As Ashley concluded Strong said: "Why, Ashley! that is good. Why do you not give up mining and devote yourself to writing?"
Ashley laughed low, and said: "Because I have had what repentant sinners are said to have had, my experience. Let me tell you about it.
"It was in Belmont in Eastern Nevada, during that winter when the small pox was bad. It took an epidemic form in Belmont, and a good many died.
"Among the victims was Harlow Reed. Harlow was a young and handsome fellow, a generous, happy-hearted fellow, too, and when he was stricken down, a 'soiled dove,' hearing of his illness, went and watched over him until he died.
"The morning after his death, Billy S. came to me, and handing me a slip of paper on which was Reed's name, age, etc., asked me to prepare a notice for publication. I fixed it as nearly as I could, as I had seen such things in newspapers. It read:
DIED—In Belmont, Dec. 17, Harlow Reed, a native of New Jersey aged twenty-three years.
"Billie glanced at the paper and then said: 'Harlow was a good fellow and a good friend of ours, can you not add something to this notice?'
"In response I sat down and wrote a brief eulogy of the boy, and closed the article in these words:
And for her, the poor woman, who braving the dangers of the pestilence, went and sat at the feet of the man she loved, until he died; for her, though before her garments were soiled, we know that this morning, in the Recording Angel's book it is written "her robes are white as snow."
"Billie took the paper to the publisher, and as he went away, I had a secret thought that, all things being considered, the notice was not bad.