Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1905-07-14
DIAMOND HOOP.
By HENRY L. KINER>


He picked up the bit of quartz to FIRE
1t at the mule.
Then he gave yell at least four
miles log. Perhaps it was 40 miles
Sound travels far In the foothills of
the Rockies.
Then he tainted.
Then all the conscious life that re-
manned within the vast horizon was
one lame mule, blind of one eye. The
other eye bad been blind from time
immemoFial The lame hind leg had
been caused by recent impact with
granite.
This mule was a millionaire!
His one calm eye surveyed a tract
yellowed by untold gold!
He was the sole possessor!
He shifted indifferently at the tall
form of his master, becoming indis-
unct in the dusk
He was doing his stubborn best to
Tectify an impression that be had
missed his mark, for the first time in
hts life He saw the man lying there.
Nothing but the kick could have
downed him. Yet the mule felt. when
he attempted to step on the hoof he
had fired with, that there must be
some mistake.
His one eye grew green. Visions Of
innumerable thumpings arose in his
goddess memory.
The mule is the only animal that God
never made.
Why should he not turn AMI kick
out the brains of this relentless man,
who had hammered his ribs, and
pounded his head, and kicked his belly
over hundreds Of miles of desert?
But in a dim way, horse 5ense-his
only legacy from long maternal line
of ancestors, struggled through red
passion and green revenge- He could
not use the lame leg to kick with. He
could not stand on the lame leg while
he kicked with the other.
He turned and began munching at
sage bush
The long man lay there Still Very
still
A creek braw1ei over the rocks a
few rods away
The man had selected this place for
his night camp. because of this creek.
1t would supply water for himself and
his mule.
The mule. being athirst hobbled
down to the creek, and drank. AS he
drank he saw the long form OF his
master slowly toiling on hands and
knees down the declivity 70 the
stream
His one eye observed that his master
drank feverishly, ravenously, az if TO
drain this ditch Of a creek of every
crystal drop
Then his duh comprehension was
changed 10 apprehension.
His master arose and executed a
tremendous war dance, 80 suddenly
and energetically that the mule, being
wise in his day and gensration-a leg
acy from a long line Of dams-vent
sidewise in an instructive effort TO
make distance between his master and
himself.
In an ecstasy Of JOY, the man, not
realizing the lameness Of the mule
lin fact ne had been dead 70 the world
since the lameness had occurred)-in
an ecstasy of JOY, the man suddenly set
his shoulder against the mules rear,
and heaved him into the creek. 1t was
pure ecstasy. Nothing more.
He loved the mule. AL old grudges
we're gone. He loved all the world and
the red rising moon and the eternal
stars that now smiled down upon him.
His horizons had widened with ex-
banding hope Whereas but few
lost minutes ago, himself and his mule
and the ravine through which the
creek ran had been his entire world,
now the entire world was his. II took
IN the oceans and continents 1t en-
braced the home of aged parents in
the east and a girl whom he associated
with gate
All the hard frontiers Of his nature
hard with frozen hopes. melted into
one universal benevolence. He even
helped the struggling mule out of the
creek.
Poor devil, you are a cripple he
said with concentrated observance. as
the beast clattered painfully over the
rocks. Wen call this Cripple Creek, "
And II was 80.
A soul had sundered its sepulchre
From the narrow confines of daily
coffin. crowded with dead hopes, bank
rupt enthusiasms and the ghosts OF by
gone anticipations; from the oontem-
plation of an endless procession OF COZ
orless to-morrows, he had suddenly
burst. bright, bewildered, effulgent
upon a wondering world and himself
Herein is the true story OF the ind
ing Of the great Cripple Creek mines IN
Colorado. Other versions have been
given: but this is the correct one.
The mule is still living
The man Is not dead
Suppose the mule had mauled the
mans head in somehOW, In the gloam