Jim replied that he had never been to that part of the country since he left it in ’53.
“But that was a rich gulch that we worked over there by Mosquito cañon, wern’t it?” said Yank.
“Well, I should say it was, and good two-ounce diggins’ every day. I would jest like to strike another sich a claim as that now.”
“Well,” says Yank, “do you remember old Buckeye, the chap with the crooked nose?”
“Oh, yes! yes indeed. You remember I called him old corkscrew. But have you ever run afoul of him in your travels?”
“Yes,” replied Yank, “and I’ll tell ye how I happened to strike him last fall. You see I had been prospecting around up in that new silver minin’ region in Northern Idaho, and as soon as the snow begun to fall I concluded to make tracks for California, so I came down through Montana into Nevada, but didn’t see any thing worth stayin’ there for. Well, on my way over from Nevada, I concluded to come around on that divide, take a look around the country above Georgetown, and take a walk over to that gulch, near Mosquito Cañon, where we worked in ’50. But I tell you I hardly knew the place, for I had to climb over fences, travel through vineyards and orchards, and in one place I come across the biggest swarm of children that you ever did see, and it did seem strange to see so many children livin’ where only a few years ago was nobody but grizzlys and Indians. I asked a little black-eyed chap where they all came from, and he said that building over there on the hill was a school-house, and the children all lived around in the neighborhood. I asked him if their parents were mining?
“‘Oh, no,’ said he, ‘they was most all ranchin’, some few of em were minin’ down in the cañon and some were workin’ in their tunnel claims in the hills.’
I asked him if there was any more children in that part of the country.
“‘Oh,’ says he, ‘I reckon there is; for right over there by the cañon is a big school house that’s chock full of children, and over there in that ravine they are jest buildin’ another one and that’ll soon be full of children too, you bet.’
“The boy put me on the trail to the cañon, and I soon found the gulch where we mined nearly forty years ago. ’Tis all fenced in now, and the ground where we worked down in the gulch is all covered with fruit trees. You remember that great quartz boulder, Jim, that slid down off the bank one day and came near smashing some of us?”