The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-05-26
A Deathbed
Promise
BY F A. Mitchell


kinson, TO find paying dirt for you
before pegging out. but it is denied me.
/ If l could have left you rich | would
not now mind handing in my chips.
] But remember this, my little girl. if
/ there's any such thing as the dead
helping the living I'll help YOU"
! These Were the last words spoken by
+ Tom Atkinson 10 his daughter Ellen
/ He passed into Inconsistencies and
| died the same night. Ellen had been
with him in the gold fields for years
and had suffered with him one disap
| pOintment after another till TO her they
were no longer disappointments. but
expected happenings. But till the very
I last he had expected TO strike it rich
and when he was taken down with his
last illness believed that he would get
well enough to dig a little lower in a
/ hole he was sinking and would strike
the continuation of a lead that was
paying handsomely but a hundred feet
| away. When death came he had not
reached the goal and left his child with
but small bag Of dust. not worth So
However. Ellen possessed something
she valued more than gold-the heart
of an honest. energetic young man,
who was clerking in a store not far
from the property on which her father
had done his last digging and where
he had built the cabin in which he and
his daughter lived Mark Hosmer
married Ellen few days after her ia
ther had been laid to rest. and they
lived together in the abode the bride
had occupied ever since her father had
been seized with his last mfatua
ton.
Hosmer was willing to work, but the
district was not producing the gold
that had been expected. and sales in
the store We're running down. His sal
airy had been reduced and had reached
point where they found 1t difficult to
make ends meet. One. elight when
Mark came home from work he told
his wife that lie feared his employer
was about to discharge him and do all
the work himself, since the business
would not warrant an assistant
At 2 o'clock the next morning Ellen
awakened her husband and asked him
if he heard anything unusual. After
listening he said that he did not and
asked her why she had asked the
question. She replied that every now
and again she had heard a sound like
earth thrown from n shovel
Go to sleep, my dear" he replied.
you lived so many years in the sound
of dirt thrown out of holes In the
ground that it has got on your nerves"
The next night Ellen fancied she
heard the same sound. but, since Mark
had not heard it and thinking she
would trouble him by calling his atten.
ton to what he seemed to consider a
crick in her brain, she did not wake
him. But she listened herself. She
would hear the sound apparently not
far from the house, of shovelful of
earth thrown on the ground Then
all was silent. In n few minutes she
would hear another shovelful tossed,
1t seemed to her, from below, as
though some one were digging in a
trench. Once or twice she thought she
heard pick strike stone, but of this
she was not sure. She could not To-
cate the sounds, but it seemed to her
that they came from a corner of the
lot in rear of the cabin.
She was tempted the next morning
to tell her husband that she had heard
the sounds repeated, but refrained,
realizing that he would think some
thing had gone wrong with her As
soon as he had departed for the store
she went out to the rear of what was
a four acre lot, half expecting to find
that some claim jumper had been dig
ging for gold. No sign of earth thrown
up appeared.
There was thick underground sep
arating her from where she had seem
ed to hear the sounds, and passing
through it she came to the extreme
corner Of the lot. The ground was
Just as it had always been. The sur
face was uneven. and Il ledge of red
stone few feet high furnished n con-
venient seat. She sat down on it and
idly picked up a loose piece of the
stone. Examining it. she noticed that
it presented a rather singular appear
ance. Her father had often shown her
such pieces of ore, which, he said,
were very rich in gold.
Ellen took the fragment to the cabin ,
and put it in her bureau drawer; then,
taking her fathers pick and shovel,
she went back to the spot from which
she had taken the stone and began to
dig
Since the place was concealed by
underground Mark did not notice the
excavation Ellen. who had had long
experience in the appearance Of ore,
dug on till she came to something that
looked worth examination. Taking
specimens. the next day, instead of dig.
ging, she carried them to an assayer
One evening when Mark came home
from work looking distressed on ac-
count of the dullness of trade, which
foreboded his discharge, Ellen threw
her arms around his neck, exclaiming:
Mark, we are rich!'
What do you mean?'
Come and see"
She took him to the hole she had dug
and, picking up piece of ore. told
him that she had had a specimen from
the place assayed and 1t had shown
5000 to the ton.
How came you" he asked. "to dig
here?"
Bowling her head reverently, she told
him that her father had guided her,
and when he asked how she reminded
him of the dying promise and the
sounds she had heard at night.