Show STUDENT LIFE good to me when sober but when ‘soused he was worse than a log jam in April Once he threw a bottle and hit me on the head and many nights I have slept out of doors when he was ‘loaded was plumb scared of him and when I saw he was just getting his load on I knew that there was a big fight billed to celebrate Dutch Flat’s first Christmas “By midnight everybody was all in and Mike was the worst of There had been one or two any knock-down- s during the evening but nothing serious until Mike d threw a chair at Andy a Scotch lumberman The chair floored Andy and cut his scalp We thought he was hurt worse than he was but the sight of blood gave Mike ‘cold feet’ He started across to the store to get some rags to tie up Andy’s He hadn’t been gone wounds over a minute until he came back packin’ a big basket It was all done up in quilts He brought it in and puttin’ it on the bar opened it None of the fellows ever suspected what was in it Mike was the first to peep in and when he did he just yelled ‘Well I’ll be d — — ! It’s a kid a real Mike ‘Red-Lippe- -- kid’ “You could have heard a pin drop after Mike said that All the noisy cusses shut right up and pretty soon all of them came on tip toes to get a peek into the basket They were like a lot of kids themselves Very soon began to wonder where had got the youngster Then Alike told them that he stumbled over it in the middle of the road and that he thought at first it was only a rock covered with snow But soon he heard somebody say ‘Mama’ and it seemed to come from out of the snow He went back and saw that it was a basket that he had stumbled over and then he knew what was up “Well sir while Alike and the fellows were trying to find some letter in the basket telling about the Kid one of them happened to notice on the counter where the basket stood bits of sparkling yellow Everybody forgot about the Kid for a minute and looked at the yellow stuff It was gold ! “At first no one believed it but soon they knew that the gold must have come off the basket Alike got the storekeeper’s wife to take care of the Kid for the night and all of the gang followed Alike to the place where he had found the basket under the snow They marked the place and next morning Christmas the ‘Evangeline’ mine was discovered “To make the story short Alike staked his claim and then took the Kid a little blue-eye- d girl to ’Frisco to have her taken care of He had her named Evangeline after his mother and he named the mine for the Kid After staying there for some time he sold his mine for thousands gave me they L ' 85 |