“When we come for to ’vestigate, an’ take a view ob de situation, we foun’ out jes’ de way ob de whole truff, fo’ jes’ as suah as you lib, gemmen, dar was our line stretchin’ way out ahead ob de boat, sah, all kivered ober wid dem immense insects; dem Forty-nine skeeters. You mus’ understand, gemmen, dat dat line ob ourn was a tarred rope, an’ de hot wedder jes’ made it awful sticky. Well, you see dat dem skeeters went an’ used dat ar tarred rope for der roos’ in de night, an’ when dey feet was once on dat line dey was dar fo’ good. In de night, when de boss skeeter ordered all hands up to tend to their duties, dey jes’ took de line an’ all along wid ’em right op de riber, an’ fo’ de Lord, gemmen, dat was de way we done sailed up de Sacramento Riber.”
Some one asked Julius about the size of them mosquitoes. He replied, “Well, now, about de size ob dem animals, you is axin me too much, kase we didn’t hab any rule or chalk line on de boat to measure dem wid; but I tells yer for a fac’, gemmen, dat we kotched de whole lot ob ’em, chopped of dare bills, sah; an’ sold ’em to de hotels in de city.”
When asked what use they made of them at the hotels, he said that they used ’em fo’ toothpicks.
After bidding all hands good bye, and with an earnest wish that they might all live to enjoy many such pleasant meetings and to talk about old times, Julius departed.
“That story about the loaf of bread,” said Jeff, “reminds me of a specimen of my cooking, once upon a time. It was up in Shasta County along in the winter of ’50. There were four of us in company, and we took regular turns to display our science in the cooking art. Well, I concluded once, when it come my week to git up the grub, to give the boys something new in the grub line, a regular old-fashioned plum pudding, or plum-duff as they called it on board the ship on our voyage around the Horn. I never had made one, but I had seen the ship’s cook get them up, and I was confident that I could fix one up in the same style, and I thought ’twas no trick at all. Just take some flour, put it into a sack, slap in some water, you know; throw in some salt, a little spice, a hunk of butter, and then some dried apples, if there ain’t any raisins around, then some eggs, and that ends the programme. Then shake ’em all together a spell, put the sack in the kettle and let her bile till ’tis done, and you have got something fit to eat, or anyway you oughter have if ’tis mixed all right; but, boys, in making that duff I made a mistake somewhere; for after I had biled it for about six hours, and come to put it on the table jest to see how astonished the boys would look, I tell you what we were all of us astonished to find that the derned thing was so tough that we couldn’t cut it with a knife. So one of the boys, after chopping off a slice of it with the axe to tap his boots with, threw it out of the door and it rolled into a prospect hole, and ’twas good-bye duff for a time, but not forever. A day of resurrection came for my duff. ’Twas about fifteen years afterwards that some miners at work there ground-sluicing away the bank, found it. It was a great curiosity, for no such spotted stone had ever been found around them diggings before, and many opinions were given by those who claimed to be well posted in geological science, and ’twas real interesting to hear them explain what kind of mineral it was, and the different elements ’twas composed of; how old it was, what era or period it belonged to, etc. Well, boys, I could have told ’em very quick all about its age, eras, periods, and its dufferdom elements, for I knew what it was the minute I see it, but I didn’t want to let the cat out of the bag, for I was always sorry that I let the duff out, so I kept shady. There was a little hollow on one side, where one of the boys chopped the slice off to tap his boots with, so the boys who found it used it for a number of years as a mortar to prospect quartz with. Well, one day there was a scientific man, a professor from some part of Europe, around viewing the country, and hearing about the curious stone, he went to see it.
“After examining it carefully all over, he said:
“‘I would like to see ’em inside.’