Show the prospector and his burro I 1 BY R y xv will 1 U C higgins Hi ggles 1 I think we showed good sense in coming out into the death valley range for our winters prospecting said the prospector to his burro for I 1 know that in the high altitudes 0 of f california arizona utah and idaho winter still lingers in the lap of spring for which I 1 am sure he should be severely criticized for what fair maid with the eternal blush of the rose on her cheek and the scent of violets in her breath could bear the endearments of such a crusty old beast as old winter has proven to be in the regions I 1 have mentioned and if old boreas shove him from tile the perch where lie he is so unwelcome in short order lie he will be as unkind as was the old hermit who held down a bonanza gold prospect for years up in the range before he had the grace to relinquish his holdings and give this virgin prospect a chance to bask in tile the sunlight of development and appreciation you say you were young and a virgin once and that when you blushed the whole country round about assumed a roseate hue as it if covered with autumn leaves and ferns and flowers that had been touched by the first frosts of the season and that you can well sympathize with gentle spring in the unfortunate and compromising position she has been so long obliged to endure as nothing crushes the spirit of the young so much as to be unable to shine when the time for shining has come all of which is good logic and a tribute to your tender and loving nature but if I 1 am to tell you the story of the old hermit we must discontinue our dis cassion of mythical subjects and get down to stern realities such as my friend jack buckingham encountered when lie he kissed his wife goodbye good bye in new york and set out on a prospecting trip in the country in tile the high altitudes of the uvada sierras for more than a year jack scrambled over the hills in that region and worked himself almost to a skeleton in his efforts to locate the bonanza lie he had seen in his dreams and which lie he had pictured out to his wife in the most glowing colors for what was more easy than to take a train in the east and alight some few days afterwards on some mountainside put on a pair of high topped boots and dig out a of gold nuggets the next morning after his arrival but the gold nuggets were more elusive than potatoes on the table of the laboring man at the present time and if th they ey were nesting thereabouts the nest was as hard to find as a spark of humanity in a submarine and so jack trailed the canyons and sought for float until the first thing lie he knew winter was upon him and the blizzard that caught him out in the open many miles from his camp was one of the worst with which that section had ever been visited for two day lie he was unable to leave the rude brush shelter he had constructed and by this time lie he was entirely without food and almost frozen for lie he had diac started out without his overcoat and was even without covering for foi his hands on the third day of his virtual imprisonment he knew he must make an effort to find shelter and food or that the word finis would be written to the end of his obituary notice in large black letters and so the next morning lie he started out going with the wind which was in the direction of a saddle in the mountains some two miles distant he was weak with hunger and exposure and could barely crawl along and it was really some five or six hours before lie he reached the pass here lie he was almost about to give up in despair when because of a change in the wind he caught the echoes of a barking dog he was not sure at first from whence the joyful sounds came but finally decided to bear to the left towards a towering cliff whose very appearance seemed a menace to life but this was his only chance it if he was ever going back to mary and so he painfully resumed his uncertain way hope almost banished when the barking could no longer be heard at last however as he was about to give up in despair he thought he saw the twinkling of a light and taking this as his guiding star he at last managed to crawl to a little cabin perched upon a shelf of the cliff with unsteady step and outstretched hands he sought the door pulled the latchstring and fairly fell into the room into which the door opened but there was no kindly greeting for him with the exception of the barking dog which fairly covered him with caresses for the cabin seemed empty and deserted after reviving somewhat jack closed the door and took a survey of his surroundings there was no fire but he soon kindled one and also partook very sparingly of some cold beans and hard biscuits he found in the cupboard feeling much better by this time lie he made an ex por atory visit to an adjoining room and was much surprised to find on a rude couch in the corner an old man who was evidently nearly to the end of his earthly joys as well as troubles As a matter of fact the old fellow was unconscious and would have surely answered the last call within a few hours more had not jack turned nurse and fairly pulled the expiring man back to life for a month jack worked with him and was more tender and patient than a mother could have been the result being that in six weeks the old her mit for such he was was able to sit up and take notice As soon as lie he was able to talk he told jack that lie he had been there for twenty years and that near his cabin he had a tunnel into the cliff for more than feet at which point he had encountered a six inch strata of quartz that was worth at least 20 a pound the discovery had been made at least fifteen years ago and since then he had forgotten that progress had any wheels and had merely stood guard over his riches and only taking out a few pounds which he so sold id to an assayer in the valley below when lie he needed provisions and supplies and he was a tapi cal hermit for his beard almost touched his knees and but for his dog lie he was companionless pani onless and he told how the night of the storm he had felt himself sinking having taken a bad cold which had settled on his lungs he had put a candle in the window hoping that its beams would attract someone to his cabin and to his relief As soon as the hermit had recovered sufficiently continued the prospector he took jack to his tunnel and uncovered the ledge so rich in virgin gold for he had carefully covered and hidden it so that if the place were visited by an intruder it would appear that the prospect was valueless and right here was where the hermit showed his gratitude and appreciation for what jack had done for him for he deeded a half interest in his bonanza to his preserver and insisted that systematic work be started at once in its exploitation and development and believe me jack was not at all adverse to taking such measures for lie he again began to have visions the most cherished of which was the presence of mary in a brand new cabin which he began at once to construct near the domicile of the old hermit and within six months he had a force of twenty men working in the tunnel in the sorting antl ana shipment of ore and in making arrangements for the treatment of the large body of mill ore which accompanied the streak of high grade A short time later mary herself arrived wan and thin but happy for had not jack found his nest eggs just as lie he promised he would As for the hermit he just hugged himself and lie he felt like old sol usually feels when lie he has succeeded in dislodging sordid winter from the calico of a beautiful spring morning 1 I want to tell you old long ears concluded the prospector adverse fortune like the cold winter months is hard to endure but when the gentle annie 0 ofa ig springtime comes along and showers us her joy and animation we soon forget forger tr the dismal days and nights that hageal haasl passed and join in with the feeling tha t per pervades the air with gratitude and gia I 1 d i ness ess and there you are and then s some onie bai |