Their mother had died crossing the plains, and their father had had a
leg broken by a wagon wheel passing over it as they descended the
Sierras, and he was for a long time after reaching the mines miserable,
lame and poor.
The eldest boy, Jim Keene, as I remember him, was a bright little
fellow, but wild as an Indian and full of mischief. The next eldest
child, Madge, was a girl of ten, her father's favorite, and she was wild
enough too. The youngest was Stumps. Poor, timid, starved Little Stumps!
I never knew his real name. But he was the baby, and hardly yet out of
petticoats. And he was very short in the legs, very short in the body,
very short in the arms and neck; and so he was called Stumps because he
looked it. In fact he seemed to have stopped growing entirely. Oh, you
don't know how hard the old Plains were on everybody, when we crossed
them in ox-wagons, and it took more than half a year to make the
journey. The little children, those that did not die, turned brown like
the Indians, in that long, dreadful journey of seven months, and stopped
growing for a time.
For the first month or two after reaching the Sierras, old Mr. Keene
limped about among the mines trying to learn the mystery of finding
gold, and the art of digging. But at last, having grown strong enough,
he went to work for wages, to get bread for his half-wild little ones,
for they were destitute indeed.
Things seemed to move on well, then. Madge cooked the simple meals, and
Little Stumps clung to her dress with his little pinched brown hand
wherever she went, while Jim whooped it over the hills and chased
jack-rabbits as if he were a greyhound. He would climb trees, too, like
a squirrel. And, oh!--it was deplorable--but how he could swear!
At length some of the miners, seeing the boy must come to some bad end
if not taken care of, put their heads and their pockets together and
sent the children to school. This school was a mile away over the
beautiful brown hills, a long, pleasant walk under the green California
oaks.
Well, Jim would take the little tin dinner bucket, and his slate, and
all their books under his arm and go booming ahead about half a mile in
advance, while Madge with brown Little Stumps clinging to her side like
a burr, would come stepping along the trail under the oak-trees as fast
as she could after him.
But if a jack-rabbit, or a deer, or a fox crossed Jim's path, no matter
how late it was, or how the teacher had threatened him, he would drop
books, lunch, slate and all, and spitting on his hands and rolling up
his sleeves, would bound away after it, yelling like a wild Indian. And
some days, so fascinating was the chase, Jim did not appear at the
schoolhouse at all; and of course Madge and Stumps played truant too.
Sometimes a week together would pass and the Keene children would not be
seen at the schoolhouse. Visits from the schoolmaster produced no
lasting effect. The children would come for a day or two, then be seen
no more. The schoolmaster and their father at last had a serious talk
about the matter.
"What _can_ I do with him?" said Mr. Keene.
"You'll have to put him to work," said the schoolmaster. "Set him to
hunting nuggets instead of bird's-nests. I guess what the boy wants is
some honest means of using his strength. He's a good boy, Mr. Keene;
don't despair of him. Jim would be proud to be an 'honest miner.' Jim's
a good boy, Mr. Keene."
"Well, then, thank you, Schoolmaster," said Mr. Keene. "Jim's a good
boy; and Madge is good, Mr. Schoolmaster; and poor starved and stunted
motherless Little Stumps, he is good as gold, Mr. Schoolmaster. And I
want to be a mother to 'em--I want to be father and mother to 'em all,
Mr. Schoolmaster. And I'll follow your advice. I'll put 'em all to work
a-huntin' for gold."
The next day away up on the hillside under a pleasant oak, where the air
was sweet and cool, and the ground soft and dotted over with flowers,
the tender-hearted old man that wanted to be "father and mother both,"
"located" a claim. The flowers were kept fresh by a little stream of
waste water from the ditch that girded the brow of the hill above. Here
he set a sluice-box and put his three little miners at work with pick,
pan and shovel. There he left them and limped back to his own place in
the mine below.
And how they did work! And how pleasant it was here under the broad
boughs of the oak, with the water rippling through the sluice on the
soft, loose soil which they shoveled into the long sluice-box. They
could see the mule-trains going and coming, and the clouds of dust far
below which told them the stage was whirling up the valley. But Jim kept
steadily on at his work day after day. Even though jack-rabbits and
squirrels appeared on the very scene, he would not leave till, like the
rest of the honest miners, he could shoulder his pick and pan and go
down home with the setting sun.
Sometimes the men who had tried to keep the children at school, would
come that way, and with a shy smile, talk very wisely about whether or
not the new miners would "strike it" under the cool oak among the
flowers on the hill. But Jim never stopped to talk much. He dug and
wrestled away, day after day, now up to his waist in the pit.
One Saturday evening the old man limped up the hillside to help the
young miners "clean up."
He sat down at the head of the sluice-box and gave directions how they
should turn off the most of the water, wash down the "toilings" very
low, lift up the "riffle," brush down the "apron," and finally set the
pan in the lower end of the "sluice-toil" and pour in the quicksilver to
gather up and hold the gold.
"What for you put your hand in de water for, papa?" queried Little
Stumps, who had left off his work, which consisted mainly of pulling
flowers and putting them in the sluice-box to see them float away. He
was sitting by his father's side, and he looked up in his face as he
spoke.
"Hush, child," said the old man softly, as he again dipped his thumb and
finger in his vest pocket as if about to take snuff. But he did not take
snuff. Again his hand was reached down to the rippling water at the head
of the sluice-box. And this time curious but obedient Little Stumps was
silent.
Suddenly there was a shout, such a shout from Jim as the hills had not
heard since he was a schoolboy.
He had found the "color." "Two colors! three, four, five--a dozen!" The
boy shouted like a Modoc, threw down the brush and scraper, and kissed
his little sister over and over, and cried as he did so; then he
whispered softly to her as he again took up his brush and scraper, that
it was "for papa; all for poor papa; that he did not care for himself,
but he did want to help poor, tired, and crippled papa." But papa did
not seem to be excited so very much.
The little miners were now continually wild with excitement. They were
up and at work Monday morning at dawn. The men who were in the father's
tender secret, congratulated the children heartily and made them
presents of several small nuggets to add to their little horde.
In this way they kept steadily at work for half the summer. All the gold
was given to papa to keep. Papa weighed it each week, and I suppose
secretly congratulated himself that he was getting back about as much as
he put in.
Before quite the end of the third month, Jim struck a thin bed of blue
gravel. The miners who had been happily chuckling and laughing among
themselves to think how they had managed to keep Jim out of mischief,
began to look at each other and wonder how in the world blue gravel ever
got up there on the hill. And in a few days more there was a
well-defined bed of blue gravel, too; and not one of the miners could
make it out.
One Saturday evening shortly after, as the old man weighed their gold he
caught his breath, started, and stood up straight; straighter than he
had stood since he crossed the Plains. Then he hastily left the cabin.
He went up the hill to the children's claim almost without limping. Then
he took a pencil and an old piece of a letter, and wrote out a notice
and tacked it up on the big oak-tree, claiming those mining claims
according to miners' law, for the three children. A couple of miners
laughed as they went by in the twilight, to see what he was doing; and
he laughed with them. But as he limped on down the hill he smiled.
That night as they sat at supper, he told the children that as they had
been such faithful and industrious miners, he was going to give them
each a present, besides a little gold to spend as they pleased.
So he went up to the store and bought Jim a red shirt, long black and
bright gum boots, a broad-brimmed hat, and a belt. He also bought each
of the other children some pretty trappings, and gave each a dollar's
worth of gold dust. Madge and Stumps handed their gold back to "poor
papa." But Jim was crazy with excitement. He put on his new clothes and
went forth to spend his dollar. And what do you suppose he bought? I
hesitate to tell you. But what he bought was a pipe and a paper of
tobacco!
That red shirt, that belt and broad-brimmed hat, together with the shiny
top boots, had been too much for Jim's balance. How could a man--he
spoke of himself as a man now--how could a man be an "honest miner" and
not smoke a pipe?
And now with his manly clothes and his manly pipe he was to be so happy!
He had all that went to make up "the honest miner." True, he did not let
his father know about the pipe. He hid it under his pillow at night. He
meant to have his first smoke at the sluice-box, as a miner should.
Monday morning he was up with the sun and ready for his work. His
father, who worked down the Gulch, had already gone before the children
had finished their breakfast. So now Jim filled his brand-new pipe very
leisurely; and with as much calm unconcern as if he had been smoking for
forty years, he stopped to scratch a match on the door as he went out.
From under his broad hat he saw his little sister watching him, and he
fairly swelled with importance as Stumps looked up at him with childish
wonder. Leaving Madge to wash the few tin dishes and follow as she could
with Little Stumps, he started on up the hill, pipe in mouth.
He met several miners, but he puffed away like a tug-boat against the
tide, and went on. His bright new boots whetted and creaked together,
the warm wind lifted the broad brim of his _sombrero_, and his bright
new red shirt was really beautiful, with the green grass and oaks for a
background--and so this brave young man climbed the hill to his mine.
Ah, he was so happy!
[Illustration: HE TOOK THE LIMP YOUNG MINER IN HIS ARMS.]
Suddenly, as he approached the claim, his knees began to smite together,
and he felt so weak he could hardly drag one foot after the other. He
threw down his pick; he began to tremble and spin around. The world
seemed to be turning over and over, and he trying in vain to hold on to
it. He jerked the pipe from his teeth, and throwing it down on the bank,
he tumbled down too, and clutching at the grass with both hands tried
hard, oh! so hard, to hold the world from slipping from under him.
"O, Jim, you are white as snow," cried Madge as she came up.
"White as 'er sunshine, an' blue, an' green too, sisser. Look at brurrer
'all colors,'" piped Little Stumps pitifully.
"O, Jim, Jim--brother Jim, what is the matter?" sobbed Madge.
"Sunstroke," murmured the young man, smiling grimly, like a true
Californian. "No; it is not sunstroke, it's--it's cholera," he added in
dismay over his falsehood.
Poor boy! he was sorry for this second lie too. He fairly groaned in
agony of body and soul.
Oh, how he did hate that pipe! How he did want to get up and jump on it
and smash it into a thousand pieces! But he could not get up or turn
around or move at all without betraying his unmanly secret.
A couple of miners came up, but Jim feebly begged them to go.
"Sunstroke," whispered the sister.
"No; tolera," piped poor Little Stumps.
"Get out! Leave me!" groaned the young red-shirted miner of the
Sierras.
The biggest of the two miners bent over him a moment.
"Yas; it's both," he muttered. "Cholera-nicotine-fantum!" Then he looked
at his partner and winked wickedly. Without a word, he took the limp
young miner up in his arms and bore him down the hill to his father's
cabin, while Stumps and Madge ran along at either side, and tenderly and
all the time kept asking what was good for "cholera."
The other old "honest miner" lingered behind to pick up the baleful pipe
which he knew was somewhere there; and when the little party was far
enough down the hill, he took it up and buried it in his own capacious
pocket with a half-sorrowful laugh. "Poor little miner," he sighed.
"Don't ever swear any more, Windy," pleaded the boy to the miner who had
carried him down the hill, as he leaned over him, "and don't never lie.
I am going to die, Windy, and I should like to be good. Windy, it
_ain't_ sunstroke, it's"--
"Hush yer mouth," growled Windy. "I know what 'tis! We've left it on the
hill."
The boy turned his face to the wall. The conviction was strong upon him
that he was going to die. The world spun round now very, very fast
indeed. Finally, half-rising in bed, he called Little Stumps to his
side:
"Stumps, dear, good Little Stumps, if I die don't you never, never try
for to smoke; for that's what's the matter with me. No, Stumps--dear
little brother Stumps--don't you never try for to go the whole of the
'honest miner,' for it can't be did by a boy! We're nothing but boys,
you and I, Stumps--Little Stumps."
He sank back in bed and Little Stumps and his sister cried and cried,
and kissed him and kissed him.
The miners who had gathered around loved him now, every one, for daring
to tell the truth and take the shame of his folly so bravely.
"I'm going to die, Windy," groaned the boy.
Windy could stand no more of it. He took Jim's hand with a cheery laugh.
"Git well in half an hour," said he, "now that you've out with the
truth."
And so he did. By the time his father came home he was sitting up; and
he ate breakfast the next morning as if nothing had happened. But he
never tried to smoke any more as long as he lived. And he never lied,
and he never swore any more.
Oh, no! this Jim that I have been telling you of is "Moral Jim," of the
Sierras. The mine? Oh! I almost forgot. Well, that blue dirt was the old
bed of the stream, and it was ten times richer than where the miners
were all at work below. Struck it! I should say so! Ask any of the old
Sierras miners about "The Children's Claim," if you want to hear just
how rich they struck it.