Show the prospector and his burro J by will C higgins I 1 when I 1 sit at my cabin door in the calm evening said the prospector to his burro and gaze down into the peaceful looking valley I 1 often think of what may be stirring in the busy cities and towns I 1 call to mind how the people there have been sweltering in the heat all day long imd how nice it would be for them if they could spend a few weeks in the parks up here in the mountains away from the dust and turmoil away from the stuffy office and free from all business cares then too I 1 cannot help but think of how healthful it would be to many to breathe this fragrant air with the healing odor of pines and what a sense of comfort would come to them when retiring to sleep to be compelled to pull thick blankets over them as a protection against the really cold ant and el hilly chilly hours existing between midnight and sunrise and how pleasure able it would be to them to quaff of the ice cold yater water which gushes forth from the base of yonder cliff why a few weeks up here would bring strength and vigor to the enfeebled and annihilate that tired feeling that the strongest are alej often afflicted with I 1 can assure you that the busy people below have my deepest sympathy perhaps they would not appreciate the feeling I 1 have for them but I 1 know one family ax at least east that always opens the spare bedroom tor for me when I 1 go down and who always dish me out the biggest steak and insist that I 1 take two cups of coffee when I 1 visit them in their city home you want to know continued the prospector what mountain air and big steaks and two cups of hot coff coffee ee have to do with mining and intimate that if there as any thing in city life that relates to mining you would like to know the connection but do not be too fast for while a burro has about as much much idea of a metropolis as he has of the yearnings of a soul he must remember that about nine tenths of all mining men and prospectors were probably city bred and that therefore they still take an interest in their old stamping ground although isolated under towering cliffs and although wearing clothes so shabby and torn that it would be them to the lockup lock up if brought face to face with the city mashal even it if in a little town no larger than santaquin San but to my story for I 1 see that you are getting impatient and anxious to locate that old ham covering I 1 threw away at lunch time to talk with you is often disconcerting and were it not for the fact that I 1 often enjoy our little evening chats I 1 would even now roll up in my blankets and leave you to your own moody company and the ham covering you so se crecy desire the family spoke of before you so rudely interrupted me consisted of father and mother a daughter of about sixteen and two small boys the father had been employed as bookkeeper in a big manufacturing concern for many years and had been let out bythe by the management because he had developed a very bad case of consumption if you know what that is and he was nearly down and out when I 1 met him on one of my valley trips his was a pitiful case and I 1 felt so sorry for him that I 1 bundled the whole family into the outgoing stage and brought them to the mouth of our canyon there I 1 got a string of burros and brought them by easy stages to our cabin here for a week or more the father could hardly move around but inside of a month he was able to walk out to the crest of the bluff in front of our camp and with the water the smell of the pines and the bracing atmosphere he began to pick up wonderfully derf der ully fully color appeared again in his cheeks and his appetite became ravenous from that time tim on he began taking quite long walks with his daughter who loved the hills the forests and the mountain flowers sometimes they would take a lunch with them and be gone all day and if they were a little late sometimes in returning to camp I 1 did not worry for he was regaining his strength rapidly and the daughter looked after him like a mother would a child one night however after they had been absent long after the usual time of returning his wife became uneasy and I 1 myself felt a little apprehensive at last after several hours of waiting I 1 started out in search sear ch of the missing ones I 1 visited the haunts they both loved so well but to no avail I 1 climbed clear to the crest of the mountain but could not find them there i 1 followed our gulch to its source but failed to discover a trace of them finally in dis pair I 1 crossed the canyon and followed ule the trail up into honeycomb gulch calling as I 1 went once or twice I 1 thought I 1 heard a faint answer to my call but when I 1 stopped and listened again and all was as silent as a boy in a jam closet I 1 concluded that the sound I 1 thought I 1 had heard was only an echo still I 1 went vent on bellowing like a fog horn in distress as I 1 went and the further I 1 advanced the clearer seemed the echo at a turn in the trail trall however however I 1 was rewarded by the sound of a human voice and lecog nihed the soprano tones of the daughters daughter ls call hurrying on I 1 soon found both father and daughter huddled up against a big rock the father with a broken leg and the daughter worn out in her endeavor to carry him back to camp having some experience in surgery I 1 succeeded in setting the broken limb and managed to make the two comfortable for table until morning when I 1 brought your mother and her mate and soon had them safely home in relating the story of the mishap tile the father told me how he had found some float that looked good to him for he had a true prospectors instinct although only a bookkeeper and that in tracing its source he had found a small fissure that led over the side of a bluff that in looking over to see if it was cutting through the formation he had lost his balance and landed on a small shelf a few feet below the crown of the bluff at first he was stunned but did not think he was seriously hurt upon recovering somewhat he began to look around and was both pleased and surprised to discover that the fissure so plainly showing had widened to three feet in width when he tried to get up however he found that his leg was broken and the pain was excruciating the daughter was greatly frightened but soo soon n collected colle her senses for she was a brave girl she could not leave him to seek assistance si stance for in the meantime he might faint from the torture of his wound and fall to the bottom of the precipice so she made a rope of her khaki skirt and after a great deal of painful effort succeeded in hauling him up to where he could grasp some overhanging bushes and pull himself to a place of safety then the dear girl tried to carry him back to camp but he was too heavy and his broken brohen limb pained him so when she tried to drag him along that decided to stay where they were until help came the father had the presence of mind however to put some pieces of his find in his pocket and when I 1 looked at it I 1 was amazed as well as overjoyed for it was perfectly lousy with the yellow metal the next afternoon with the daughter as my guide I 1 went and made an examination of the new discovery and it was ft a big find all right for it was a perfect fissure in granite and as true as a blue eyed lass and as strong as a piece of side bacon that had been left out in the sun for six months during the next few days I 1 locatell located a group of six claims on the fissure in the name of the father and daughter A few rods down the mountain side I 1 started a crosscut cross cut tunnel and when connection was made with the vein I 1 found a body of shipping ore that ranged from 50 to to the ton in value when the fr etther ther had fully recovered he took charge of the property employed several miners s sent out shipment after shipment of the rich stuff and is now considered as being one of the wealth lest men in provo 1 I want to tell you old long ears concluded the prospector if more of the tired and heat smitten people of the valleys would spend more of their time in the mountains in the summer time more rich mines would be found and more people would regain perfect health I 1 love to see them in the canyons and parks by the isolated lakes and by the sparkling streams I 1 have told you how one family benefited by such an outing both physically and financially and now you can see why it is when I 1 go to town I 1 get the big piece of steak two cups of coffee and am lodged in the spare bedroom and there you ou are and then some |