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Updated: June 22, 2025
"What were you going to do with that broom?" demanded the other, suspiciously. "What was I going to do? I was going to thrash that rascally boy of mine, and Mrs. Bickford knew it perfectly well." "What has he done?" "He? He's spoiled a trade of mine by his lying, and I was going to flog him for it, when Mrs. Bickford got in my way."
"I'll swear 'em into line, you holler 'Go! and the Honer'ble Bickford will finger that new gold stop-watch of his and see how fast they do it. Northin' to it, I say!" "This is the blastedest town a man ever settled down in to spend his last days in peace and quietness," growled the Cap'n.
"I kept school in Pumpkin Hollow one winter." "You don't say so? What is your name?" inquired Joshua earnestly. "John Kellogg." "I thought so!" exclaimed Mr. Bickford, excited. "Why, I used to go to school to you, Mr. Kellogg." "It is nine years ago, and you must have changed so much that I cannot call you to mind."
Bickford suffered even more from a contracted and assailed feeling out of doors. The very trees by the roadside had a curiously fateful, trying way of standing back to watch her, as she passed in the acute agony of indecision, and she was annoyed and startled by a bird that flew too near the chaise in a moment of surprise.
"Come in at one o'clock and you shall have some of your favorite beans and nothing to pay. Can you start for the mines to-morrow?" "Yes I've got nothin' to prepare." "Take your meals here till we go." "Well, I'm in luck," said Bickford. "Victuals cost awful out here and I haven't had as much as I wanted to eat since I got here." "Consider yourself my guest," said Joe, "and eat all you want to."
Bickford and Joe kept clear of these pitfalls. "Come, man, drink with me," more than once one of his comrades said to Joshua. "No, thank you," said Joshua. "Why not? Ain't I good enough?" asked the other, half offended. "You mean I'm puttin' on airs 'cause I won't drink with you? No, sir-ree. There isn't a man I'd drink with sooner than with you." "Come up, then, old fellow. What'll you take?"
"As soon as I've paid up what I owe you, I'll begin to lay by somethin'." "I don't want you to pay me till you are worth five hundred dollars, Mr. Bickford. The sum is small, and I don't need it." "Thank you, Joe. You're a good friend. I'll stick by you if you ever want help." In the evening the camp presented a lively appearance.
"You've heard of Pike, hain't you?" "I don't know as I have," said Mr. Bickford. The stranger frowned. "You must have been born in the woods not to have heard of Pike County," he said. "The smartest fighters come from Pike. I kin whip my weight in wildcats, am a match for a dozen Indians to onst, and can tackle a lion without flinchin'." "Sho!" said Joshua, considerably impressed.
His tastes were still barbaric, and a quiet suit of black would not have come up to his idea of what was befitting a successful California miner. He surveyed himself before the tailor's glass with abundant satisfaction. "I guess that'll strike 'em at home, eh, Joe?" he said. "You look splendid, Mr. Bickford." "Kinder scrumptious, don't I?" "Decidedly so."
They took from the harness-room a couple of plain saddles and bridles, with which they prepared the two best horses for their own use. Mounting them, they hastened up the road on the bank of the creek. Colonel Bickford was evidently a gentleman of taste, for he had selected a beautiful locality for his residence; but the scouts had not yet learned whether he was a Unionist or a Confederate.
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