Year: 1874

BY "DoRL."


The mule was Missourian. Not
, that the less honorable mention should
, be made of it for that reason, since
it could not be charged that it was
designedly bad, but it must be ad-
mitted that for o mule it had the
strangest prediction for getting
lost, and Joe had the queerest no
ton for hunting it.


He hunted that mule all the way
across the plains and all over Cali
forhia, giving the best years Of his
life to it, with cheerfulness and for=
titude really astonishing. The
amount of trouble that mule gave
poor Joe, from the day in the spring
of the good year 1s4S, when they
first met, until the unfortunate event
which effected their final dissolution,
is notorious. ts,


Joe liked the mule on sight, what
ever the mule may have Thought of
Joe, and on the spot, swapped a
little old grey mare for it, giving an
old army musket to boot. Here
their most extraordinary friendship
began, and they at once entered into
their new relations by starting, with
a most meagre outfit, to California,
to make their piles. Both were
young, being about the same age,
the mule having more experience,
if anything, and perhaps little the
soberer of the the two.


Joe did the cooking and the mule
did the picket duty, and as far out as
the "Blues" they got along without
accident, and pleasantly enough; but
Joe liked camp life, for which the
mule had no particular affinity, and
here the serpent entered their Eden.
Becoming less timid, Joe, as boss of
the train, relieved the mule of picket
duty one night. The next morning
there was one less in camp. Joe
thought it was good joke, and that
having been so long together the
straggler would soon be in to break
fast. That over still no mule. Ten
o'clock came round, but no mule
He climbed knoll and followed;
not bit of an answer! Weary
hearted, for the first time, he started
out to hunt the mule. Taking the
the trail, he soon lost it. He hunted
up and down both Blues and Kaw
river and back to Jackson county,
without finding q trace Heartily he
wished he was back in old Posey.
He never was so lonely in all his
life.


At last he found the mule at Fort
Kearney, running with the govern
ment herd. Joe was the gladdest fel-
wliving, but the mule didn't seem to
care a great deal, which cut Joe to
the heart.


They struck out again. Joe was
in deep study all day, So was the
mule. They met a squaw with q
cracked bell. Joe's face lighted up
and he soon made . bargain for the
bell, giving her the last of his sugar
for it. For three weeks Joe walked
and led that mule, wearing the bell
to get him used to it. Then he put
the bell on the mule and turned it
loose. After he had turned in, he
lay untilnearly morning listening to
the bell and laughing to himself to
think how he had fixed that mule.
Next morning found him aloneI To
say Joe was not mad world not be
strictly true; and when after long
search he found the mule, back on
the road this time, at Laramie, he
gave it a lamming.


For q month he travelled all night
and stood guard all day, and it is
said that he kept his old musket
cooked, and that not a single word
passed between them during the
time.


The Fourth of July found them on
Goose Creek, where Joe relaxed his
vigilance and stopped to have little
hilarity with trapper.


He found the mule this time under
the Wind River Mountains, settled |
down with an Indian family, and the
widow and orphans still insist that
mule came there of his own free will,
though the Joy it manifested on see
ing Joe placed them On better foot
ing than ever, and they passed on
down to Carson on the best of terms.
Here they rested. The mule turned |
up missing. Joe hunted for it. He |
hunted for it everywhere. Being
satisfied it was not on that side of
the mountains, he crossed on snow
shoes into California, in December,
and was not surprised to find the
mule running on old Suffers rancho,
as fat as mole. He would not have |
been surprised to have found that
mule in Paradise or-anywhere else.


They took up ranch apd went to
farming and raising stock, and Joe
was in fair way for a lift for his
girl and old Posey,. when, in the
middle of big harvest, the mule
left He was not to be found in Los
Angeles, but Joe did find him in
Oregon.


Packing him with apples, they re-
turned. He traded the apples for a
mining claim and went to work with
a startling degree of success. Heap
upon heap of gold he piled up Joe
concluded his day for the girl and
dear old Poseyhad coine--had surely
comel His heart was like that of
little child the day before Christmas.
He looked round for tile mule. 1t
was gonel Down at the mouth of
Russian River he found it, feeding
with Cantnin Cooner's doukevg. hook