Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1911-12-22
CHRISTMAS Mine.
BY J. WILBUR TAFT.

ut is now nearly Christmas, Brokaw,
and l see no way for us to keep soul
and body together till spring except to
go into the mountains and cut wood"
And freeze our fingers and our
noses and our feet. We may as well
starve to death"
ut won't be long. The spring IL be
along in a few months, and we can go
to prospecting again.
prospecting? How many years have
l been digging holes in the ground for
nothing? I tell you, Trimmer, I'm
through with prospecting, and as soon
as l can get n regular job I'm going
to take it,
But you can't get job just now,
and we've nothing to eat. Come; cheer
up. It's always darkest before day"
The two ragged, discouraged men
climbed the mountains of Calaveras
county, Cal. There was a chance of
their making some thirty or forty dol
lars MONTH on which they could cas-
lily live and buy some clothes, but it
was sad comedown from the roseate
dreams with which they had begun to
hunt for a fortune. They found an old
abandoned miners cabin, in which
they made their home, a dispiriting
place in which to live, for 1t was a
perpetual reminder of another's fail
ure. But they were not hunting for
gold in this region. They were keep
ing themselves alive.
Every morning as soon as It was
light the sound of their axes rang in
the wood and continued till the early
winter twilight came on. Cord after
cord was stacked up, each cord repre-
senting days of hard labor. Mean
while a snowstorm came down on
them and covered the ground to q
depth of two feet The prediction as
to frozen members was not verified.
We've got such a pile of brush here
from chopped off branches" said Trim
mer to his partner one afternoon, that
we'd better get rid of it."
So they touched a flame to it, and it
was soon roaring and cracking send
ing out a pleasant heat. 1t melted the
snow beneath it and left an area OF
hot ground.
said Brokaw. I'm going to make an
oven in this hot earth, and We'll cook
our deer meat, and as today is Christ
mas we will have beftting meal If
we never get another one"
So Brokaw began to dig hole for
the baking. At the depth of two feet
he struck bed of rock.
Good" he exclaimed Its hot stone
and will keep its heat. Give me the
meat
The venison was brought in a bak-
ing pan, and Trimmer was about to
place 1t in the hole when Brollaw stop
ped him.
Hold on till chip off a piece of the
stone to see what it's like" he said
Il thought you were through with
prospecting" Trimmer remarked satir-
ically.
$50 I am. This isn't prospecting;
it's only yielding ito a habit. Any man
who has been hunting in the earth as
long as we have will want to see ev-
erything he takes out"
He broke off bit of his oven bed,
the venison was placed in the hole and
covered over, and the two men listened
to the welcome sound of it's sizzling.
Brokaw took the piece of rock into his
cabin, where he lighted candle, for it
was now dark and the brush had
burned to cinders. Trimmer was over
the oven basting the venison and hum
ming little Christmas ditty when he
heard his partner call.
Come here, Trim
Trimmer went to the cabin where
Brolaw was holding the chipping Of
rock to the candle.
"What do you think of that" asked
Brokaw, his eyes standing out of his
head as big as butter plates.
what do I think of it? why, great
Scott man; it's live rock!"
That's what it is" replied Brokaw;
nothing more nor less-that is, If I
know live rock when | see It, and I
think l do"
Shake" shouted Trimmer. We've
struck it. and struck it big"
1t was 4 supper Of another kind from
roasted venson that the partners par
took ola probable realization Of their
vanished wild dreams. The meat was
savory, but their minds We're not on it.
They We're laying plans. Experience
had taught them what to do. They
would keep their secret. They would
pre-empt their claim. They would
learn the dip angle and the length and
breadth of their newly discovered
ledge.
Spring came. and the partners were
still ostensibly cutting wood, while
they were really gathering informa-
ton. One day Brokaw went down into
the valley appeared at an assay office,
handed in the chip of rock he had bro
ken from the floor of his improvised
Il lnft IL To hn1 L.