Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1916-11-02

LII HA11HA ~ SACx a |, 49,, AAs-
worth, Johnny? You can figger in yore
head"
"Along about $3.50" said Johnny aft
er a moment.
well, keep on figgerin. How much
does that come to apiece?'
"About $50, Of course
"And dividin' eighty by five?" per-
sisted Yank.
Sixteen"
"Well,' drawled Yank, his steely blue
eye softening to a twinkle, "$16 a day
is fair wages, to be sure, but nothin'
to get wildly excited over" He sur
veyed the two Of us with some humor.
Hadn't thought Of it that way, had
you? he asked. "Nuther had / until
last night. I was so dog tired I
couldn't sleep, and 1 got to fggeri0'
little on myown hook"
"Why, | can do better than that in
San Francisco, with half the work. I
cried.
Maybe for awhile" said Yank, ''but
here we got chance to make a big
strike most any time and in the mean
time to make good wages. But we
amt goin' to do it any quicker by kill
in ourselves. Now, today is Sunday.
| amt no religious man, but Sunday
is good day to quit. | propose we
go back to camp pcaceable, make
decent place to stay, cook ourselves up
a squar' meal, wash cut our clothes,
visit the next camp. take a look at
town and enjoy ourselves
Thus vanished the first and most
wonderful romance Of the gold. Re-
duced to wages it was somehow no
longer so marvellous The element Of
uncertainty was always there; to be
sure, and an inexplicable fascination,
but no longer had we any desire to
dig up the whole place Immediately.
1 suppose we moved nearly as much
earth, but the fibers Of our minds were
relaxed, and we did it more easily and
with less nervous wear and tear.
Also, as Yank suggested, we took
pains to search out our fellow beings.
The camper below us proved to be Don
Gaspar, velvet breeches and all. He
received us Hospitality and proffered
perfumed cigarettes, which we did not
like, but which we smoked out Of po-
likeness. Our common ground of meet
ing was at first the natural one of the
gold diggings. Don Gaspar and his
man, whom he called Vasquez, had
produced somewhat less flake gold
than ourselves, but exhibited a half
ounce nugget and several smaller
Jumps. We could not make him out.
Neither his appearance nor his per-
sOnal equipment suggested necessity,
and yet he labored as hard as the rest
Of us. His gaudy costume was splash
ed and grimy with the red mud, al
though evidently he had made some
attempt to brush it. The linen was,
Of course, hopeless. He showed us
the blisters on his small aristocratic
looking hands.
ut is the hard work." he stated
simply, "but one gets the gold"
From that subject we passed on to
horses. He confessed that he was I'M
easy as to the safety of his own mag
nificent animals and succeeded in
alarming us as to our own.
"Thos' Indian" he told us, "are al
ways out to esstea1, and the paisanos.:
It has been tole me that Andreas Ami
jo and his robbers are near. Some day
we lose our horSe!'
Our anxiety at this time was given
an edge by the fact that the horses,
having fed we'll and becoming tired Of
the same place, were inclined to stray.
1t was impossible to keep them always
on picket lines-the nature Of the
meadow would not permit it-and they
soon learned to be very clever with
their hobbies. Several mornings we
put in an hour Or so hunting them up
and bringing them in before we could
start work for the day. This wasted
both time and temper. The result was
that we drifted into partnership with
Don Gaspar and Vasquez. do not re-
member who proposed the arrange
ment Indeed, | am inclined to think
it just came about naturally from our
many discussions of the subject. IN
der the terms Of it we appointed Vas
quez to cook all the meals, take full
care Of the horses, chop the wood,
draw the water and keep camp. gener-
ally. The rest of us worked in couples
at the bar. We divided the gold into
five equal parts.
CHAPTER XIV