1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



163 



starteil up tlie niidrfle otTne' town, fiat- 

 less, clrippiiis? wet, shoutiug aud carry- 

 ing before him his goldeu prize, he soon 

 had a crowd at his heels. He paid no 

 attention to the crowd, but when he 

 saw ou either side of the street miners 

 of his acquaintance he shouted to them 

 in passing: "Byes, that lasht blaslit 

 fetched iier! There's a whole bushel of 

 goold undther the bottom of her!" 



Strangers in the tow^u thought they 

 saw before them a crazy man, but every 

 resident of the place knew Mike, and 

 soon along the street was raised the 

 cry: "Mike Maroney has struck it at 

 last! He's knocked the devil out of his 

 bowlder and got a chunk of gold big- 

 ger'u n fiyin pan!" 



Hearing this news, others shouted, 

 "Hurrah for Maroney aud his 'lasht 

 blasht!' " 



"Yis, hnrrah, byes!" cried Mike, who 

 felt himstlf in the seventh heaven of 

 glory. "Hurrah, for this miuit I'm the 

 pride of tho wurruld!" 



By the time Milce had found some of 

 tho friends who had for so long backed 

 him with their coin aud had displayed 

 his big nugget there was a grand excite- 

 ment in the camp. Some said he had 

 found an old channel paved with nug- 

 gets as big as cobblestones, aud others 

 that great slabs of gold covered the bed- 

 rock. 



Mike told his friends that, though he 

 had only stopped long enough to catch 

 up the first big nugget he saw, he was 

 sure there was a whole bushel of gold 

 in the nest of the big bowlder. With 

 the sample brought in by Mike lying 

 before them all were ready to believe 

 that he had made the "strike" of the 

 age. Every man who heard of Mike's 

 find said he always felt sure that there 

 •were "mule loads" of gold under the 

 big bowlder of Slug canyon. 



As soon as Mike's backers had collect- 

 ed their wit;?, scattered by the sight of 

 the big nugget aud his wild story of 

 bushels of gold in sight, they dropped 

 everything and prepared to go at once 

 to the scene of the strike. With the 

 elated Maroney in the lead they set out, 

 taking with them a pack mule that hap- 

 pened to be at baud. They were joined 

 by a number of idlers as tiiey passed 

 through the town, and in going up Slug 

 canyon the crowd was increased by the 

 miners, '»t the several claims wlio de- 



sired to least tn6ir eyes upon wnat by 

 this had grown to be "Mike Maroney's 

 mound of gold. " 



Seeing the miners thus flocking after 

 him, Mike cried: "Cheer for me, byes. 

 The lasht blasht fetched her!" 



During the absence of the party the 

 excitement in the town was at fever 

 heat. Some new wonder was constantly 

 being adrled to the story of the big find. 

 Then occasionally there were false 

 alarms. One of these that sent a crowd 

 rushing down toward the river was lo 

 the effect that Mikfe aud his friends 

 wore on their way back to town and 

 were "just crossing the bridge at Jersey 

 Flat with a mule load of gold. " 



At last, when the sun was just sink- 

 ing behind the western mountains, the 

 party came straggling back to town. 

 Th'jy were a dejected looking crowd and 

 gave short and surly answers to the 

 qut «tions fired at them on all sides. The 

 backers were particularly gloomy and 

 snappish. As for Mike himself, he was 

 nowhere to be seen. 



Finally the tongues of some of the dis-- 

 interested idlers who had gone out with 

 the party were loosened though the ad- 

 ministration of copious doses of stimu- 

 lants. They then said squarely and 

 frankly that they had found nothing at 

 all. The nest of Mike's big bowlder was 

 empty. lu the smooth and soft bed of 

 the rock they found the spot where 

 Mike's "golden moon" had lain aud 

 saw his tracks beside it, but not a sin- 

 gle nugget was in sight. Then they had 

 dug into tho edge of the old channel and 

 found it barren and smooth as the bot- 

 tom of an iron kettle. 



"What has become of Mike?" asked 

 some one. 



"Ah, poor Mike! Well, we are afraid 

 he is in a bad way. As soon as he found 

 that there were no nuggets in sight aud 

 was told that he had merely imagined 

 them he took on the color of a corpse. 

 He reeled about, pawed the air, and 

 then, with a howl such as I never want 

 to hear again, ran off to his cabin and 

 locked himself up in it. As he couldn't 

 be induced to come out, two men were 

 left to watch him, for he is evidently 

 upset in the upper story. No one can 

 get anything out of him but mutterings 

 about his last blast. " 



The next day Mike was brought into 

 the town for medical exaiuination. .The 



