Year: 1876

He felt very happy and very proud, ,
for he had just left his sweet-hearts and
his naughty spirit would not brook the
humiliating thought " cooning the
insignificant log that spanned the swol-
len and turbulent waters of Sutter
Creek, just above the Lincoln Dam. No,
sir; he'd walk it or bust! But when he
picked himself out of the drift-wood,
three-quarters of mile below the dam,
and found that he was still on the same
side of the creek that he started from,
he felt very humble and disgusted.


Then he sat down on bowlder to
shiver and soliloquize: He said he sup
posed if she'd seen him bobbing around
among them blamed rocks, she'd have
been awfully frightened; and she'd think
q heap more of him, too, if she only
knew of all the dangers he had encoun-
tered for her sake.


Then he fell to specializing Us to
about what time of the night his bran
new $5 hat, and the umbrella he had
borrowed from Pat Kearney would pass
through Sutter and lone City, and Won
dered if they would't 80 clean on to
Sacramento and get in the papers. A
slippery, Shiny mess, mixed with egg
shell, which he found in his bosom, re-
minded him of the thirteen Buff Cochin
eggs that he had agreed to carry over
to Mrs. Quigley. So he sacked the
two unbroken ones, for if they were
chilled as bad as he was, they wouldn't
hatch no how, and he d be DANCED if he'd
pay no three dollars for 'em neither.


He said it was no use wasting his pre-
cious time cussing wet matches or rub
bing two sticks across each other, so
he wrung his clothes out as we'll as
he could, hung them on bush to dry,
and commenced trying to get the lies
he meant to tell the old folks into some
thing like tangible shape. When he
had worn nearly all the moss off the big
bowlder down which he had been sliding
in order to keep from freezing, he fell
to wondering whether it would be better
for him to go down the creek five miles
and cross at Dan Blackwells up to Vol
cano-four miles--or "coon" that Gus
sed log.


He cooned' it and when lie saw
the reflection of himself in the water,
with his bundle of clothes lashed on his
back with a suspender, he said he'd
bet 81 that if them Rancharia girls
could see what sacrifice he was MAX
ing for their sakes, they wouldn't be so
offish, and run and hide the next time
he went to see 'em.


When he got home his mother want
de to know what had become of his hat.
"And that umbrella Where's that
borrowed umbrella? she demanded
rather sternly.


Then he put on kind of pensive
look, and says he: Mother, cannot
tell lie! My girl my sweetness; she
hid em so as to keep me from leaving
her so soon. But told her must see
my mother-my dear old mother"
And he tried to fling himself into the
old ladys arms; but she pushed him
back, and running her finger in the side
of his coat, she said: 81 suppose she
tore this too, a holdin' Of you, to keep
You from coming away so soon-you've
only been gone four days. But, sonny,
how contest thy garments damp and
streaked and daubed with yellow mud ?


He said he was holding Dick Rules
hydraulic when large salmon-trout
came down the pipe, got fast in the noz-
eel, when the thing busted and squirted
on him.


"Joshua.' said she, laying her hand
on his hair, "I believe it. I believed
it to be the biggest lie that was ever
told in Pine Grove" But it wasent.


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