Year: 1875




A correspondent of the San Francis
co, Chronicle, who writes from Lower
Lake, Lake County, Cal, tells the ad-
ventures of two juveniles in that local
ity:


There is good stuff in those young
sters of DR.. Baker's-every one of
them Tut my yarn only concerns the
two younger of the lot. Last Sunday
the little one, Jenny, a girl of six or
seven years, made her appearance in
her mothers room, demanding permis-
sion to &C out deer hunting with her
brother. Claude is twelve years old,
and killed deer about the size of a
buck rabbit one day last week, since
when he can't rest O moment in the
daytime, and scarcely rests of night. 1t
was ten O'Clock when the children
started, taking a dog with them. The
mother thought no more of them until
dinner-time. in the evening. Then she
became alarmed. Night approaching
she was half wild. All hands, consist
ing of some ten or twelve miners,
started out, some on horseback and
some on foot. Night came darkness
settled down on the still valley with a
quiet that seemed like death. The
mother became frantic. She heard an
occasional gun fred off aud knew that it
was the doctor and men in pursuit of
the lost children. She could not re
main in the house another moment.
She took the direction of the guns re-
port as well as she could and started
after the crowd. 1t was midnight when
she came up to them. There was
scarcely half garment of any kind on
her body, She seemed to have passed
through a dozen deaths-all but the
dying. From the time she joined her
husband and the other men ste led the
crowd until, about three o'clock in the
morning, they heard dog bark, and in
another moment were with the chill
dren, who were instantly wakened by
the nois. Then it was. "Howd'e do,
mamma ?" and "Howd'e do, papa? ?"
and "Ain't this splendid tree to keep
house under? ?" We had to fight for it,
though" said Claude. "See here-we
had to kill the first settler" and sure
enough there lay California lion, one
of the largest size, with ball through
his brain. Claude had shot him after
dark. They had been lost, but the boy
imagined he had struck the home trail
and kept running on until he met the
lion and shot him. Jenny says he was
crouched down like a cat and not
further away than across the room
when they shot him. He sprapg right
into the air and tumbled at their very
feet. Before starting from the house
one of the men had put some biscuits
in his pocket thinking the children
would be hungry, and these he offered
to them. "No, thank you," said
Jenny, "we had quail for supper"
They had taken matches and Claude
had shot the quails these they had
roasted on a stick, and of course they
were not hungry. It was an elder sister
of these two plucky youngsters who
was out on horseback in very wild
tract of country. She was about twelve
years old at that time, and had been
hunting stock. All at once she saw
pair of bright eyes looking at her from
a tuft of tall grass. "1'm going to see
what you are anyhow" she said. She
got down from her horse, and soon
found that the eyes belonged to " the
prettiest little darling she ever saw"
There were more of them, but she only
captured one specimen and climbed
back to her saddle. She had not gone
half mile before she heard something
Looping behind her. She turned around
and saw lion. She put her horse to
his best speed, and almost flew, she
says, but the horrid thing gained on
her. "Of course I knew what she
wanted" said the child, "but [ didn't
intend to humor her selfiseness. 1
didn't take but one, and I left her two,
and that's as generous as anyone need
be. But she couldn't seem to see II.
Anyhow, she just few after us and old
Phil-talk about his being fast horse
4 wanted to break his neck. The
lion gained on us at every step, till at
last 1 took her baby and threw it at
her. 'Now take it and leave, you
stingy old thing [ said and she did
she Just grabbed him up in her mouth
and put off, and I came home" The
mother says that nothing would give
her more comfort than to know that her
children were all afraid of their own
shadows, But not one of them has
ever shown a particle of cowardice in
their lives, nor their father before
them.