Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1916-10-26

we LIleO ner again, ana YET again
old then some more. but always with
he same result. Our hands became
puffed and wrinkled with constant i'm
merSiOn in the water and began to feel
sore from the continual stirring of the
rubble.
Something wrong" grunted Johnny
into the abysmal silence in which we
had been carrying on our work.
1--WE can't expect it every time"
reminded HIM.
"All the others seem to-"
We'll. maybe we've struck a blank
place. Let's try somewhere else." sug-
gested Yank.
Johnny went over to speak to our
neighbor, who was engaged in tossing
out shOvelfuls of earth from an eXca-
walton into which he had nearly dis
appeared. At Johnny's hail he straight
ened his back, so that his head bobbed
out of the hole like prairie dog.
mo, it doesn't matter where you
dig" he answered Johnny's question.
''The pay dirt is everywhere"
SO we moved on a few hundred feet,
picked another unoccupied patch and
resumed our efforts. No greater sue
cess rewarded us here.
81 believe maybe we ought to go
DEEPER" surmised Yank.
"Some of these fellows are taking
| their dirt right off top of the ground"
objected Johnny.
However, we numbered the pickax
| and went deeper, to the extent Of two
feet or more. 1t was good hard work.
especially as we were all soft for 1t.
with burning intensity. our hands Bills
tered, and the round rocks and half
cemented rubble that made the bar
were not the easiest things in the
world to remove. However. we kept
at it. Yank and |. having in times
past been more or less accustomed to
this sort of thing, got off much easier
than did poor Johnny. About two feet
| down we came to mixed coarse sand
| and stones, a little finer than the top
| dirt. This seemed to us promising. so
we resumed our washing operations.
They bore the same results as had the
first which was just the whole Of
nothing.
We've got to hit it somewhere"
said Johnny between his teeth. Lets
try another place.
We scrambled rather YEARLY, but
with a logged determination. out of
our shallow hole. Our blue eyed, long
bearded friend was sitting on a con-
venient bowlder near at hand, his pipe
between his teeth. watching our op-
erations.
"Got any tobacco, boysY' he inquired
genially. Smoked my last until to-
night unless you'll lend.'
Yank produced a plug, from which
the stranger shaved some parings.
"Struck the dirt?" he inquired. mo;
1 see you haven't" He stretched him
self and arose. You aren't washing
this stuff he cried in amaZement as
his eye took in fully what we were
about.
Then we learned what we might
have known before-but how should
we?-that the gold was not to be found
in any and every sort of loose earth
that might happen to be lying about.
but only in either sort of blue clay
or a pulverized granite. Sometimes
this "pay dirt would be found atop
the ground. Again. the miner had to
dig for it.
"All the surface diggings are taken
up," our friend told us, $50 now you
have to dig deep. It's about four feet
down where I'm working. It'll prob
ably be deeper up here. You'd better
move back where you were"
Yank stretched himself upright.
"Look here" he said decidedly, "let's
get little sense into ourselves. Here's
our pore old bosses standing with their
packs on and we no place to stay
and no dinner, and we're scratchin'
away at this bar like lot Of fool hens.
There's other days comm"
Johnny and l agreed with the COM
mon sense of the thing, but reluctant