Year: 1878

tect himself, the Judge knocked down
their sluices and couple of their chief
bullies, ran the whole crowd off the
premises, and reinstated the old miner.


Once when ''Hangtown creek" had be-
come swollen by the rains until it was a
toTent-a great, boiling, seething food,
filed with driftwood and remnants of
cabins which it had borne away-the
young doctor was washed from his horse
while attempting to ford the stream. A
| thousand men gathered on the banks to
watch the struggles of the drowning
man. but never one thought of Drawing
the angry torrent. The doctor was
nearly exhausted, and it seemed as if he
could hold out only moment longer,
when Just as they reached the great
curve below town, there was a splash
and two men were struggling in the
water.


You should have heard the hurrahs
! that went upfor the Judge as he reached
the dying mani When way down by
the Falls claims he managed to catch a
rope thrown from the land. and was
drawn ashore with the doctor, who was
unconscious from exhaustion. You
should have seen how the boys lifted the
Judge upon their shoulders and bore
him triumphantly back to town.


If you chanced to be in Cold Springs
on the day June Meredith and her hus-
band came to town, you were doubtless
standing with the crowd by the hotel,
watching the stage as it came numbering
down the Hangtown hill. The news
had flown ahead of the stage that q
genuine respectable married woman was
coming with her husband to live at the
Springs. Every claim was vacated that
afternoon to see the phenomenon-for
in that little valley, with its hundreds of
men, it was indeed a phenomenon to
have a real lady to come and settle
among them.


Just as the plump, pretty figure, the
blue eyes and the light brown hair,
emerged from the stage, and thousand
breathless voices were whispering "How
beautifulT7 she gave a little stihed
scream and fell fainting in the arms OF
her husband. Everybody said it was
the heat, the fatigue, the excitement,
which caused her to swoon, and all were
too much engaged with the event to
observe the blanched face of the Judge,
who clutched the columns of the porch
to keep from falling.


When few days had elapsed and the
excitement over the new arrival had
partially subsided, it was discovered that
the Judge had disappeared. No one re-
membered to have seen him after the
stage drove in.


Ere the swarm of busy life swept away
from the placers, and the hum of mining
and of miners voices ceased, the little
knoll overlooking the plat became dot
ted with graves. Many who left home
and friends with an ardent, eager thirst
for gold, Wearied and fell asleep among
the gold veins-found resting places in
the very heart ofthe diggings where they
worked. And some mines in this min
ing camp burial ground covered hearts
that in life were warmer and tenderer,
if possible, than those of the brave, gen.
erous pioneer-covered hearts of the
pioneers wives. In one of these graves,
the one whose romance am telling, lay
June Meredith.


When the mines were worked out, and
the bustling camp had becomes farming
village, most of the graves were removed
to filter burying place near the road.
When the bodies were being removed
the Workmen, early one morning, found
a Well-dressed, middle-aged stranger sit
ting on the grave under the oak. He
had been seen to enter the village at
dusk the evening before, and it was read
lily conjectured that he had been by the
grave all night He said a few words to
the man who had charge of the work,
and emphasized his language with
handful of money, and then he disap-
peared without letting any one know
who he was, or whence he came. 1t was
scarcely necessary to say this grave was
not touched. The knoll was robbed of
all its other dead, but June Meredith
sleeps where they laid her. The date on
the marble tombstone showed that the
stranger had visited the spot on the an
niversary night of the death of the wo-
man who lay slumbering there. In speak
ing, one with another, concerning the
event, it was ascertained that the stran-
ger, or some one resembling him, had
been seen in the neighborhood during
prior years, at about the same time of
the year.


This is about all. The Judge" had
never been seen at the Springs after his
sudden disappearance, until the stormy,
dreary night when June Meredith died.
No matter how completely he worship
ped her, no matter how desolate was his
aimless life, his sense of honor forbade
him from so much as visiting her while
she was another's.


But when she was dying, when all hope
of life was gone, when she lay with
closed eyes so quiet and still that she
seemed to be listening to voices from the
further shore, the door opened softly, and
the Judge entered the room. He was
pale and haggard and careworn, and was
only shadow of his former self, but the
blue eyes unelosed and frightened with
a joyous recognition. In the dim shad-
ow land of death there was no hesitation.
With eager, outstretched arms she
Clasped his neck, and as his lips touched
hers, she murmured:


In Heavenp p


The next moment she was dead.


Every year, on the anniversary night
of her death, he visits her grave.


The old mining camp is completely de-
serted now. The night wind sweeps
chilling and desolate past the old fiat
where the boys mined, past the tailings,
past drifts of washed sand, and patches
Of bedrock left clean and bare, but in all
the valley it finds never a human form,
save the one lying silent and motionless
by that lonely grave. When the vigil is
past, he goes quietly back to the great
city, back to the wAirl and drive and
turmoil of life and business Patiently
he waits for the longed-for time when he
can join her IN that heaven where all
the mistakes of this life will be righted.


Genoa.


In passing through the streets at
Genoa, it is amusing to look at the culin-
ary occupations going on in each; with