Happy Hawkins

FT A

w 'at Jim would be glad to see me, but I knew I'd be lonesomer there than among total strangers;

e-his own or any one else's. Fact o' the matter is that if you watch him close enough you'll find out that even in his games a boy is about the solemnest thing on earth, an' you have to know the game purty thorough to tell when it drifts into a real fight. That's why all wars have been fought by boys. They believe in any cause 'at looks big enough to lay down their lives for, an' that's their chief ambition. A man, though; get

; even lugged a chain in a surveyor outfit, but the' wasn't enough chance in that. I got to have a trace of gamblin' in anything I do; so the first thing I knew I was down in Nevada lookin' for the treasure 'at Bil

a cold wind sweepin' up the canon-I don't know just how the cold wind got included, but the dyin' outlaw dwelt upon that cold wind something parti

most sorrowful expression I ever see. You just couldn't be suspicious of a man with such eyes as that; he seemed to have throwed himself wide open an' invited the whole world to come an' look inside. Why, a perfect stranger would have trusted Slocum with his last plug of tobacoo, and like as not he'd have

took a piece of burlap off the pack, put it over the hole where the smoke was comin' up through, an' piled snow on top of it. I was curious to see what would hap

hen you tell me how

old me how I could wind around and come down to him. Well, me an' the burro finally worked it out,

grumbled. "Don't you know better'n

sez I, "an' that was the only way I cou

much," sez I, "but I 'm minded to try it a wh

tobacco

ty,"

welcome,

natural chimney runnin' up the hill, an' it looked considerable much like Paradise to me. We ate an' smoked together for a week, an' then one day our fire wen

l be all to the good when the winter settles in earnest, but

could locate the burro I'd rather risk gettin' back to humanit

me," sez Slocum, an' he went to one of

' it will drive the rheu

an' red pepper for an hour, tryin' to get rid of the taste. Drive the rheumatiz out of your system? Why, the blame stuff wo

put a shall pinch in a quart of alcohol it makes a fine remedy. Don't thro

I, "there i

erally eats it. My burro was fat, an' the clump of pine trees had mostly disappeared. I loaded up my stuff, shook hands with Slocum, and started down the mountain. Just as I got fully started Slocum

al plan of occupat

e remainder of my days," sez he, "is

e parted the best o' friends, an' I went on to a lumber camp where I put in the winter bossin' a gang. I

report had it that a feller named Slocum had located the big ace of gold mines, an' I was some et up with curiosity to see if it was the same Slocum; but I was needed at the ranch tha

t wouldn't hang out, until at last even he got disgusted an' went to huntin' for his Injun root to cure rheumatiz with. First thing he knew, he had stumbled on a bonanza lode in the Esmeralda range. This here lode was a peach. Ten-foot face on top, just sogg

in, equal partners. They sunk shafts an' built stamp mills an' smelters an' retorts; oh, they sure made plans to get the metal wholesale. As soon as it began to flow in they bu

'at he'd been havin' the muddy end of it, an' after a time he got 'em to call the mine "Slocum's Luck." The' wasn't no call to hurl such an insult as that i

e one edge out of the ground had unjointed the other. But they had got out a tidy sum already, an'

n brute labor; an' I felt kindly toward him. Winter lasted full four months out there. It was a good ninety miles to the railroad, an' so when the mornin's begun to get frosty every one else scooted for h

ed like a dry axle before the bluebirds began to sing. Quiet? I could hear the shadows crawlin' along the side of the house. The snow was seventy-five feet deep in the canyons, so you m

s the entire reception committee; but I bet