In Border Lands [pp. 291-298]

In Border Lands.
Poor Bill Jiggers carried her many a time in
his arms, while her father was trying to learn
something of cookery, and most ungratefully
she tugged at his heavy beard. But Bill,
who had laid his young wife and her baby
in the same grave back in Iowa, was an abject
weakling in all that regarded the softer sex.
He could not have informed on Mountain
Sal had he found her stealing horses, -a
suspicion of which clouded that lady's rec ord He would have judged her temporarily
insane, and accordingly not responsible for
her actions.
Graham had been elected recorder (an
office which gauges the wealth of a mining
district) in spite of the calumnies that his late
friend and partner sowed broadcast; but the
winter proved one to try his courage. The
deceitful beauty of the weather, which had
made December like May, broke up sud denly as a thunder-clap. A cold and awful
January closed down on the camp in No
Man's Gulch. The fire-places filled with
roaring logs could not warm the ill-joined,
half-built cabins. Snow sifted in and caked
around the heads of sleepers, and poor fellows whose helpless house-keeping had
answered in fine weather now dropped off in
scores, or lay suffering, destitute of comforts
or medical attendance.
The freighters began to grumble and raise
prices, for deep snow and icy winds made
their hardships intense, and why should man
risk his life without reward? But it seemed
bitter that provisions should rise when the
sluices were frozen over, and the gold of the
diggings out of reach beneath white drifts.
Hunger filled many a strong youth's grave,
despair and heart-sickness finished the work
of many another. Their companions buried
them for lack of boards in their blankets,
and with the popular made some attempt at
funeral services. There was no preacher
and but one Bible in No Man's Gullch; but
there was many a heart that could not forget
the promises of the Redeemer.
Their operations had scared away the
game, and what cattle there were in the
country were in as bad condition as themselves. They shared their wretched bits of
bacon and handfuls of flour, laughing grimly
in one another's hungry faces, as men may
have done in prisons or armies. "Fresh
meat, milk, or eggs would be fatal at this alti tude," said the doctor, who like Mountain
Sal was sober then. The supply of whisky
was soon held too sacred for conviviality.
One poor boy owed his life to Mountain
Sal, who found him alone and sick in his
fireless cabin, where she at once brought
some semblance of comfort and managed to
procure food, until he rose haggard but con valescent to thank her with tears in his weak
blue eyes. Afterwards when he returned
home, his gray old mother prayed for her
son's preserver. Who knows the secrets of
the recording angel? Good bread may come
from evil hands, and the lily is a lily though
it grow beside carrion.
"Such is life in the extreme West," said
the president, writing a jesting notice to the
effect that "men bringing delicate women
and children to endure the hardships of the
mountains will be lynched on and after the
first of April next." He was an iron-headed
old Scot, who in times of revelry might be
seen to stand scowling among his comrades
as some desert prophet may have frowned
on the rabble of Byzantium, reeling to its
fall; but perhaps his was the softest heart
there, had he not scorned to show it. He
was the originator of a wild project for bringing a cow into the valley to contribute to the
baby's comfort, and he it was whose open
contempt did most to discredit the statements of Jim Carrington's felicitous invention.
That gentleman shared none of these privations. He left the mountains early, and
secured a place as barkeeper in a Denver
establishment where his talents were appreciated.
In one of the dark, cold weeks that
dragged along towards spring, sundry light
sleepers began to talk of a strange wail
beard about midnight. Mountain Sal said
it was a spirit portending death to children
which seemed an appalling possibilty.
"Little Colonel Johnston," the Kentucky
fire-eater, after lying awake some nights on
1888.]
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