University Library University of California Berkeley LUCK OF ROARING CAMP (HKATHEN CHINCH,) IP O E M S. AND OTHER SKETCI1KS. BY BRET HARTK TORONTO : A. S. 1871. TORONTO : THE DAILY TELEGKAPII PllIXTING HOUSE, KING AND BAY STREETS. FT U"pf r - P> K It! F -A. K . A SERIES of designs suggested, I thing, by Hogarth's 7^ familiar cartoons of the Industrious and Idlo Appren- tices I remember as among the earliest efforts at moral teaching in California. They represented the respective careers of The Honest and Dissolute Miners : the one, as I recall him, retrograding through successive planes of dirt, drunkenness, disease, and death ; the other advancing by corresponding stages to affluence and a white shirt. What- ever may have been the artistic defects of these drawings, the moral at least was obvious and distinct. That it failed, however, as it did, to produce the desired reform in min- ing morality may have been owing to the fact that tko average miner refused to recognize himself in either of theso positive characters ; and that even he who might hav2 sat for the model of the Dissolute Miner was perhaps dimly con- scious of some limitations and circumstances which partly relieved him from responsibility. " Yer see," remarked such a critic to the writer, in the untranslatable poetry of nis class, "it ain't no square game. They've just put up the keerds on that chap from the start." With this lamentable example before mo, 1 trust that in the following sketches I have abstained from any positive moral. I might have painted my villians of the darkest dye, so black, indeed, that Ihe origitmls thereof would i* WUWACM. contemplated them with the glow of comparative virtue. 1 might have made it impossible for them to have performed a virtuous or generous action, and have thus avoided that moral confusion which is apl to arise in the contemplation of mixed motives and qualities. But I should have burdened myself with tae responsibility of their creation, which, ae a humble writer of romance and entitled to no particular rev- erence, I did not care to do. 1 fear I cannot claim, therefore, any higher motive than to illustrate an era of which Californian history has pre- served the incidents more often than the character of the actors, an era which the panegyrist was too often content to bridge over with a general compliment to its survivors, an era still so recent that in attempting to revive its poetry, I am conscious also of awakening the more prosaic recollec- tions of 'these same survivors. and yet an era replete with a certain heroic Greek poetry, of which perhaps none were more unconscious than the heroes themselves. And I shall be quite content to have collected here merely the materials for the Iliad that is yet to be sung. 8.4.H FIUNCWCO, December B4, 1868. C O N T K 1ST T SKETCHES. FAOC THB LUCK OK ROARING CAMP 1 THE OUTCASTS OP POKER FLAT .... 14 MIGGLES 20 TENNESSEE'S PARTNER 39 THE IDYL OF RED GULCH 50 HIGH- WATER MARK 61 A LONELY RIDE . . . 70 THE MAN OF No ACCOUNT 77 STORIES. Muss 83 THE RIGHT EYE OF THE COMMANDER . . . 113 NOTES BY FLOOD AND FIELD . . . . . 123 BOHEMIAN PAPERS. THE MISSION DOLORES 149 JOHN CHINAMAN 152 FROM A BACK WINDOW 156 BOONDER . 159 Tl CONTENTS. IF* O E 3UE S. PAGE SAN FRANCISCO, FROM THE SEA .... 165 THE ANGELUS - - - - - - 160 THB MOUNTAIN HEART'S-EASE 167 GRIZZLY - 168 MADRONO ... 160 COYOTE 170 To A SEA-BIRD 171 HER LETTER 172 DICKENS IN CAMP - - - - - - 174 WHAT THE ENGINES SAID - - - - - 176 "THE RETURN OP BELISARIUS" .... 177 "TWENTY YEARS" 170 FATE .... -. - - - 180 IN DIALECT. "JiM" - 181 CHIQUITA 183 Dow's FLAT - - - ISo IN THE TUNNEL 187 "CICELY" - ... 180 PENELOPE - 103 PLAIN LANGUAGE FROM TRUTHFUL JAMES - 103 THE SOCIETY UPON THE STANISLAUS - 105 POEMS FROM 1860 TO 1868. JOHN BURNS OF GETTYSBURG - 107 THE TALE OF A PONY - - - - - 200 CONTEXTS, vii PAGB THE MIRACLE OP PADRE JUNIPERO - - - 203 AN ARCTIC VISION .... - . 206 To THE PLIOCENE SKULL - ... 203 THE BALLAD OF THE EMEU .... 210 THE AGED STRANGER - - -211 "How ARE YOU, SANITARY?" .... 212 THE REVEILLE - - 213 OUR PRIVILEGE - - - SIS BELIEVING GUARD 216 PARODIES. A GEOLOGICAL MADRIGAL 217 THE WILLOWS - - - - 218 NORTH BEACH 220 THE LOST TAILS OF MILETUS - - - - 221 AH SIN'S REPLY TO TRUTHFUL JAMES - - 222 I.--SKETCHES. THE LFCK 4>F ROARIK CAMP. was commotion in Roaring Camp. It could not have been a fight, for in 1850 that was not novel enough to have called together the entire settlement. The ditches and claims were not only deserted, but " Tuttle's grocery "had contributed its gamblers, who, it will be re- membered, calmly continued their game the day that French Pete and Kankaa Joe shot each other to death over the bar in the front room. The whole camp was col- lected before a rude cabin on the outer edge of the clearing. Conversation was carried on in a low tone, but the name of a woman was frequently repeated. It was a name fa- miliar enough in the camp, " Cherokee Sal." Perhaps the less said of her the better. She was a course, and, it is to be feared, a very sinful woman. Bat at that time she was the only woman in Roaring ('amp, and was- just then lying in sore extremity, when she most needed- the ministration of her own sex. Dissolute, abandoned, and : irreclaimable, she was yet suil'ering a martyrdom hard enough to bear even when veiled by sympathizing womanhood, but now terrible in her lonliness. The primal curse had coma to her in that original isolation which must have made the punishment of the first transgression so dreadful. It waa, perhaps, part of the expiation of her sin, that, nt a moment when ehe most lacked her sex's intiuiive tenderness and 2 2 THE LUCK OP ROARING CAMP. care, she met only the half-contemptuous faces of her mas- culine associates. Yet a few of the spectators, were, I think, touched by her sufferings. Sandy Tipton thought it was " rough on Sal," and, in the contemplation of her condition, for a moment rose superior to the fact that he had an ace and two bowers in his sleeve. It will be seen, also, that the situation was novel. Deaths were by no means uncommon in Roaring Camp, but a birth was a new thing. People had been dismissed the camp ef- fectively, finally, and with no possibility of return ; but this was the first time that anybody had been introduced ab initio. Hence the excitement. "You go in there, Stumpy," said a prominent citizen known as " Kentuck," addressing one of the loungers. " Go in there, and see what you kin do. You've had experi- ence in them things." Perhaps there was a fitness in the selection. Stumpy in other climes had been the putative head of two families ; in fact it was owing to some legal informality in these pro- ceedings that Roaring Camp a city of refuge was in- debted to his company. The crowd approved the choice, and Stumpy was wise enough to bow to the majority. The door closed on the extempore surgeon and midwife, and Roaring Camp sat down outside, smoked its pipe, and awaited the issue. TLc assemblage numbered about a hundred men. One or two of these were actual fugitives from justice, some were criminal, and all were reckless. Physically, they exhibited no indication of their past lives and character. The greatest scaanp had a Raphael face, with a profusion of blonde hair; Oaklmrst, a gambler, had the melancholy air and intellec- tual abstraction of a Hamlet ; the coolest and most coura- geous man was scarcely only five feet in height, with a soft voice and an embarrassed, timid manner. The term k< roughs " applied to them was a distinction rather than a definition. Perhaps in the minor details of fingers, toes, ,ars, etc., the camp may have been 'deficient ; but these THE LUCK OF ROARING CAMP. 3 slight omissions did not detract from their aggregate force. The strongest man had but three fingers on his right hand ; the best shot had but one eye. Such was the physical aspect of the men who were dis- persed around the cabin. The camp lay in a triangular val- ley, between two hills and a river. The only outlet was a steep trail over the summit of a hill that faced the cabin, now illuminated by the rising moon. The suffering wo- man might have seen it from the rutio bunk whereon she lay, seen it winding like a silver thread until it WHS lost in the stars above. A fire of withered pine-boughs added sociability to the gathering. Uy degrees the natural levity of Roaring Camp returned. Bets were freely offered and taken regarding the result. Three to live that " Sr,l would get through with it ;" even that the child would survive ; side bets as to the sex and complexion of the coming stranger. In the midst of an excited discussion an exclamation came from the nearest to the door, and the camp stopped to listen. Above the sway- ing and moaning of the pines, the swift rush of the river, and the crackling of the fire, rose a sharp, querulous cry a cry unlike anything heard before in the camp. The pines stopped moaning, the river ceased to rush, and the fire to crackle. It seemed as it' Nature had stopped to listen too. The camp rose to its feet as one man ! It was proposed to explode a barrel of gunpowder, but, in consideration of the situation of the mother, better counsels prevailed, ami only a few revolvers were discharged ; tor, whether owing to the rude surgery of the camp, or some other reason, Cherokee Sal was sinking fast. Within an hour she had climbed, as it were, that rugged road that led to the stars, and so passed out of Roaring Camp, its sin and shame for ever. I do not think that the announcement disturbed them much, except in speculation as to the fate of the child. " Can he live now . ? " was asked of Stumpy. The answer was doubtful. The only other being of Cherokee Sal's sex and o>aternal condition in the settlement was an ass. There was 4: THE LUCK OF ROARING CAMP. eoir.e conjecture as to fitness, but the experiment was tried- It was less problematical than the ancient treatment of Romulus and Remus, and apparently as successful. When these details were completed, which exhausted another hour, the door was opened, and the anxious crowd of men who had already formed themselves into a queue, entered in single file. Beside the low bunk or shelf, 011 which the figure of the mother was starkly outlined below the blankets, stood a pine table, On this a candle-box was placed, and within it, swathed in staring red flannel, lay the last arrival at Roaring Camp. Beside the candle-box was placed, a hat. Its use w as soon indicated. "Gentlemen," said Stumpy, with a singular mixture of authority and ex ojfitio complacency, "Gentlemen will please pass in at the front door, round the table, and out at the back door. Them as wishes to contribute anything toward the orphan will find a hat handy." The first man entered with his hat on ; lie uncovered, however, as he looked about him, and so, unconsciously, set an example to the n ext. In such com- munities good ana bad actions are catching. As the procession filed in, comments were audible, criticisms addressed, rather to Stumpy, in the eharacter of, showman, "Is that him ?" "mighty small specimen ;" "hasn't nior'n got the colour :" "ain't bigger nor a derringer." The con- tributions were as characteristic: A silver tobacco-box; a doubloon ; a navy revolver, silver .mounted ; a gold specimen; a very beautifully embroidered lady's handker- chief (from Oakhurst the gambler) ; a diamond breastpin ; a diamond ring (suggested by the pin, with the remark from the giver that he " saw that pin and went two diamonds, better ") ; a slung shot ; a Bible (contributor not detected) ; a golden spur ; a silver teaspoon (the initials, I regret to say, were not the giver's); a pair of surgeon's shears ; a lancet; a Bank of England note tor 5; and abcut $200 in loose gold and silver coin. During these proceedings Stumpy maintained a silence as impassive as the dead on his left, a gravity as inscrutable as that of the newly born on his right. THE LUCE. OF ROARING CAMP. 5 Only one incident occurred to break the monotony of the curious procession. As Kentnck bent over the canclle-box half curiously, the child turned, and, in a spism of pain, 1 caught at his groping finger, and held it fast for a moment. Kentuck looked foolish and embarrassed. Something like a blush tried to assert itself in his weather-beaten cheek. "The d d little cuss !" he said, as he extricated Monger, with, perhaps, more tenderness and care than he might have been deemed capable of showing. He held that finger a little apart from its fellows as he went outs, and examined it curiously. The examination provoked the same original remark in regard to the child. In fact, he seemed to enjoy repeating it. ''He rastled with my finger," he remarked to Tipton, holding up the member, "the d -d little .cuss !" .'..a four o'clock before the camp sought repose* A li.ijit burnt in the cabin where the watchers sat, for Stumpy ".>t go to bed that night. Nor did Kcntuck. He drank quite freely, and related with great gusto his experience, invariably ending with his characteristic condemnation oi the new-comer. It seemed to relieve him of any unjust im- plication of sentiment, and Kentuck had 'the weakness ot the nobler sex. When everybody else had gone to bed, ho "walked down to the river, and whistled reflectingly. Then he walked ^ip the gulch, past the cabin, still whistling with demonstrative unconceru. At a large red-wood tres l:rj paused and retraced his steps, and again passed the cabin. Half-way down to the river's bank he ogam paused, and retraced his steps, and then returned and knocked at the door. I!; was opened by Stumpy. "How goes it?" said Kentuck, looking past Stumpy toward the^candle-box. "All serene," replied Stumpy. "Anything up?" "Jfothing." There was a pause an embarrassing one Stumpy still holding the door. Then Kentuck bad recourse to his finger, which he held up to Stumy. "Rastled with it, the d cl little cuss," he said, and retired. The next day Cherokej Sal had such rude sepulture as >,g Camp a l?ordecl. After her body had been commit- t> THE LUCK OF ROARING CAMP. ted to the kill-side, there was a formal meeting of the cainp to discuss what should be done with her infant. A resolu- tion to adopt it was unanimous and enthusiastic. But an animated discussion in regard to the manner and feasibility of providing for its wants at once sprung up. It was remarkable that the argument partook of none of those fierce personalities with which discussions were usually conducted at Roaring Camp. Tipton proposed that they should send the child to Red Dog, a distance of forty miles where female attention could be procured. But the unlucky suggestion met with fierce and unanimous opposition. It was evident that no plan which entailed parting from their new acquisition would for a moment be entertained. "Be- sides," said Tom Ryder, "them fellows at Red Dog would swap it, and ring in somebody else on us." A disbelief in the honesty of other camps prevailed at Roaring Camp as in other p'aces. The introduction of a female nurse in the camp also met with objection. It was argued that no decent woman could fee prevailed to accept Roaring Camp as her home, and the speaker urged that "they didn't want any more of the other kind." This unkind allusion to the defunct mother, harsh as it may seem, was the first spasm of propriety, the first symptom of the camp's regeneration. Stumpy advanced nothing. Perhaps he felt a certain delicacy in interfering with the selection of a possible successor in office. But when questioned, he averred stoutly that he and "Jinny" the mammal before alluded to could manage to rear the child. There was something original, inde- pendent, and heroic about the plan that pleased the camp. Stumpy was retained. Certain articles were sent for to Sacramento. "Mind," said the treasurer, as he passed a bag of gold-dust into the expressman's hand, " the best that can be got, lace, you know, and filigree work and frills d n the cost !" Strange to say, the child thrived. Perhaps the* invigor- ating climate of the mountain camp was compensation for THE LUCK OF ROARING CAMP. 7 material deficiencies. Nature took the foundling to her broader breast. In that rare atmosphere of the Sierra foot- hills, that air pungent with balsamic odour, that ethereal cordial at once bracing and exhilarating, he may have found food and nourishment, or a subtle chemistry that transmuted asses' milk to lime and phosphorus. Stumpy inclined to the belief that it was the latter, and good nurs- ing. "Me and that ass," he would say, " has been father and mother to him. Don't you," he would add, apostro- phizing the helpless bundle before him, " never go back on us." By the time he was a month old, the necessity of giving him a name became apparent. He had generally been known as "the Kid," " Stumpy's boy," " the'Cayote" (an allusion to his vccal powers), and even by Kentuck's en- dearing diminutive of " the d d little cuss." Bu* these were felt to be vague and unsatisfactory, and were at last dismissed under another influence. Gamblers and adven- turers are generally superstitious, and Oaknurst one Any declared that the baby had brought " the luck " to Roaring Camp. It was certain that of Late they had been success- ful. "Luck" was the name agreed upon, with the prefix of Tommy for greater convenience. No allusion was made to the mother, and the father was unknown. " It's better," said the philosophical Oakhurst, " to take a fresh deal all round. Call him Luck, and start him fair." A day was accordingly set apart for the christening. What was meant by this ceremony the reader may imagine, who has already gathered some idea of the reckless irreverence of Roaring Camp. The master of ceremonies was one " Boston," a noted wag, and the occasion seemed to promise the greatest facet iousness. This ingenious satirist had spent two days in preparing a burlesque of the church service, with pointed local allusions. The choir was properly trained, and Sandy Tipton was to stand godfather. But after the procession had marched to the grove with music and banners, and the child had been deposited before a mock altar, Stumpy step- 8 T:-IE LUCK OF HOARING CAMP. ped before tlic expectant crowd. " It ain't my style to spoil fun, boys," said the little man, stoutly, eyeing the faces around him, "but it strikes me that this thing ain't exactly on the squar. It's playing it pretty low down on this yer baby to ring in fun on him that he ain't going to under- stand. And ef there's going to be any godfathers round, I'd like to see who's got any better rights than me." A silence followed Stumpy's speech. To the credit of all humorists be it said, that the first man to acknowledge its justice was the satirist, thus stopped of his fun. "But," said Stumpy, quickly, following up his advantage, " we're here for a christening, and we'll have" it. I proclaim you Thomas Luck, according to the laws of the United States and the State of California, so help me God." It was the first time that the name of the Deity had been uttered otherwise than profanely in the camp. The form of christ- ening was perhaps even more ludicrous than the satirist had conceived ; but, -strangely enough, nobody saw it, and nobodjr laughed. " Tommy " was christened as seriously as he would hav e been under a Christian roof, and cried and was comforted in as orthodox fashion. And so the work of regeneration began in Roaring Camp. Almost imperceptibly a change came over the settlement. The cabin assigned to "Tommy Luck" or "The Luck," as he was more frequently, called first showed signs of improvement. It was kept scrupulously clean and white- washed. Then it was boarded, clothed, and papered. The rosewood cradle packed eighty miles by mule had, in Stumpy's way of putting it, " sorter killed the rest of the furniture." So the rehabilitation of the cabin became a necessity. The men who were in the habit of lounging in at Stumpy's to see " how the Luck got on" seemed to appre- ciate the change, and, in self-defence, the rival establish- ment of " Tuttle's grocery" bestirred itself, and imported a carpet and mirrors. The reflections of the latter on the appearance of Roaring Camp tended to produce stricter THE LUCK OF ROARING (7 AMP. 9 habits of personal cleanliness. Again, Stumpy imposed a kind of quarantine upon those who aspired to the honour and privilege of holding " The Luck." It was a cruel mor- tification to Kentuck who, in the carelessness of a large nature and the habits of frontlQr life, had begun to regard all garments as a second cuticle, which, like a snake's, only slougaed off through decay to be debarred this privilege from certain prudential reasons. Yet such was the subtle influence of innovation that he thereafter appeared regu- larly every afternoon in .1 clean shirt, and face still shining from his ablutions. Nor were moral and social sanitary laws neglected. " Tommy," who was supposed to spend his whole existence in a persistent attempt to repose, must ' not be disturbed by noise. The shouting and yelling which had gained the camp its infelicitous title were not permit- ted within hearing distance of Stumpy'e. The men con- versed in whispers, or smoked with Indian gravity. Pro- fanity was tacitly given up in these sacred precincts, and throughout the camp a popular form of expletive, Vnown as " D n the luck !" and " Curse the luck !" was abandoned, as having a new personal bearing. Vocal music was not interdicted, being supposed to have a soothing, tranquiliz- *ng quality, and one song, sung by "Man-o'-war Jack,"" an English sailor, from her Majesty's Australian colonies, was quite popular as a lullaby. It was a lugubrious recital of the exploits of " the Arethusa, Seventy-four," in a muf- fled minor, ending with aprolonged dying fall at the burden of each verse, " On b-o-o o-ard of the Arethusa." It was a fine sight to see Jack holding the Luck, rocking from side to side as if with the motion of a ship, and crooning forth tins naval ditty. Either through the peculiar rocking of Jack or the length of his song it contained ninety stanzas, and was continued with conscientious deliberati on to the bitter end the lullaby generally had the desired effect. At such times the men would lie at full length under the trees, in the soft summer twilight, smoking their pipes and drink- ing in the melodious utterances. An indistinct idea that this 10 THE LUCK OF ROARING CAMF. was pastoral happiness pervaded the camp. " Tnh 'ere kind o' think," saicl the Cockney Simmons, meditatively reclining on Lis elbow, " is 'evingty." It reminded him of Greenwich. On the long summer days The Luck was usually carried to the gulch, from whence the golden store of Roaring Camp was taken. There, on a blanket spread over pine boughs, he would lie while the men Avere working in the ditches below. Latterly there was a rude attempt to decorate this bower with flowers and sweet-smelling shrubs, and generally some one would bring him a cluster of wild honeysuckles, azaleas, or the pain ted blossoms cf Las Mariposas. The men had suddenly awakened to the fact that there were beauty and significance in these trifles, which they had so long trodden carelessly beneath their feet. A flake of glittering mica, a fragment of variegated quartz, a bright pebble from the bed of the creek, became beautiful to eyes thus cleared and strengthened, and were invariably put aside for "The Luck." It was wonderful how many treasures woods and hill-sides yielded that " would do for Tommy." Surrounded by playthings such as never child out of fairy-land had be- fore, it is to be hoped that Tommy was content. lie ap- peared to be securely happy, albeit there was an infantine gravity about him, a contemplative light in his round gray e} r e3, that sometimes worried Stumpy. He was always tractable and quiet, and it is recorded that once, having crept beyond his " corral," a hedge of tessellated pine- boughs, which surrounded his bed he dropped over the "bank on his head in the soft earth, and remained with his mottled legs in the air in that position for at least five minutes with unflinching gravity. He was extricated with- out a murmur. I hesitate to record the many other instances of his sagacity, which rest, unfortunately, upon the state- ments of prejudiced friends. Some of them were not with- out a tinge of superstition. " I crep' up the bank just now," said Kentuck, one day, in a breathless state of excitement, "anddernmy skin if he wasn't a talking to a jay-bird as THE LUCK OF ROARING CAMP. 11 was a sittin' on his lap. There the/ was, just as free anu so- cia'nleas anything you please, aj;.win' at each other just like two cherry-bums." Howbeit, whether creeping over the pine-houghs or lying lazily on his back blinking at the leaves above him, to him the birds sang, the squirrels chat- tered, and the flowers bloomed. Nature was his nurse and playfellow. For him she would let slip between the leaves golden shafts of sunlight that fell just within his grasp ; she would send wandering breezes to visit him with the balm of bay and resinoMsgums; to him the tall redwoods rto.'lded familiarly and sleepily, the bumble-bees buzzed, and the rooks cawed a slumbrous accompaniment. Such was the golden summer of Roaring Camp. They wore u flush times" and the luck was with them. The claims had yielded enormously. The camp was jealous of its privileges and looked suspiciously on strangers. No cn- conraaement was iriven to immigration, and, to make their seclusion more perfect, the land on either side of- the moun- tain wall that, surrounded the camp they duly pre-empted.. This, nn "I reckon they're after somebody," he reflected ; "likely it's me." He returned to his pocket the handkerchief with which he had been whipping nway the reel dust of Poker Fiat from his neat boots, and quietly discharged his mind of any further conjecture. In point of fact, Poker Plat was "after somebody." It had lately suffered the loss of several thousand dollars, two valuable horses, and a prominent citizen. It was experienc- ing a spasm of virtuous reaction, quite as lawless and un- governable as any of the acts that had provoked it. A se- cret committee had determined to rid the town of all im- proper persons. This was clone permanently in regard of two men who were then hanging from the boughs of a syca- more in the gulch, and temporarily in the banishment of certain other objectionable characters. I regret to say that some of these were ladies. It is but due to the sex, how- ever, to st-ate that their impropriety wail professional, and it 1 THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT. 15 was only in sucli easily established standards of evil that Poker Flat ventured to sit in judgment. Mr, Oakhurst was right in supposing that he was included in this category. A few of the committee had urged hang- ing him as a possible example, and a sure method of reim- bursing themselves from his pockets of the sums he had won from them. "It's agin justice," said Jim "Wheeler, "to let this yer young man from Roaring Camp an entire stranger carry away our money." But a crude sentiment of equity residing in the breasts of those who had been fortunate enough to win from Mr. Oakhurst overruled this narrower local prejudice. Mr. Oakhurst received his sentence with philosophic calmness, none the less coolly that he was aware of the hesi- tation of his judges. He was too much of a gambler not to accept Fate. With him life was at best an uncertain game, and he recognized the usual percentage in favor of the dealer. A party of armed men accompanied the deported wick- edness of Poker Flat to the outskirts of the settlement Besides Mr. Oakhurst, who was known to be a coolly desper- ate man, and for whose intimidation the armed escort was intended, the expatriated party consisted of a young woman familiarly known as "The Duchess ;" another, who had bore the title of "Mother Shiptou;" and "Uncle Billy," a sus- pected sluice-robber and confirmed drunkard. The caval- cade provoked no comments from the spectators, nor was any word uttered by the escort. Only, when the gulch which marked the uttermost limit of Poker Flat was reach- ed, the leader spoke briefly and to the point. The exiles were forbidden to return at the peril of their lives. As the escort disappeared, their pent-feelings found vent in a few hysterical tears from the Duchesss, some bad lan- guage from Mother Shipton, and a Parthian volley of ex- pletives from Uncle Biliy. The philosophical Oakhurst alone remained silent. He listened calmly to Mother Ship- ton's desire to cut somebody's heart out; to the repeated 16 THE OUTCASTS OF POKES FLAT. statements of the Duchess that she would die in the road, and to the alarming oaths that seemed to be bumped out of Uncle Billy as he rode forward. With the easy good- humor characteristic of his class, he insisted upon exchang- ing his own riding-horse, " Five Spot," for the sorry -mule which the Duchess rode. But even this face did not draw the party into any closer sympathy. The young woman readjasted her somewhat draggled plumes with a feeble faded coquetry ; Mother Shipton eyed the possessor of "Five Spot" with malevolence; and Uncle Billy included the whole party in one sweeping anathema. The road to Sandy Bar a camp that, not having as yet ex- perienced the regenerating influences of Poker Flat, con- sequently seemed to offer some invitation to the emigrants lay over a steep mountain range. It was distant a day's severe travel. In that advanced season, the party soon pas- sed out of the moist, temperate regions of the foot-hills into the dry, cold, bracing air of the Sierras. The trail was nar- row and difficult. At noon the Duchess, rolling out of her saddle upon the ground, declared her intention of going no farther, and the party halted. The spot was singularly wild and impressive A wooded amphitheatre, surrounded on three sides by precipitous cliffs of naked granite, sloped gently toward the crest of an- other precipice that overlooked the valley. It was, un- doubtedly, the most suitable spot for a camp, had camping been advisable. But Mr. Oakhurst knew that scarcely hal*' the journey to Sandy Bar was accomplished, and the party were not equipped or provisioned for delay. This fact he pointed out to his companions curtly, with a philosophic commentary on the folly of " throwing up their hand before the game was played out." But they were furnished with liquor, which in this emergency stood them in place of food, fuel, rest, and prescience. In spite of his remonstrances, it was not long before they were more or less under its influ- ence. Uncle Billy passed rapidly from a bellicose state into one of stupor, the Duchess became maudlin, and Mother .... 17 red. :Tie remained erect, lean- . (j.ilmlv- surveying them. .irst didnot drink. It interfered with a profes- sion which required coolness, impassiveness, and presence of mind, and, in his o'v, . . ' could nt afford it." As it his reir.i How-exiles, the loneliness be- gotten of his pariah-trade, his liabits of life, his very vices, for the first seriously oppressed him. lie bestirred himself in dusting his black clothes, washing his hands and face, ani other acts characteristic; of his studiously neat habits, anil for a moment forgot his annoyance. The thought of desert- ing his weaker and more pitiable companions never perhaps occurred to him. Yet he could not help feeling the want of that excitement which, singularly enough, was most condu- cive to that calm equanimity for which he was notorious, lie looked at the gloomy walls that rose a thousand feet sheer above the circling pines around him; at the sky, omi- nously clouded ; ;-.t i/.io valley below, already deepening into shadow. And, doing so, suddenly lie heard his own name A horseman slowly ascended the trail. In the fresh, open face of the new-comer Mr. Oakhurst recognized Tom Sim- son, otherwise known as '"The Innocent" of Sandy Bar. He had met him some months before ove$ a "little game," and had, with perfect equanimity, "won the entire fortune amounting to some forty .dollars of that guileless youth. After the game was finished, Mr. Oakhurst drew the youth- ful speculator behind the door, and thus addressed him : " Tommy, you're a good little man, but you can't gamble worth a cent. Don't try it over again." He then handed him his money back, pushed him gently from the room, and so made a devoted slave of Tom Simson. There was a remembrance of this in his boyish and enthu- siastic greeting of Mr. Oakhurst, He had started, he said, to go to Poker Flat to seek his fortune. " Alone ?" No, not ex- actly alone ; in fact (a giggle), he had run away with v Piney Woods. Didn't Mr. Oakliurjfc remember Piney ? She that 18 THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT. used to wait on the table at the Temperance House ? They had been engaged a long time, but old Jake Woods had ob- jected, and so they had run away, and were goinj to Poker Flat to get married ; and here they were. And they were tired out, and how lucky it was they had found a place to camp and company. All this the Innocent delivered rapid- ly, while Pmey, a stout, comely damsel of fifteen, emerged from behind the pine-tree, where she had been hiding un- seen, and rode to the side of her lover. Mr. Oakhurst seldom troubled himself with sentiment, still less with propriety ; but he had a vague idea that the situation was not fortunate. He retained, however, his pre- sence of mind sufficiently to kick Uncle Billy, who was about to say something, and Uncle Billy was sober enough to recognize in Mr. Oakhurst's kick a superior power that would not bear trifling, fie then endeavored to dissuade Tom Simson from delaying further, but in vain. He even pointed out the fact that there was no provision, nor means of making a camp. But, unluckily, the Innocent met this objection by assuring the party that he was provided with an extra mule loaded with provisions, and by the discovery of a rude attempt at a log house near the trail. " Piney can stay with Mrs. Oakhurst," said the Innocent, pointing to the Duchess, ' and I can shift for myself." Nothing but Mr. Oakhurst's admonishing foot saved Uncle Billy from bursting into a roar of laughter. As it was, he felt compelled to retire up the canon until he could recover 'his gravity. There he confided the joke to the tall pine- trees, with many slaps of his leg, contortions of his face, and the usual profanity. But when he returned to the party, he found them seated by a fire for the air had grown strangely chill and the sky overcast in apparently amicable conver- sation. Piney was actually talking in an impulsive, girlish fashion to the Duchess, who was listening with an interest and animation she had not shown for many days. The Innocent was holding forth, appar- ently with equal effect, to Mr. Oakhurst and Mother Ship- THE OUTCASTS OK POKER FLAT. 19 ton, who was actually relaxing into amiability. " Is this yer a d d picnic?" said Uncle Billy, with inward scorn, as he surveyed the sylvan group, the glancing firelight, and the tethered animals in the foreground. Suddenly an idea mingled with the alcoholic fumes that desturbed his brain. It was apparently of a jocular nature, for he felt impelled to slap his leg again and cram his fist into his mouth. As the shadows crept slowly up the mountain, a slight breeze rocked the tops of the pine trees, and moaned through their long and gloomy aisles. The ruined cabin, patched and covered vith pine-boughs, was set apart for the ladies. As the lovers parted, they unaffectedly exchanged a kiss, so honest and sincere that it might have been heard above the swaying pines. The frail Duchess and the malevolent Mother Shipton were probably too stunned to remark upon this last evidence of simplicity, and so turned without a word to the hut. The fire was replenished, the men lay down before the door, and in a few minutes were asleep. Mr. Oakhurst was a light sleeper. Toward morning he awoke benumbed and cold. As he stirred the dying fire, the wind, which, was now blowing strongly, brought to his cheek that which caused the blood to leave it, snow ! He started to his feet with the intention of awakening the sleepers, for there was no time to lose. But turning to where Uncle Billy had been lying, he found him gone. A suspicion leaped to his brain and a curse to his lips. He ran to the spot where the mules had been tethered ; they were no longer there. The tracks were already rapidly dis- appearing in the snow. The momentary exctitement brought Mr. Oakhurst back to the fire with his usual cairn. lie did not waken the sleep- ers. The Innocent slumbered peacefully, with a smile on his good-humored, freckled face ; the virgin Piney slept be- side her frailer sisters as sweetly as though attended by celes- tial guardians, and Mr. Oakhurst, draAving his blanket over his shoulders, stroked his mustaches and waited for the diwn. It came slowly in a whirling: mist of snow-flakes, li-.-.t dazzled and confused the eye. .1 of tlie landscape appeared magically cha [e looked (m-tuCViaioj^iao^-nicdupiLepi^^iua:!,' E itur ii words ''' snowed in ! " A careful Invent >r - for the party, had I; ; (escaped felouiojaa lingers oi: I ', disclosed the fact that and prm; '.- Just, ten clays longer. " That is," said Mr. I r;;^ to the Innocent, ' if vou're willing to board us. If you aLi'i and perhaps you'd better not you can wait till Undo Billy gets bad: with pro- visions." For some occuU r, . - ; .rst could not briag nknself to .disclose LJnclj .Hiiiy's rascality, and so offered Ike hypothesis that he had wandered from the camp and had accidentally stampeded the animals. lie dropped a warning to the Duchess and Mother Shiptcn, who of course knew the facts of their associate's dcfectlor. They'll find out the truth about us all when they find out anything," he ndded, significantly, " and there's no good frightening them now." Tom Bitnson not only put all his worldly store at the dis- posal of Mr. Oakhurst, but seemed to enjoy the prospect of their enforced seclusion-. " We'll hare a fcood camp for a week, and then the snow'll melt, and we'll all go back to- gethw." The cheerful gaiety of the young man, and Mr. Oakhurat's calm infected the others. The Innocent, witli the aid of pine-boughs, extemporized a thatch for the roof- less cabin, and the Duchess directed Piney in the rearrange- ment of the interior with a taste and tact that opened the blue eyes of that provincial maiden to their fullest extent. " I reckon now you're used to fine things at Poker Flat," said Piney. The Duchess turned away sharply to conceal something that reddened her cheeks through its professional tint, and Mother Shipton requested Piney not to u chatter." But when Mr. Oakhurst returned from a weary search for the trail, lie heard the sound of happy laughter echoed from the rocks. He stopped in some alarm, and this thoughts THE OUTCASTS OF POKKH PLAT. 21 first naturally reverted to tlie whiskey, which he had pru- dently cached. " And yet it don't somehow sound like whis- key," said the gambler. It was not until he caught sight of the blazing fire through the still blinding storm and the group around it, that he settled to the conviction that it was " square fun." Whether Mr. Oaithurst had cached his cards with the whiskey as something debarred the free access of the com- munity, I cannot say. It was certain that, in Mother Skip- ton's w r ords, he " didn't say cards once" during that even- ing. Haply the time was beguiled by an accordion, pro- duced somewhat ostentatiously by Tom Simson from his pack. Notwithstanding some difficulties attending the manipulation of this instrument, Piney Woods managed to pluck several reluctant melodies from its keys, to an acconi- panient by the Innocent on a pair of bone castinets. But the crowning festivity of the evening was reached in a rude camp-meeting hymn, which the lovers, joining hands, sang with great earnestness and vociferation. I fear that a cer- tain defiant tone and Covenanter's swing to its chorus, rather than any devotional quality, caused it speedily to infect the others, who at last joined in the refrain : "I'm proud to live in the service of tlie Lord, And I'm bound to die in His arm}*." The pines rocked, the storm eddied and whirled above the miserable group, and the fiaines of their altar leaped heaven- ward, as if in token of the vow. At midnight the -storm abated, the rolling clouds parted, and the stars glittered keenly above the sleep- ing camp. Mr. Oakhurst, whose professional habits had enabled him to live on the smallest possible amount of sleep, in dividing the gwatch \\ ith Tom Simson, somehow managed to take upon himself the greater part of that duty. He excused himself to the Innocent by saying that he had " often been a week without sleep." " Doing what ?" asked Tom. " Poker !" replied Oakhurst, scnten- 22 THE OUTCASTS OF POKE]! FLAT. tiously ; " when a man gets a streak of luck nigger-luck he don't get tired. The Inck gives in first. Luck," con- tinued the gambler, reflectively, " is a mighty queer thing. All you know about it for certain is that it's bound to change. And it's finding out when its going to change that makes you. We've had a streak of bad luck since we left Poker Flat you come along, and slap you get into it, too. If you can hold your cards right along you're ell right. For," added the gambler, with cheerful irrelevance t "'I'm proud to live in the service of tho Lord, And I'm bound to die in His army.' " The third clay came, and the sun, lookisg through the white-curt ained. valley, saw the outcasts divide their slowly decreasing store of provisions for the morning meal. It was one of the peculiarities of that mountain climate that its rays diffused a kindly warmth over the wintry landscape, as if in regretful commiseration of the past. But it revealed drift on drift of snow piled high around the hut a hope- less, unchartered, trackless sea of white lying below the rocky shores to which the castaways still clung. Through the marvellously clear air the smoke of the pastoral village of Poker Flat rose miles away. Mother Shipton saw it, and from a remote pinacle of her rocky fastness, hurled in that direction a final malediction. It was her last vitupera- tive attempt, and perhaps for that reason was invested with a certain degree of sublimity. It did her good, she privately informed the Duchess. " Just you go out there and cuss, and see." She then set herself to the task of amusing " the child,' as she and the Duchess were pleased to call Piney. Piney was no chicken, but it was a soothing and original theory of the pair thus to account for the fact that she didn't swear and wasn't improper. When night crept up again through the gorges, the reedy notes of the accordion rose and fell in fitful spasms and long- drawn gasps by the flickering camp-fire. But music failed to fill entirely the aching void left by insufficient food, and THE OUTCASTS OF POKKR FLAT. 23 a new diversion was proposed by Piney storey- tell ing. Neither Mr. Oakhurst nor his female companions caring to relate their personal experiences, this plan would have failed , too, but for the Innocent. Some months before he had chanced upon a stray copy of Mr. Pope's ingenious transla- tion of the Iliad, tie now proposed to narrate the princi- pal incidents of that poem having thoroughly mastered the argument and fairly forgotten the words in the cur- rent vernacular of Sandy Bar. And so for the rest of that the Homeric demigods again wilked the earth. Trojan bully and wily Greek wrestled in the winds, and the great pines in the canon seemed to bow to the wrath of the son of Peleus. Mr. Oakhurst listened with quiet satisfaction. Most especially was he interested in the fate of " Ash- heels," as the Innocent persisted in denominating the " swift- footed Achilles." So with small food and much of Homer and the accor- dion, a week passed over tthc heads of the outcasts. The sun again forsook them, and again from the leaden skies the snow-flakes were sifted over the land. Day by day closer around them drew the snowy circle, until at last they looked from their prison over drifted walls of dazzling white, that towered twenty feet above their heads. It became more and more difficult to replenish their fires, even from the fallen trees beside them, now half hidden in the drift?. And yet no one complained. The lovers turned from the dreary prospect and looked into each other's eyes, and were happy. Mr. Oakhurst settled hinisell coolly to the losing game before him. The Duchess, more cheerful than she had been, assumed the care of Piney. Only Mother Ship- ton once the strongest of the party seemed to sicken and fade. At midnight on the tenth clay she called Oakhurst to her side. " I'm going," she said, in a voice of querulous weakness, " but don't say anything about it. Don't, waken the kids. Take the 'bundle from under my head and open it." Mr. Oakhurst did so. It contained Mother Shipton's rations for the last week, untouched. " Give 'em to the 24= LHB OUTCASTS OP POKER FLAT. child," she said, pointing to the sleeping Piney. " You've starved yourself," said the gambler. " That's what they call it," said the woman, querulously, as she lay down again, and, turning her face to the wall, passed quietly away. The accordion and the bones were put aside that da} r , and Homer was forgotten. When the body of Mother Ship- ton had been committed to the snow, Mr. Oakhurst took the Innocent aside, and showed him a pair of snow-shoes, which he had fashioned from the old pack-saddle. " There's one chance in a hundred to save her yet,'' he said, pointing to Piney ; " but it's there," he added, pointing towards Poker Flat. " If you can reach there in two days she's safe." " And you ?" asked Tom Simson. "I'll stay here," was the curt reply. The lovers parted with u long embrace. " You are not going, too ?" said the Duchess as she saw Mr. Oakhurst ap- parently awaiting to accompany him. " As far as the canon," he replied. He turned suddenly, and kissed the Duchess, leaving her pallid face aflame, and her trembling limbs rigid with amazement. Night came, but not Mr. Oakhurst. It brought the storm again and the wirling snow. Then the Duchess, feeding the fire, found that some one had quietly piled beside the hut enough fuel to last a few days longer. The tears rose to her eyes, but she hid them from Piney. The women slept but little. In the morning, looking into each other's faces, they read their fate. Neither spoke ; but I'iney, accepting the position of the stronger, drew near and placed her arm around the Duchess's waist. They kept this attitude for the rest of the day. That night the storm reached its greatest, fury, and, rending asunder tho protecting pines, invaded the very hut. Toward morning they found themselves unable to feed the fire, which gradually died away. As the embers slowly blackened, the Duchess crept closer to Piney, and broke the silence of many hours: "Piney, can you pray?" "No, dear," said Piney, simply. The Duchess, without knowing THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT. 25 exactly why, felt relieved, and, putting her head upon Piney's shoulder, spoke no more. And so reclining', the younger and purer pillowing the head of her soiled sister upon her virgin breast, they fell asleep. The wind lulled as is it feared to waken them. Feathery drifts of sncw, shaken from the long pine-houghs, flew like white-winged birds, and settled about them as they slept. The moon through the rifted clouds looked down upon what had been the camp. But all human stain, all trace of earthlv travnil, was hidden beneath the spotless mantle mer- cifully flung from above. They slept all that day and the next, nor did they waken when voices and footsteps broke the silence of the camp. And when pitying fingers brushed the snow from their wan faces, you could sc?.rcely have told, from the equal peace that dwelt upon them, which was she that sinned. Even the law of Poker Flat recognized this, and turned away, leaving them still locked in each other's arms. But at the head of the gulch, on one of the largest pine- trees, they found the deuce of clubs pinned to the bark with a bowie-knife. It bore the following, written in pencil, in a firm hand : t BENEATH THIS TREE LIES THK BODY OF JOHN OAKHURST, WHO STRUCK A STREAK OF BAD LUCK ON THE 23 RD OP NOVEMBER, 1850, AND HANDED IN HIS CHECKS ON THE 7TK DECEMBER, 1850, i And pulseless and cold, with a Derringer by his side and a bullet in his heart though still calm as in life, beneath the snow lay he who was at once the strongest and yet the weakest of the outcasts of Poker Flat. HIGGLES. TT7E were eight, including the driver. We Ind not * * spoken during the passage of the last six mile?, nnce the jolting of tlie heavy vehicle over the roughening rond had spoiled the Judge's last poetical quotation. The tall man beside the Judge was asleep, his arm passed through the swaying strap and his head resting upon it altogether a limp, helpless-looking object, as if he had hanged himself and been cut clown too late. The French lady on the bick seat was asleep, too, yet in a half-conscious propriety of attitude, shown even in the disposition of the handkerchief which she held to her forehead, and which partially veiled her face. The Ia3y 1'rorn Virginia City, travelling \viih her husband, Lad long since lost all individual'^ in a wild con- fusion of ribbons, veils, furs, and shawls. There was nc sound but the rattling of wheels and the dash of rain upon the roof. Suddenly the stage stopped, and we bc;uno dimly aware f voices. The driver was evidently in the midst of an exciting colloquy with some one in the rood a colloquy of which such fragments as " bridi.ro gone,"' "twenty feet of water," "can't pass," were occasion n'.ly distinguishable above the storm. Then came a lull, JITV! a mysterious voice from, the road shouting the parting adjur- ation, " Try Miggles's." We caught a glimpse of our leaders as the vehicle slowly turned, of a horseman vanishing through the rain, and wo were evidently on our wayto Migglcs's. Who and where was Miggles? The Judge, our authority, did not remember the name, and he knew the country HIGGLES. 27 thoroughly. The Washoe traveller thought Higgles must keep a hotel. We only knew that we were stopped by high water front and. rear, and that Higgles was our rock of refuge. A ten minutes' splash through a tangled by-road, scarcely wide enough for the stage, and we drew up before a barred and boarded gate in a wide stone wall or fence about eight feet high. Evidently Miggles's, and evidently Higgles did not keep a hotel. The driver got down and tried the gate. It was securely locked. "Higgles! O Higgles!" No answer. " Higg-ells ! You Higgles !" continued the driver, wi rising wrath. 11 Higglesy ! " joined m the expressman, persuasively. " Higjjy.! Hig ! " But no reply came from the apparently insensa Higgles. The Judge, who had finally got the windo down, put his head out and propounded a series questions, which if answered categorically would haVe undoubtedly -elucidated the whole mystery, but which me driver evaded by replying that " if we didn't want to si the coach all night, we had better rise up and sing out Higgles." Bo we rese up and called on Higgles in chorus ; then sdpa- rately. And when he had finished, a Hibernian fellow-pas- senger from the roof called for " Haygells !" whereat wf all laughed. While w r e were laughing, the driver cried " SI* o !" We listened. To our infinite amazement the choras of " Higgles" was repeated from the other side of the wall, even to the final and supplemental " Haygells." " Extraordinary echo," said the Judge. " Extraordinary d d skunk !" roared the driver con temptuously. " Come out of that, Higgles, and show your- self ! Be a man, Higgles ! Don't hide in the dark ; I w if I were you, Higgles," continued Yuba Bill, now d about in an excess of fury. uld'nt ncing 28 HIGGLES. "Higgles !" continued the voice, " O Miggles !" " My good man ! Mr. Mey^hail !" said the Judge, soften- ing the asperities of t!ie name as much as possible. " Con- sider the inhospitality of refusing shelter from the inclem- ency of the weather to helpless females. Really, my dear sir " But a succession of " Miggles," ending in a burst of laughter, drowned his voice. Yuba Bill hesitated no longer. Taking a heavy stone from the road, he battered down the gate, and with the expressman entered the enclosure. We followed. Nobody was to be seen. In the gathering darkness all that we could distinguish was that we were in a garden from the rose- bushes that scattered over us a minute spray from their dripping leaves and before a long, rambling wooden build- ing. " Do you know this Miggles ?" asked the Judge of Yuba Bill. " No, nor don't want to," said Bill, shortly, who felt the Pioneer Stage Company insulted in his person by the contu- macious Miggles. 9 " But, my dear sir," expostulated the Judge, as he thought of the barred gate. ' Lookee here," said Yuba Bill, with fine irony, " hadn't you better go back and sit in the coach till yer introduced ? I'm going in," and he pushed open the door of the barred gate. A long room lighted only by the embers of a fire that was dying on the large hearth at its further extremity ! the walls curiously papered, and the flickering firelight bringing out its grotesque pattern ; somebody sitting in a large arm-chair by the ^replace. All this we saw as we crowded together into thfc room, after the driver and expressman. "Hello, be you Miggles?' said Yuba Bill to the solitary occupant. The figure neither spoke nor stirred. Yuba Bill walked wrathfully toward it, and turned the eye of his coach-lantern upon it$ face. r t was a man's face, prematurely old and HIGGLES. 20 wrinkled, -with very large eyes, in which tliere was that ex- pression of perfectly gratuitous solemnity -which* I had sometimes seen in an owl's. The large ey^s wandered from Bill's face to the lantern, and finally fixed their gaze on that luminous object, without further recognition. Bill restrained himself with an effort. " Misrgles ! Be you deaf ? You ain't dumb anyhow, you know ;" and Yuba Bill shook the insensate figure by the shoulder. To our great dismay, as Bill removed his hand, the vene- rable stranger apparently collapsed, sinking into half his size and undisllnguishable heap of clothing. " Well, dern my skin," said Bill, looking appealingly at us and hopelessly retiring from the contest. The Judge now stepped forward, and we lifted the myst rious invertebrate back into his original position. Bill w dismissed with the lantern to reconnoitre outside, for it wa evident that from the helplessness of this solitary man the must be attendants near at hand, and we all drew arou the fire. The Judge, who had regained his authority, a had never lost his conversational amiability, standing fore us with his back 'to the hearth, charged us, as imaginary jury, as follows : ' It is evident that either our distinguished fiiend here reached that condition described by Shakespeare as ' the sere and yellow leaf,' or has suffered some premature abate- ment of his mental and physical faculties. "Whether hi is really the Miggles " He was interrupted by " Mignles ! O Miggles ! Migglesy ! Mig ! and, in fact, the whole chorus of Miggles in very ranch the same key as it had once before been delivered unto us. We gazed at each other for a moment in some alarm. The Judge, in particular, vacated his position quickly, as the voice seemed to come directly over his shoulder. The cause, however, was soon discovered in a large magpie who was perched upon a shelf over the fireplace, and who immedi- ately relapsed into a sepulchral silence, which contrasted 30 MIGGLES. singularly with his previous volubility. It was, undoubtedly % his voice which we had heard in the road, and our friend in the chair was not responsible for the discourtesy. Yuba Bill, who re-entered the room after an unsuccessful search r was loath to accept the explanation, and still eyed the help- less sitter with suspicion. He had found a shed in which he had put up his horses; but he came back dripping and sceptical. " Thar ain't nobody but him within ten mile of the shanty, and that ar' d d oldskeesicks knows it." But the faith of the majority proved to be securely bused. Bill had scarcely ceased growling before we heard a quick step upon the porch, the trailing of a wet skirt, the door was flung open, and with a flash of white teeth, a sparkle of dark eyes, and an utter absence of ceremony or diffidence, a young woman entered, shut the door, and panting, leaned back against it. " O, if you please, I'm Miggles !'' And this was Miggles! this bright- eyed, full-throated young woman, whose wet gown of coarse blue stuff could not hide the beauty of the feminine curves to which it clung; fiom the chestnut crown of whose head, topped by a man r s oil-skin sou'wester, to the little feet and ankles, hidden some- w.iere in the recesses of her boy's brogans, all was grace ; this -was Miggles, laughing at us, too, in the most airy, frank, off-hand manner imaginable. ' You see, boys," said she, quite out of breath, and holt ling one little hand against her side, quite unheeding the speech- less discomfiture of our party, or the complete demoraliza- tion of Yuba Bill, whose features had relaxed into an ex- pression of gratuitous and imbecile cheerfulness, " you see, boys, I was mor'n two miles away when you passed down the road. I thought you might pull up here, and so I ran the whole way, knowing nobody was home but Jim, and and I'm out of breath and that let's me out." And here Miggles caught her dripping oil-skin hat from her head, with a mischievous swirl that scattered a shower of rain-drops over us ; attempted to put back her hair ; HIGGLES. 31 dropped two hairpins in the attempt ; laughed and sat down beside Yuba Bill, with her hamls crossed lightly on her lap. The Judge recovered himself first, and essayed an extrava- gant compliment. v " I'll trouble you for that thar har-pin," said Higgles gravely. Half a dozen hands were eagerly stretched for- ward ; the missing hair-pin was restored to its fair owner ; and Higgles, crossing the room, looked keenly in the face of" the invalid. The solemn eyes looked back at hers with an exnression we had never seen before. Life and intelligence seemed to struggle back into the rugged face. Higgles laughed again, and turned her black eyes and white teeth ' once more towards us. " This afflicted person is " hesitated the Judge. " Jim," said Higgles. "Your father?" " No." " Brother V" " No." " Husband V" Higgles darted a quick, half-deiiant glance at the two lady passengers who I had noticed did not participate in the general masculine admiration of Higgles, and said, gravely, "No; it's Jim." There was an awkward pause. The lady passengers moved closer to each other ; the y^ashoe husband looked abstract- edly at the fire ; and the tall man apparently turned his eyes inward for self support at this emergency. But Higgles' s laugh, which was very infectious, broke the silence. "Come,"" she said briskly, " you must be hungrj r . Who'll bear a hand to help me get tea ?" She had no lack of volunteers. In a few moments Yuba Bill was engaged like Caliban in bearing logs for this Hiran- da : the expressman was grinding coffee on the verandah ; to myself the arduous duty of slicing bacon was assigned ; and the Judge lent each man his good-humored and voluble counsel. And when Higgles, assisted by the Judge and our 32 MIGGLES. ' Hibernian " deck passenger ," set the table with all tlie avail- able crockery, we had become quite joyous, in spite of the rain that beat againct the windows, the wind that whirled down the chimney, the two ladies who whispered together in the corner, or the magpie who uttered a satirical raid croaking commentary on their conversation from his perch above. In the now bright, blazing fire we could see that the walls were papered with illustrated journals, arranged with feminine taste and discrimination. The furniture was extemporized, n,nd adapted from candle-boxes and packing-cases, and red with gay calico, or the skin of some animal. The arm-chair of the helpless Jim was an ingenious variation of a flour barrel. There was neatness, and even a taste for the picturesque, to be seen in the few details or the long, low room. Tho meal was a culinary success. But more, it was a social triumph, chiefly, I think, owing to the rare tact of Miggles in guiding ike conversation, asking all the questions herself, yet bearing throughout a frankness that rejected the :y concealment on her own part, so that we talked rselves, of our prospects, of the journev, of the weather, oh other, of everything but our host and hostess. It be confeased that Miggles's conversation was never elegant, rarely grammatical, jvjvl that at times ehe employed expletives, the use of which had generally been yielded to our sex.. But they were delivered with such a lighting up of teeth and eyes, and were usually followed by a laugh a laugh peculiar to Xigjles so frank and honest that it seemed to clear the moral atmosphere. Once, during the meal, we heard a noise like the rubbing of a heavy body against the outer walls of the house. This was shortly followed by a scratching and sniffling at the door. " That's Joaquin," said Miggles, in reply to our ques- tioning glances ; " would you like to see him V" Before we c ould answer she had opened the door, and disclosed a half grown grizzly, who instantly raised himself on his haunches, with hisforepaws hanging down in the popular attitude of HIGGLES. 33 mendicancy, and looked admiringly at Higgles, with a very singular resemblance in his manner to Yuba Bill. " That's my watch-dog," said Miggles, in explanation. " O, he don't bite," she added, as the two lady passengers iluttered into a corner. "Does he, old Toppy?" (the latter remark being addressed directly to the sagacious Joaquin.) " I tell you what, boys," continued Miggles, after she had fed and closed the door on Urta Jfinor, "you were in big luck that Joaquin wasn't hanging round when you dropped in to-night." " Where was he ?" asked the Judge. "With me," said Mig- gles. " Lord love you ; he trots round with me nights like as if he was a man." We were silent for a few moments, and listened to the wind. Perhaps we all had the same picture before us, of Miggles walking through the rainy woods, with her savage guardian at her side. The Judee, I remember, said some- thing about Una and her lion ; but Miggles received it as she did other compliments, with quiet gravity. Whether she was altogether unconscious of the admiration she excited, s^ie could hardly have been oblivious of Yuba Bill's adoration, I know not ; but her very frankness sug- gested a perfect sexual equality that was cruelly humiliating to the younger members of our party. The incident of the bear did not add anything in Mig- gles's favour to the opinions of those of her own sex who were present. In fact, the repast over, a dullness radjated from the two lady passengers that no pine-boughs brought in by Tiuba Bill and cast as a sacrifice upon the hearth could wholly overcome. Miggles felt it ; and, suddenly declaring that it was time to " turn in," offered to show the ladies to their bed in an adjoining room. " You, boys, will have to camp out here by the fire as well as you can," she added, " for tliar ain't but the one room." Our sex by which, my dear sir. I allude of course to the stronger portion of humanity has been generally relieved from the imputation of curiosity, or a fondness for gossip. Yet I am con? trained to say, that hardly had the door closed '34 . MIGGLES. on Higgles than we crowded together, whispering, snicker- ing, smiling, and exchanging suspicions, surmises, and a thousand speculations in regard to onr pretty hostess and her singular companion. I fear that wo even hustled that imbecile paralytic, who sat like a voicele.-s Meinnon in our midst, gazing with the serene indifference of the Past in his passionless eyes' upon our wordy counsels. In the miJst of an exciting discussion, the door opened again, and Higgles re-entered. But, not apparently, the same Higgles who a few hours before had flashed upon us. Her eyes were downcast, and as she hesitated for a moment on the threshold, witli a blanket on her arm, she seemed to have left behind her the frank fearlessness which had charmed us a moment before- Coming into the room, she drew a low stool beside the para- lytic's chair, sat down, drew the blanket, over her shoulders, and saying, "If it's all the same to you, boys, as we're rather crowded, I'll stop here to-night," took tlie invalid's withered hand in her own, and turned her eyes upon the dying fire. An instinctive feeling that this was only pre- monitory to more confidential relations, and perhaps some shame at our previous curiosity, kept ns silent. The rain still beat upon the roof, wandering gusts of wind stirred the embers into momentary brightness, until, in a lull of the elements, Higgles suddenly lifted up her head, and, throw- ing her hair over her shoulder, turned her face upon the group and asked, " Is there any of you that knows me ? " There was no reply. " Think again ! I lived at Marysviile in '53. Everybody knew me there, and everybody had the right to know me. I kept the Polka Saloon until I came to live with Jim. That's six years ago. Perhaps I've changed some." The absence of recognition may have disconcerted her. She turned her head to the fire again, and it was some seconds before she again spoke, and then more rapidly, "Well, you see, I thought some of you must have known MIGGLES. 35- me. There's no great harm done, anyway. What I was going to say was this: Jim here" she took his hand in both of hers as she spoke" used to know me, if you didn't, and spent a heap of money upon me. I reckon he spent all he had. And one day it's six years ago this winter Jim came into my back room, sat down on my sofy, like as you see him in that chair, and never moved again without help. He was struck all of a heap, and never seemed to know what ailed him. The doctors came and said as how it was caused all along of his way of life, for Jim was mighty free and wild like, and that he would nevei get better, and couldn't last long anyway. They advised me to s-:nd him to Frisco to the hospital, for he was no good to any one and would be a baby all his life. Perhaps it was something in Jim's eye, perhaps it was that I never had a baby, but I said ' No.' I was rich then, for I was popular with everybody, gentlemen like yourself, sir, came to see me, and I sold out my businesss and bought this, yer place, because it was sort of out of the way of travel, you set, and I brought my baby here." With a woman's intuitive tact and poetry, she had, us sho spoke, slowly shifted her position so as to bring the mute figure of the ruined man between her ami her audience, hiding in the shadow behind it, as if she offered it as a tacit apology for her actions. Silent and expressionless, it yet sooke for her; helpless, crushed, and smitten with the Divine thunderbolt, it still stretched an invisible arm around her. Hidden in the darkness, but still holding his hand, she went on, * It was a long time before I could get the hang of things about ycr, for I was used to company and excitement. I couldn't get any woman to help me, and a man I dursent trust ; but what with the Indians hereabout, who'd do odd jobs for me, and having everything sent from the North Fork, Jim and I managed to worry through. The Doctor would run up from Sacramento once hi a while. He'd ask 36 M1GGLES. to see ' Miggles's baby,' as he called Jim, and when lie'd go away, he'd say, ' Higgles, you're a trump, God bless you ! ' and it didn't seem so lonely after that. But the last time he was here he said, as lie opened the door to go, 4 Do you know, Misgles, your baby will grow np to be a man yet and an honour to his mother; but noi, here, Higgle?, not here !' And I thought he went away sad and and " and here Miggles's voice and head were somehow both lost completely in the shadow. " The folks about here are very kind," said Migtrles after a pause, coming a little into the light again. " The men from the fork used to hang around here, until they found they wasn't wanted, and the women are kind and don't call. I was pretty lonely until I picked up Joaquin in the woods yonder one dav, when ho wasn't so high, :md taught him to beg for his dinner; and then thar's Polly that's the magpie she knows no end of tricks, and makes it quite sociable of evenings with her f alk, and so I don't feel like as I was the only living being about the ranch. And Jim here," said Misrules, with her old lau^gh again, and coming out quite in the fm light, "Jim why, boys, you would admire to see how much he knows fora man like him. Sometimes i bring him flowors, and he looks at 'em just, as natural as if he knew 'em ; and times, when we're sitting alone. I read him tho^e things on the wall. Why, Lord " said Micfirles, with lu-r frank 1au