singularly enough, awakened the first feelings of genuine respect for
Tommy ever shown by the camp. "He ain't no fool; Yuba Bill seed thet
from the first," said the barkeeper. It was Yuba Bill who applied for
the guardianship of Tommy after his accession to Johnson's claim, and on
whose bonds the richest men of Calaveras were represented. It was
Yuba Bill, also, when Tommy was sent East to finish his education,
accompanied him to San Francisco, and, before parting with his charge on
the steamer's deck, drew him aside, and said, "Ef at enny time you want
enny money, Tommy, over and 'bove your 'lowance, you kin write; but ef
you'll take my advice," he added, with a sudden huskiness mitigating
the severity of his voice, "you'll forget every derned ole spavined,
string-halted bummer as you ever met or knew at Angel's,--ev'ry one,
Tommy,--ev'ry one! And so--boy--take care of yourself--and--and God
bless ye, and pertikerly d--n me for a first-class A 1 fool." It was
Yuba Bill, also, after this speech, glared savagely around, walked down
the crowded gang-plank with a rigid and aggressive shoulder, picked a
quarrel with his cabman, and, after bundling that functionary into his
own vehicle, took the reins himself, and drove furiously to his hotel.
"It cost me," said Bill, recounting the occurrence somewhat later at
Angel's,--"it cost me a matter o' twenty dollars afore the jedge the
next mornin'; but you kin bet high thet I taught them 'Frisco chaps
suthin new about drivin'. I didn't make it lively in Montgomery Street
for about ten minutes,--O no!"
And so by degrees the two original locaters of the great Cinnabar lode
faded from the memory of Angel's, and Calaveras knew them no more. In
five years their very names had been forgotten; in seven the name of the
town was changed; in ten the town itself was transported bodily to the
hillside, and the chimney of the Union Smelting Works by night flickered
like a corpse-light over the site of Johnson's cabin, and by day
poisoned the pure spices of the pines. Even the Mansion House was
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