Part 30 (1/2)
”Haven't got any!”
”I'd ask you in if we wasn't packin' up to go.”
”Does your wife go with you?”
”Why, nat'rally!”
”Say,” Wakefield queried, as the man turned in at the gate. ”How did you go to work to get that job up in the canon?”
”Went to 'Bijah Lang, the street-commissioner.”
”You haven't got any friend who would like you to pa.s.s the job over to him?”
”No.”
”Think I could do it?”
”Wal, yes,--if you've got the gumption! Your arms and legs 'pear to be all right! Ever see any work of the kind?”
”Yes; I used to watch them on the road up Bear Mountain, at Lame Gulch.”
”Know how to drill a hole in a rock?”
”Learned that when I was a boy.”
”Know the difference between _joint_ powder and the black stuff?”
”Yes; though I never handled giant powder myself.”
”Wal, don't be too free with it, that's all. And, say!” he called, as Wakefield in his turn made as if to go. ”Look's like as though you'd got somethin' up to Lame Gulch. Wal, you hold on to it, that's all!”
”You believe in Lame Gulch, then?”
”Lame Gulch is all right. It's chockfull of stuff, now I tell ye! Only folks thought they was goin' to fish it out with a rod 'n line.”
”Then you really think there 's something in it?”
”Somethin' in it? I tell ye, it's chockfull o' stuff! Only folks have got it into their heads that the one thing in this world they kin git without workin' for it, is _gold_! If that was so, what would it be wuth? Less than pig-iron! I tell ye, there ain't nothin' in this world that's to be got without workin' for it, 'n the more work it takes, the more it's wuth! 'N the reason gold's wuth more 'n most things, is because it takes more work 'n most things; more diggin' 'n more calc'latin'. Why!” he went on, waxing more and more emphatic. ”Ef diggin' gold wa' n't no harder 'n mendin' roads, 't wouldn't _pay_ any better,--now I tell ye!”
”Perhaps you're right,” Wakefield admitted, ”but that's not what we're brought up to think.”
”That's what my boys was brought up to think, 'n they're actin'
accordin'.”
”Have you got some boys up at Lame Gulch?”
”Yes, four on 'em. 'N I've got a claim up there too, 'n they're workin'
it.”
”Why don't you go up and work your claim yourself?” asked Wakefield.
A humorous twinkle came into the man's eyes.