The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1907-11-22
CONTINUED from last week.
CrIA DrED WI

"V YHO'S your new shift bossT'
IA Glenister inquired Of his
wv partner few days later,
w indicating man in the cut
below, busted in setting a line Of
ylulces.
THAT'S old Slapjack Simms, friend
Of mine from up Dawson way"
Glenister laughed immoderately, for
the object was unusually tall and loose
jointed and wore soiled suit of yellow
mackinaw. He had laid off his coat,
and now the baggy, bilious trousers
hung precariously from his angular
shoulders by suspenders Of alarming
fraity. His legs were lost In gum
boots, also loose and cavernous, and
his entire costume looked relaxed and
Tapping, so that he gave the impress
sion Of being able to shake himself out
Of his raiment and to rise like a bur-
lesque Aphrodite. His face was over
grown with a grizzled tangle that
looked as though it had been trimmed
with buttonhole scissors, while above
the brush heap grandly scared shiny,
domelike head.
Has he always been baldT
Nav! He amt bald at all. He
shaves his mob In the early days he
wore a long fowin' name which was
inhabited by crickets, tree toads and
such fauna. 1t got to be hobby with
him finally so that he growed supersti
tious about goin' uncurried and would
hocl- info n cornar with both orIIuS,
drawed if barber came near him.
But once Hank-that's his real name
undertook to fry some slapjacks and in
givin' the skillet heave, the dough lit
among his forest primeval, jest back
of his ears, soft side down. Hank pol
luted the gulch with langwidge which
no man had ought to keep in himself
without it was fumigated. Disreppita-
blcness oozed out through him like
sweat through an Ice pitcher, an since
then he's been known as Slapjack
Simms an has kept his head shingled
smooth as a gun bar'l. He's a good
miner, though. Amt none better-an'
square as die"
Siuicing had begun ON the Midas
Lon; sinuOus lengths of canvas hose
wO,:nd down the creek bottom from
the dam, like gigantic serpents, while
the roll Of gravel through the fumes
mingled unsteady with the rush of
waters, the tinkle of tools and the song
of steel on rock. There were four
strings" Of boxes abreast, and the
heaving line Of shovelers ate rapidly
into the creek bed, while teams with
scrapers splashed through the tail races
an atmosphere of softened profanity.
In the big white tents which sat back
from the bluffs, fifty men of the night
shift were asleep, for there is no re-
spite here-no night, no Sunday, no
halt, during the hundred days in which
the northland lends herself to pillage
The mine lay Graded between won
derful messy, willow notified noun
tains, while above and below the gulch
was dotted with tents and huts, and
everywhere, from basin to hill crest,
men dug and blasted, punily, patiently,
while their tracks grew daily palmer
over the face of this inscrutable will
derness.
A great contentment filed the two
partners as they looked on this scene.
To wrest from reluctant earth her
richest treasures, to add to the wealth
Of the world, to create-here was sat
isfaction.
1--WE amt Robin no widders an
orphans DOM it, neither" Dextry sud
denly remarked, expressing his part
ner's feelings closely. They looked at
each other and smiled with that rare
understanding that exceeds words.
Descending into the cut, the old man
filed a gold pan with dirt taken from
under the feet Of the workers and
washed it in a puddle, while the other
watched his dexterous whirling mo-
lions. When he had finished they
poked the stream Of yellow grains into
a pile; then, with heads together,
guessed its weight, laughing again de-
lightedly, in perfect harmony and con-
tentment.
1--WE been waitin' q turrible time fer
this day." said the elder. "Ive suf-