Show the prospector and his burro p the holiday season is upon us said the prospector to his burro and already you have been asking for a christmas gift just as if you were a kid in some missouri settlement and to show that I 1 have the right holiday spirit and appreciate your friendship for me I 1 am going to give you an extra feed of barley this afternoon and will also tie a red ribbon around your neck and decorate your tail with a rosette which will make you look as gay as a studhorse at a country fair but if you expect any more than this I 1 fear you will be doomed to disappointment as there is no danger that you will become prematurely sway backed in packing around the presents you may receive or that because of any excessive accumulation of holiday presents you will be so snowed under that it will take me a month to dig you out none whatever for you will be in about the same position as myself who will be pleased to receive a christmas card if santa claus from the nearest railroad station is able to buck the snow into our camp any time between now and next spring it is not much of a christmas that the prospector has in the hills continued the prospector and the compliments of the season rarely reaches them in their mountain fastnesses fast nesses and yet if they have met with a moderate degree of success and have a snug camp with plenty of beans and bacon to dish up in an imitation of turkey they generally observe the day with a degree of comfort and thankfulness that those on the outside could scarcely expect for where the heart is right and motives pure the spirit of good cheer and peace to all men can penetrate the desert as well as into the homes on fifth avenue and this reminds me of a christmas I 1 spent in rub itin it in canyon several years ago when you were nothing but a colt by your mothers side on this occasion I 1 was far out in the back hills and had been prospecting since september for the old bryfogle Bre fogle mine the location of which had been rather indefinitely described to me by an old hermit who had been in the mountains so long that lie he had never seen a telephone or electric street car and who only went down to the little camp of elkton once a year for supplies but taking the general direction from him I 1 had packed my grub and tools on your mother and hit the trail for a week I 1 traveled and eventually found myself in a range of mountains so rugged and precipitous that only a bird could get into some of its most secret places sometimes in following up a narrow defile I 1 would come up against a blank wall and had to turn back here and there I 1 scrambled over depressions in the range only to find myself in a perfect network of cliffs or an avalanche of rocks with the country so broken that a squirrel could hardly negotiate it much elss a prospector and burro for weeks I 1 worked in and out of canyons and dangerous places until one day I 1 came to a huge cave below which trickled a beautiful little spring and here I 1 decided to make my camp it was late in the day and getting supper and turning your mother loose on the little grassy plot below the cave I 1 wrapped myself in my blank blankets ets and turned in for the night the morning was bright and cheery and although the mountain peaks were covered with snow all was warm and inspiring in our cozy little nook after breakfast I 1 began to explore the cave and was much surprised to find signs therein of former occupation cu pation near its mouth was a rude fireplace and a few feet in a rude wall of stone had b been een built against one side of the cave making an enclosure with a low door for entrance and egress on the inside there was a bench and a couch of twigs and branches but all so ancient and covered with dust and debris as to indicate an occupation of at least a quarter of a century ago going further into the cave I 1 made a careful examination and was pleased to find in a niche in one of its walls an old and decayed gunny sack that was more mor ethan than half filled with gold nuggets and quartz in which the gold stuck out in wire and leaf form but search as I 1 might I 1 could find no ledge or vein of gold in the cavern still I 1 was not discouraged as I 1 was satis satisfied fled that the source of the gold was somewhere near at hand and so I 1 began prospecting for it diligently day after day I 1 climbed the hills and scaled the cliffs but with no result As time wore on I 1 began to give up hope and it was then that I 1 began to remember that it was near christmas a christmas that evidently would bring no cheer to me and yet 1 I never gave up entirely and concluded to make a more thorough examination in the near vicinity of the cave below which your mother was getting fat and slick on the rich feed abounding at last one morning noticing a pine hen in a tree a few hundred yards from camp I 1 decided to get her for my dinner and so creeping up within range I 1 let go with my shot gun and brought her to the ground A moment or so after I 1 was looking for her in the brush and while stooping over to pick her up I 1 noticed a mound of dirt which looked to me like the remains of an old dump scattered through which were numerous bits of quartz which upon examination proved to be speckled all over with free gold I 1 soon got my pick and shovel and was working away like a turk at a wrestling match trying to find where the dump came from within an hour I 1 had uncovered the entrance to an old tunnel and was soon underground der ground where I 1 found the cavity in safe condition and that it followed a true fissure into the hill for a considerable distance at the face I 1 stood amazed for here I 1 found an eight inch pay streak all exceedingly high grade in which lumps and chunks of pure gold occurred as large as walnuts it was almost dark before I 1 returned to camp and as I 1 examined the ore and the gold by the firelight it occurred to me at once that this was christmas eve and that the discovery I 1 made was my christmas gift 1 I want to tell you old long ears concluded the prospector it makes no difference where you are at home or abroad in the valleys or in the hills one can feel the christmas spirit while the bells of christmas cheer may ring in his heart and there you are and then some |