Putnam patriot., 1911-08-11

blew his nose again: then he wiped he dust out ot his eyes, swore few words himself and followed the boy within.
 The next day Jim started on his work Tn earnest Before he had sunk hole here or there in the broad smooth surface of the bar of gravel that he felt certain hid his bonanza.
 Now he determined To begin at the creek bunk and drift straight across the bar That meant 600 feet of tun. rel at the best unless fortune was much kinder than she had hinted at before quite an undertaking for one man. considering the timbertng and all
 II must have been 2 miner who wrote that hope springs eternal in the human brenst. Surely in no place other than the mines is fhe fact so manifest. There was once a man sev pnty-threc yenrs old who was sinking through a cap of cement 200 feet thick The stuff was just this side of powder work barely 10 be loOsened with pick The old man had 10 climb down sixty feet of ladder. tll his bucket. climb up again and dump 1T. and SO on md SO on and so on Be sides. he had to walk thirty miles and back again with his load whenever he ran out of provisions II had taken him year to put his shaft down the sixty feet There were l4O more to 20, each foot getting harder The Lord only knew what would be at the bot tom when he got there. yet 10 sit in that old mans cabin for All hour was to obtain complete exposition of the theory und practice of optimism II is an unbelievable story and would be senseless were il uot entirely true
 Beside that effort. jims task took on the tint of an avocalion. but the man who runs 600 feel of tunnel sin gle handed earns whatever may be at the end of It.
 The tunnel was the one thing that Ches Nhhorred in his new surround gs. Whether II WAS that II remind td him of the dingy holes of his city life or whether 1t was d natural an- tipathy, Clues was one ot these who run never enter d confined space with out the sensation of smothering Al any rute. neither argument nor coax ing could gel him to put foot within It's dark mouth,
 An old miner would have shared his feelings in this instance, for Jim so thorough in some things, was care less workman Your old miner would have shaken his head at the weak raps and recklessly driven tagging, frames out of plumb and made of any stick that came to hand. more espe- eially IS they were to support loose dlrt of tho most treacherous sort
 Chcs worked outside. dumping the ,ar that Jim had made of four tree sections for wheels aud sluiee box boards for sides Jim. the ingenious. aad rigged up a pulley system where by Chcs could run the car out and in without interrupting the work on the 1 fave.
 II was hard labor for Ches at first. l uut he gritted his teeth and stuck it auJ manfuIy.
 "Gime by" he would say ,o himself. | "IH bHvc or muscle on me like Jim. an den l'H yBnk dis cuSsed or ear l right o0t m der middle of der erik. " l And he tNamined the small bunch CD his arm critically dozen times every day
 Meanwhile hls hero and idol was outdoing the human in his exertions i The effort he put forth would have l killed an ordinary man. He fought the stubborn earth as though 1t were an enemy. Stripped to the waist. bent over in the low tunnel. hour after houl Jim phed the pick aud shovel with the 1 regularity and power of a machine There was at once something fascinat ing and heroic in the ripaling glide oi the muscles over his broad back and in the supple swing that sent the pick to join the packed dirt
 It all looked so easy. It was as fl the dirt were very soft and not the striker very strong. Nevertheless four teen hours day of this. varied occa. sionany by cutting timbers and carry