Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1911-10-17

and II the hand can't reach there's q
rifle inside that can. Now. get that
out of your mind ouce for all"
"Wel." said the boy-"well-aw. I'll
be id. dat's all kin say. Jim." and
rushed into the house. =
The miner leaned back and laughed
and blew bis nose. laughed again and
blew bis nose again; then he wiped
the dust out Of his eyes, swore a few
words himself and followed the boy
within.
The next day Jim started on his
work In 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 bank and drift straight across
the bar. That meant 600 feet Of tun-
mel at the best unless fortune was
much kinder than she had hinted at
before. quite an undertaking for one
man. considering the timbering and
all
It must have been a miner who
wrote that hope springs eternal In the
human breast. Surely in no place
other than the mines is the fact so
manifest. There was once a man sew.
enty-three years old who was sinking
through a cap Of cement 200 feet
thick. The stuff was just this side Of
powder work. barely to be loosened
with a pick. The old man had to
climb down sixty feet Of ladder. I'LL
his bucket. climb up again and dump
It, and so on and 80 on and so on. Be
sides. he had to walk thirty miles and
back again with his load whenever he
ran out of provisions. 1t had taken
him a year to put his shaft down the
sixty feet. There were 40 more to go.
each foot getting harder. the Lord
only knew wnat wou.G 6e at the bot
tom when he got there. yet to sit In
that old mans cabin for al hour was
to obtain a complete exposition OF the
theory and practice Of optimism. 1t
is an unbelievable story and would be
senseless were 1t not entirely true.
Beside that effort. Jim's task took
on the tint of an avocation, but the
man who runs 600 feet Of tunnel sin.
gle handed earns whatever may be at
the end of 1t.
The tunnel was the one thing that
Ches abhorred in his new surround
ings. Whether 1t was that 1t remind.
ed him Of the dingy holes Of his city
life or whether 1t was a natural an
tipathy, Ches was one Of those who
can never enter confined space with
out the sensation Of smothering. At
any rate. neither argument nor coax
ing could get him to put foot within
its dark mouth.
An old miner would have shared his
feelings In this instance. for Jim. 30
thorough in some things. was a care
less workman. Your old miner would
have shaken his head at the weak
caps and recklessly driven tagging.
frames out of plumb and made OF any
stick that came to hand. more espe-
cially as they were to support loose
dirt of the most treacherous sort.
Ches worked outside. dumping the
car that Jim had made Of four tree
sections for wheels and sluice box
boards for sides Jim. the ingenious.
had rigged up pulley system where
by Ches could run the car out and IN
without interrupting the work on the
face.
1t was hard labor for Ches at first.
but he gritted his teeth and stuck 1t
out manfully.
"Bime- by" he would say to himself.
"I'n have er muscle on me like Jim.
an den I'll yank dis cussed oil car
right out In der middle Of der erik"
And he examined the small bunch on
his arm critically dozen times every
day.
Meanwhile his hero and idol was
outdoing the human In his exertions.
The effort he put forth would have
killed an ordinary man. he fought
the stubborn earth as though 1t were
an enemy. Stripped to the waist. bent