The Cabin by the Live Oak, Chapters V-IX [pp. 267-277]

]he Cabin by the Live Oak.
Surely, a trip through the grand caion
()f the Fraser is well worth a journey
across the continent, and had it the hotel accommodations of Eastern watering
places, there would be more northern
than eastern travel to see far grander
scenery.
" Thou has not left
Thyself without a witness here, in these shades,
Of thy perfection. Grandeur, strength, and grace
Are here to speak of Thee!"
H.H. 1,
THE CABIN BY THE LIVE OAK.
V.
ITr was the cook week of Mr. Sidney
Algernon Harrington Briggs at our cabin, and Mr. Sidney Algernon Harrington Briggs was preparing supper. Mr.
Briggs was in very ill humor. This, however, was no more than the chronic condclition of that scion of the British aristocracy, who could sulk on any and all
occasions with the nerve of a Christian
martyr. There was, however, in my
judgment,- and I think my readers will
agree with me, - a good reason for the
display of bad temper by Mr. Briggs on
this particular occasion.
It appears that Mr. Briggs mixed a loaf
ef bread, a loaf as large as the monster
Dutch oven would hold, and set it to rise.
It was rising beautifully, when "Lazy
Sam" and his cabin chum (we did not
call them partners because they never
worked any that we could see), "Greasy
John," came in. Now miners in the olden time had but few subjects of general
conversation,-the mines, women, "back
home." Lazy Sam, having ascertained
from Mr. Briggs that our claim was paying very poorly, volunteered the information that he knew of a place where
you could get a good prospect right in
the grass roots, and that nobody claimed
the ground. This so excited the worthy
\Ir. Briggs that he at once wished to be
shown the spot. Lazy Sam was nothing
loth to pilot him thereto, and armed with
a panning outfit they started. But the
vaunted prospect proved to be only a few
fine colors, and when Mr. Briggs, after
trying pan after pan, returned home in
disgust, he found he had stayed too long
and his loaf of bread was rapidly shrinking back to the original dimensions of
its component parts; and he knew that
he would get no sympathy in his great
trouble from the hungry crowd that
would have to make their evening meal
mainly upon that loaf.
If anything -after good paying diggings-was essential to the happiness
of a mining company, it was good bread.
How we were wont to pride ourselves
upon any extra skill we might have in
that important accomplishment, and how
we old pioneers look back and "point
with pride" to our bread-making even to
this day; how we delight to boast to our
wives of it, and express a belief that we
can still make as good bread with a lump
of sour dough as can any womnan that
breathes. And how quickly we sneak out
of availing ourselves of any offered opportunity to display our wonderful breadmaking, on the high-minded ground that
a man should not interfere in household
matters. When the present State of
Iowa was making its code, the Jones
County Agricultural Society passed a
resolution that a failure to know how to
make bread should constitute legal cause
1 Ss9.]
2 37