The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-07-12
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little to any but Californian. To him t means everything. We were quito new to the climate and the con ditions, D that the whole thing was trent surprise. v [. sTof four days 1t rained steadily. x The mdrnfng of the fifth day broke QnxxliRgIy clear. The sky looked bur 11Dhed as blue jewel; the sunlight Dlittered like shimmer1ng metal; dis ant ohjects stood out plain cut, with out atmosphere. For the first time we &elt encouraged t0 dare that awful mud ard 70 slopped over to town.
 We found the place fairly drowned euf. No enc In his first year thought ~ building for tho weather. Barnes' 1otel tho Empire and the Bella Union III come through without shipping q lEroN for they had been erected by H1en;with exper1ence in the Calfornia cllFnate, but almost everybody else had been, leaked upon a-plenty. And the. deep dust of the trnvel worn overland r6ad had turned Into q morass beyond belief or description.
 Our nfst intimation of definite sea nQhal change came from our old friend { Dannys Randall, who hailed us nt once w1sn hs sew us picking our way gin eefly along the edge of the street In anawet to hls summons we entered ttr BeEA Union, "f hope you boys weren't quite ! 1roWued ont, 1" he greeted us. You don't look particularly careworn.
 We exchanged the appropriate eon-I mente; then Danny came at once to bpsiness. W
 ysNoH I'm going to pay off you three 'boys,T De told the express messengers, ss'and I want to mow what you want. | can give you tho dust, or can give g0u m order on San Francisc0 firm 5o1f as you choose.''
 .sHxprezs bu&lnsss bustedy' asked J6hnny. s,s
 x sssIts quit for the season" Danny { 1andall told him, s'like everything GlSe. In two weeks at most there won't be | Scors Of men left in Italian Bax." He obGerved our astonished in- c1pdulity. amiled and continued: "You toyp came fSom f]Ae least, where it 1llnG and getS ever IL But out hare s1t dbe6nF Ut ovsr II Have yon been down to look atl tho river? Nof Wen, yps'A bettsf tafe | look. There1l be G6 moFs bar mining done there for .AWhile. And whafs mining camp without Mining7 co talk to the men 2 q '46 IThey1l ten you. The season { r over. beys, nntil n9xt spring, and youl nay just s1 ven make up your \ minds to hike out now as later. What sare you laughing atY' he asked Johnny.
 "I was juSt thinking of our biz wig ilante organization" ," hA chuckled
 T suppose itss true that mighty few Of the same lot will ever get back to Italian Bar," agreed Danny, "but it's gpod thing for whatever community fAeE may hit next year"
 9ohnnys and old elected to take their wages in dust Cal decided on the or der agafnSt. the San Francisco firm. Then we wandered down to where we could overlook the bar itself,
 The entire bed of the river was filled from, rim to rim with rolling brown 1oodl The bars, sand apits, gravel :. bankS had all disappeared. Whole trees bobbed and sank and raised s6el- eton arms or tangled roots as they were swept along by the current or caught back by the esddies, and under meath the roar of the waters we heard the dull rumbrng and crunching of bowldegs rolled beneath the flood. 4 crowd of men was watching in idle euriosity. We, learned that all the era. zles and most ok the tools had been lost and heard rumors of cabins or car1ps located too low having been swept away.
 Thht evening we held a very serious 1 discussion of our prospects and plans
 Tank announced himself as fit to tray. q and ready to do 90, provided he could have a horse. The express messengers were out of . job. had lost all my tools and was heartily tired of gold 7 washing, even had conditions permit ted me to continue. Beside which we
 we-c all feeling quite rich and prosper
 ous. We had not made enormous for
 tunes, as we had confidently antici pated when we left New York, < but we
 wefe all possessed of good suins o1
 money. Tank had the least, owing tc $ the fact that he had been robbed ol shia Porcupine river product and had sbeen compelled for nearly three months { to lie idle, but even he could count or
 . thousand dollars or SO sent out from
 Hangman's Gulch. had the most, fol
 my tdigging had paid me better; thar !, had J6hnny's express riding. But mucl
 cf my share belonged of right to Tal ! Tt Ward
 Having once made up our minds tt
 lave, we could not go too soon. A re xyulsion Gedsed us. In two days the fhigh winds that immediately sprana
 up from the west had dried the sur sxace moisture. We said goodby to al
 cur fr1cnds Danny Randall, Dr. Ran kin, Barnes and the few miners witt 7, whom we had become intimate Dan
 ny was even tlssn himself preparing s.4o return to Sonoma as soon as tho < road should be egopen to wagons. pr Y Rankin intended to accompany him oDtunaibly because he saw fine pro nIeee1pnal spen1ng It Sonoma, in reality
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