Miners' Stories; II. An Episode of River Mining [pp. 26-29]

Miners' Stories.
refused to touch any since that night.
He then set'em up, and in fact we were
pretty lively; that is, Jack Ryan and I
were, before we started, but Jim was as
gloomy as ever.
"Jim and I started off, but after we
had gone a short distance Jimn suggested
that we had better not travel after dark,
and turned right back to the station.
"'Jim,' said I,' what is the meaning
of all this. You are not the man you were
What in thunder is come over you?'
"'George,' said he,'sell that buckskin
pony of Drigh's,- sell him for anything
you can get, or give him away if you
can't sell him. He will be the cause of
your death if you don't.'
" I turned around.
'What do you mean, Jim? Why,
he is just as gentle as a lamb,' said I.
"' George,' said he,'do you remember
that night up the gulch when you lost the
trail? Did you not tell me that old
Drigh said that he would have that
buckskin though he went to hell right
off? Well, George, that night some
Thing jumped out of the darkness and
caught me around the waist; it squeezed
the very life nearly out of me, and when
I turned, round I saw'twas old Drigh.
I saw him in the dark as plain as I see
you now. George, you had better get
rid of Buck, or't will be worse for you.'
"He spoke in such an earnest way that
I could not help believing him, and I
sold Buck shortly after; and Ned, I do
believe in ghosts, and I won't sleep in
that gulch - never again."
Ed. Holland.
II. AN EPISODE OF RIVER MINING.
IN this, the year of our Lord, I889,
Jesse Jobson, Esq., of San Francisco, is
a citizen of credit and renown. If he
has not, like Justice Shallow, land and
beeves, he has their equivalents - merchandise and a bank account.
When Jesse has a bit of leisure he is
prone to tell tales of his early experiences in California, and the following brief
story is one of his reminiscences -
Jesse was young in'49, and he arrived
in California with a small stock each of
money and experience, and a large
amount of hope. Yet his expectations
were reasonable. $Io,ooo was their limit. This amount seemed to him an immense sum, and he had resolved, when
leaving his Eastern home, that on securing it he would straight return to his
friends and to the dear girl who wept so
bitterly at parting.
Jesse was of a practical turn of mind,
and upon his arrival in California did
precisely the best thing possible, which
was, to lose no time in idle prospecting,
but to accept the first employment of —
fered. This employment was found in
the service of a packer out of Sacramento. The wages were to be an ounce
a day and found. A golden stream flowed
into Jesse's pockets, and he was soon
able (wagons having succeeded trains)
to purchase an eight-mule establishment
of his own, whereby his gains were
greatly multiplied.
When the hauling season closed with
the fall of'50, and the mules were turned
out for their regular winter vacation,
Jesse knew he had reached his limitthat he was now worth $IO,OOO. But
how small the sum appeared to him,- a
trifle,- a mere pittance. His ears were
familiar with the report of larger sums,
and as he repeated over to himself the
words, "ten thousand dollars," they had
a slender, feeble sound, - contrasting
26
[Jan.