow-wow with her father, who was chief of the tribe, and I bought her for ten dogs on tick and my gun, which the durned thief had forgot in the mix-up and sixty tin tags I'd been saving from plugs of tobacco to get a free meer- shaun pipe with. We were married Indian fashion, which is pretty easy and she came and lived with me in my kut-
 Since then I've had plenty of the stuff that's supposed 10 make man happy, but I'm blowed if l was ever happier than l was that winter, living with the trite and married to Kate.
 Well. that winter was over with at last IL came spring or what you might call spring. with the ice begin ming to melt and the sun getting up for little while every day. lighter and lighter. One day Kate and I went fishing. She pulled in her line and saw something that made me forget I was an Indian, adopted into the tribe all regular. Her sinker was a gold nugget as big as the fist on a papoosel
 l knew it the minute I laid my eyes on it, though it was all black with water and weather. I grabbed it and cut it. It was as soft as lead. reddish yellow.
 Where did you get that?'' I said
 Up by the Katakoolaat Pass, she said, unconcerned like. as if it was pig iron. 'I picked it up because it was heavy
 Can you find the place again?" asked her.
 She studied awhile. But the In dians never forget anything. It's book learning that makes you forget. knew she'd remember before she got through. and she did. She took her fish line and laid it out in funny curves and loops on top of the snow like a map, knotting it here and there to show the places she knew, mountain peaks, lakes and such like. She had it down fine. When she got done she looked up to me with a grin and said: ''Why?"
 Then it came to me all of a sudden that she had no idea of the worth of her find. This was before the big rush, and her tribe didn't see white men more than twice a year. Their regu- lar hunting grounds were far to the north. They traded skins and dogs and fish once in a while with traders, and got beads and truck in return. With the other Indians they made change by strings of wampum they call alligacheeks. She had no idea of the value of gold, and she'd never seen a piece of money in her life. But l didn't stop to explain then. Come on," I said, we're going to borrow dogs, and sled north to the Katakoolanat country for sure." She never said a word, but packed up and 1 followed, the way she was trained tc do.
 We found the place the third day just like she said we would. Lord that was bonanza all right YoU could dig out nuggets with stick It was the Katakoolanat diggings yoI may have heard about.
 When I had staked out m-- claims two prospec.ors got wind of it anC started the rush. I got our band tt move up and help me hold our rights and when some Seattle agents offered me S4O0,000 for my claims, I took it you bet.
 The first thing I did after that wa
 to pay back 100. dogs for the ten
 had promised for Kate; then I bough
 up all the provisions I could get hol
 of-eggs $1 piece, bacon $5 poun