A Waif of the Plains

o one, there was no reason why he should not at once proceed to the nearest gold mines! The idea of returning to Mr. Peyton and Susy, as a disowned and abandoned

lf with some gingerbread and lemon soda. At an adjacent grocery he purchased some herrings, smoked beef, and biscuits, as future provisions for his "pack" or kit. Then began his real quest for an outfit. In an hour he had secured-ostensibly for some friend, to avoid curious inquiry-a pan, a blanket, a shovel and pick, all of which he deposited at the baker's, his unostentatious headquarters, with the exception of a pair of disguising high boots th

erers that congregated around the doors of saloons or, hilariously charging down the streets, elbowed him against the wall, or humorously insisted on his company, discomposed and frightened him. He had known rude companionship before, but it was serious, practical, and under control. There was something in this vulgar degradation of intellect and power-qualities that Clarence

rous abstraction and preoccupation, that even the shouts and tumult at its very doors could not disturb. Men of all ranks and conditions, plainly or elaborately clad, were grouped together under this magic spell of silence and attention. The tables before them were c

ed half a dozen gold pieces on the vacant card. Absorbed in the general aspect of the room and the players, Clarence did not notice that his neighbor won twice, and even THRICE, upon that card. Becoming aware, however, that the player while gathering in his gains, was smilingly regarding him he moved in some embarrassment to the other end of the table, where there seemed another gap in the crowd. It so chanced

share, sonny,

stammered the as

me 'the luck,'

e said, glancing at the coins and then at the

lose it, sonny, sure! Don't you see, YOU BRING THE LUCK T

h a swift recollection of the manipulation of his pur

irst vacant card he saw. In another moment, as it seemed to him,

is eye. "What did I tell you? You see, it's allus so! Now," he added rough

er, whose face seemed familiar. He looked again, timidly. In spite of an extraordinary head-dress or crown that she wore as the "Goddess of Fortune," he recognized, twisted in its tinsel, a certain scarlet vine which he had seen before; in spite

for the pure air and sympathetic loneliness of the plains and wilderness; he began to yearn for the companionship of his humble associates-the teamster, the scout Gildersleeve, and even Jim Hooker. But above all and before all was the wild desire to get away from

light haze that rose above the tules; in the distance a few scattered cottonwoods and sycamores marked like sentinels the road. When he had walked some distance he sat down beneath one of them to make a frugal supper from the dry rations in his pack, but in the absence of any spring he was forced to quench his thirst with a glass of water in a wayside tavern. Here he was good-humoredly offered something stronger, which he declined,

nse of security of rest as a traveler to his inn. Here, completely screened from view by the tall stalks of grain that rose thickly around him to the height of a man's shou

assing teams, dismissed everything but the future from his mind. Readjusting his pack, he stepped on cheerily. At noon he was overtaken by a teamster, who in return for a match to light his pipe gave him a lift of a dozen miles. It is to be feared that Clarence's account of himself was equally fanciful with his previous story, and that the teamster parted from him with a genuine regret, and a hope that he would soon be overtaken by his friends along the road. "And mind that you ain't such a fool agin to let 'em make you tote their dod-blasted tools fur them!" he added unsuspectingly, pointing to Clarence's mining outfit. Thus saved the heaviest part of the day's journey, for the road was continually rising from the plains during the last six miles, Clarence was yet able to co

e and bay, and the spicy balsamic odors that everywhere greeted him, thrilled and exhilarated him. The trail plunging sometimes into an undisturbed forest, he started the birds before him like a flight of arrows through its dim recesses; at times he hung breathlessly over the blue depths of canyons where the same forests were repeated a thousand feet below. Towards noon he struck into a rude road-evidently the thoroughfare of the locality-and was surprised to find that it, as well as the adjacent soil wherever disturbed, was a deep Indian red. Everywhere, along its side

s, the white canvas of tents. The stumps of felled trees and blackened spaces, as of recent fires, marked the stream on either side. A sudden sense of disappointment overcame Clarence. It looked vulgar, common, and worse than all-FAMILIAR. It was like the unlovely outskirts of a dozen other prosaic settlements he had seen in less romantic localities. In that muddy red stream

o attempt at display or even ordinary selection-and a table, on which stood a demijohn and three or four dirty glasses. Two roughly dressed men, whose long, matted beards and hair left only their eyes and lips visible

he shanty," said the first man, wit

est gone over to Parson Doolittle's to take tea," obser

xplained Clarence, with some hesit

eir eyes into the interior of the cabin, and said, "Will yer come yer, now WILL yer?" Thus adjured, half a dozen men, also bearded and carrying pipes in their mouths, st

pipe and grimly eying Clarence, "a h

ther, "I'll give a hundred and fifty-and the drinks. I've been,"

him in single harness; bearin' in mind the perfect freshness of him, and the coolness and size of his cheek-the easy downyness, previou

was not calculated to restore his confidence. He drew away from the cab

to interdoose 'em. This yere's Shasta Jim, this yere's Shotcard Billy, this is Nasty Bob, an

ver, seemed in fairly robust condition, "whence came ye on the wi

eal anything. "I came to Sacramento to find my cousin, who isn't living there any more. I don't see anything funny in THAT! I came here to the

cause you got lost out of a train with Silsbee's infant darter. Peyton picked you up while you was takin' care of

arence, breathlessl

when you was all alone on the plains with that little child you saw one of those redskins, a

said Clare

jun in the mesquite grass? And you once shot a buffalo th

mson with wonder and plea

, parting his mustache with his finge

epeated the ast

good deal more than you do now. You drank a man's share of whiskey, and you borrowed f

ed in utter confusion

and this was a part of the plot? He staggered forward, but the men had risen and quickl

lace is

l it Deadm

. Deadman's Gulch! Could it have been Jim Hooker who had really run away,

ave a smooth, round face and little eyes? Didn't

musingly. "Ye see, that's the h-ll of it! You're a

taining the dogged loyalty to his old playmate, which was part of his nature. "I don't know, and I don't care-there! I'm

. The gentleman known as the living skeleton had obtruded his huge bulk in front of the boy, a

el Hamilton Brant of Looeyvi

to go through the same cross-examination he had undergone with the Pe

He's dead." "The Kernel's pla

ntatiously, as one who spoke from experience. "

ted Slumgullion Dick, nodding his head gloomily to the others; "in point

hatham Street, who had not yet spoken, "sure. But what did yer mamm

tham Street here received a kick from his

find my cousin, Jackson B

eaker, glancing at the others. "Did

larence weari

y, where are

ss it at Stockton, and he fancied that the men, who were whispering among themselves, looked kinder than before, and as if they were no lo

Clarence. "You calle

n call me Fly

ow me where I

wil

dly, yet with a half-conscious sm

ravely, but, as it struck Clarence, with

of his hospitable exploit with the passengers at the wayside bar, of the finding of his Fortunatus purse and his deposit at the bank. Whether that characteristic old-fashioned reticence which had been such an important factor for good or ill in his future had suddenly deserted him, or whether some extraordina

t, go to that sluice, and let the water run in on the top of the pan-workin' it round so," he added, illustrating a rotary motion with the vessel. "Keep doing that until all the soil is washed out of it, and you have only the black sand at the bottom. Then work that the same way until yo

gutter, at the foot of the hill, he began to carefully carry out Flynn's direction. The first dip of the pan in the running water carried off half the contents of the pan in liquid paint-like ooze. For a moment he gave way to boyish satisfaction in the sight and touch of this unctuous solution, and dabbled his fingers in it. A few moments more of rinsing and he came to the sediment of fine black sand that was bene

sion of wealth, of independence, of power, sprang before his

d not heard the clatter of horse-hoofs, and to his amazement Fl

ide?" he s

mered Clar

keye Mills in time to catch the down stage

und gold," said t

t found your-

fted, the boy into the saddle of the second horse, and, with a cut of his riata o