I told Charlie they didn’t look very good, but he said the man was giving us a good price and we should take them. He found out how much money we had and wanted all of it.
When we got back to camp we showed our weapons to the main scout and he looked at them and asked where we got em. We told him and Charlie told him how we bargained with the man and got a real bargain.
The scout looked at Charlie and spit a big gob of tobacco spit and said let’s go and bring your bargains.
We found the man in a saloon laughing about how he sold some junk guns to a couple of hicks. The Scout went over to the man and dragged him out back of the saloon. He told the men of the saloon while he was talking to the men not to follow if they enjoyed breathing.
After shaking the man till his teeth were clacking together he put a shell into one of the guns and told the man to fire it. He had a pistol in the man’s ear all the time. The man begged the scout not to make him fire the gun for it was defective and would blow apart if fired. He said he would give us some new guns and our money back.
Charlie settled for a single shot large caliber rifle and a side arm. Me, I choose one of the new Spencer carbines and a colt pistol with a holster. The scout gave the man a good whipping and said if he ever saw him again there would be no talk - - just a bullet.
We were afraid to say anything to the scout and when we got back to the wagon train we hid out and went to sleep. Nothing was ever said about the incident either by us or the scout.
The first few days were hard for we were not used to being in the saddle fourteen hours a day. We were up and gone long before the wagon train left and were usually returned after they had settled in for the night.
The main scout didn’t cut us any slack for he was trail harden and expected us to be the same. Sometimes he took us with him and other times he sent us in a different direction.
The first Indian I saw didn’t have war paint on but wanted to trade some pelts for some sugar and salt. Later on there were some that insisted we give them whiskey but the wagon master said no but gave them some food which satisfied them for the moment.
I felt uncomfortable having my hand on my gun ready to kill if necessary but those were my instructions.
Though Charlie and I were only sixteen, dressed in our range clothes and being dirty we looked quite a bit older. Another thing we were pretty well muscled up from hard work.
If we came in early to camp in the evening a little Irish man got a lot of fun out of punching us around under the guise of teaching us to box. In the end we got pretty good at defending ourselves from the drunks we would eventually encounter.
Later we found Paddy, our sparing partner had been a champion in Ireland and he still had all his moves. He planned to set up some matches in San Francisco when he arrived there and he had used us to keep himself in shape.
Chapter 7 To the Diggings
After four months we made it to Sacramento, a bustling town and found there were a lot of want- a- be miners who went broke.
They were looking for a stake and had some fanciful tales to tell. We found a bottle would garner a lot of information and after a few days we felt we knew enough to go to the mountain and seek our fortune.
We bought a mule to haul our equipment up to the digs and once settled, sold it to some guys who needed some help getting their stuff back to civilization.
Charlie made the rounds looking for somewhere to start digging. As it turned out most of the good diggings were taken so we tried along a creek for we had to have some water for panning.
We didn’t find much gold and began to run low on food so Charlie went hunting. With his long rifle he managed to bag a couple of deer. When we got them back to camp some guys with gold wanted to pay an outlandish price for a piece of our deer.
By supplying meat to the camp soon our pockets were full and then we managed to buy a claim that was producing gold. I hired a couple of miners who went broke and they worked it for a percentage of what they found.
Charlie continued to hunt and supply food for the camps. Then Charlie got a newspaper from a miner who had been to Sacramento taking his gold down there to deposit, and he brought back some supplies for him and his partner.
Charlie saw an ad in the paper for mail order brides. He was fascinated by the idea of ordering a bride just like a pair of pants or a plow. I tried to remind him of what our mothers told us many times and that was, “Never buy a Pig in a Poke.”
Nevertheless he immediately sent for a list of available women and a month later he received an answer with a history and pictures of many women.
Every night he would sit by the lantern and look at those pictures until he settled on one of them.
According to the instructions he sent off for one of the women along with some money and a ticket.
It was six months later he was advised to come to the station and claim his bride. I needed supplies so I went with him.
When the train came in we looked for someone who looked like the picture we had, but no one matched the picture. Charlie asked the conductor if she had come in on the train and he said yes she is in the station. Then he added is she your mother?
At that remark we looked at one another for we both had a sick feeling in our stomach.
After waiting for awhile we went in and found the woman and she hugged Charlie till he could hardly breathe. Charlie looked at the picture and then handed it to me. This woman was her alright. After you looked at her for awhile you could see a resemblance.
She was at least twenty years older and a hundred pounds heavier than her picture. Charlie never panicked but causally asked about the discrepancy in the picture. She said, “This was the only picture I had so I thought it would be alright for it was of her.”
Charlie said, “I’ll be right back. He returned in ten minutes and said here is a ticket and the train is leaving in the morning and here is a hundred dollars to spend as you like it. I have a room at the hotel that you can stay in tonight. Make sure you don’t miss the train in the morning otherwise you will be stuck here for several days.”
He took her to the hotel and said his good-byes and came back over to me and said, “Let’s go, Ma was right, “Never buy a Pig in a Poke.”
A week later we were back at the diggings and when he was asked where his bride was he just said; it didn’t work out and wouldn’t say any more about it.
Some of them questioned me but I would only say, “Ask Charlie.”
After the marrying episode that didn’t work out, Charlie was listless.
He didn’t want to hunt and he just hung around our diggings. Sometimes he would go over and dig for a few minutes and then come back and sit again.
The whole camp felt sorry for Charlie, because little by little the story came out as the miners would go to town and hear the story about what happened then come back and tell what they heard.
All Charlie wanted was a woman of his own and no one could fault him for that.
There were almost no women in the camps that weren’t married and no one would try to fool around with them if they wanted to live.
The next winter several men got shot and some died for making that mistake.
The weather got so bad that we couldn’t work the claim so I went to town for the winter. Charlie stayed at the claim for he wanted to be alone.
Chapter 8 An offer I couldn’t Resist
I got a job working in the restaurant that had a room in the back. This way I had food and a place to stay and more importantly kept warm.
As spring began to break the miner who had the most productive mine at the diggings had came down and went to San Francisco. On his way back he stayed at the hotel and ate at the restaurant.
I was cleaning the tables when he recognized me and struck up a conversation. He said isn’t it about time you went back to the diggings? I said yes I was planning to go this week.
He
told me that I could go with his party if I wished to. I said, “That would be fine with me. All I had to do was load up my supplies and I would be ready to go.”
As it turned out traveling in a group was a lot better than going it alone. No one would try to take your goods from you or they had a big fight on their hands.
I knew Bartlett the owner of the mine, but on the trip I got to know him better. He said after I got settled in he would like to see me about something I might be interested in so I told him as soon as I check on Charlie I would be available.
A couple days later I went over to Bartlett’s mine and met with him.
While I was waiting for him to come to the office a grubby looking individual came in and sat at a desk over in the corner almost out of sight.
Bartlett came in a moment later and asked if I wanted some coffee, to which I said “Yes.”
He poured me a cup of coffee and said, “I have a proposition to make to you.”
He continued, “I have a daughter who is just coming into the marrying age. Now I must admit she ain’t much to look at, but she might make someone a decent wife. He said before her Ma passed on she made me promise to get this gal a husband.”
He went on saying; “You seem to be a decent young man and you need a wife so here’s the deal.”
When he said that, my heart felt like it dropped to the floor. Marriage, me, no way, not at all, I wasn’t expecting that.
Then I came to enough to hear him say, “When you marry her I will give you half interest in this mine and you will be a rich man.”
He then called the person with the soiled clothing on over and removed her hat so I could see her face. It was then I realized why he made such a good offer to the one who would marry her for she was homely as all get out, to put it nicely.
Bartlett said, “Now she’s no beauty but if you saw her without her clothes on you would see she is very shapely. In fact from the neck down she is far above almost all women.”
I was speechless, it took me some time before words would come out of my mouth and then only after I had a drink of water.
I had to get out of there so I told him I would give it some real thought and get back to him. The next morning he was down at our diggings wanting to know what I had decided.
The only thing I could think of was I want to get to know her before I decide and she needs to get to know me before she would agree to marry me. This seemed to satisfy him, but then he said, “I’ll see you this evening and every other evening until this bargain is struck.”
This was one of the longest and most miserable days I had ever spent.
I knew if I didn’t show up for supper at Bartlett’s place he would come down to our diggings and I would be trapped there. So I showed up as if I couldn’t wait to get there.
The one thing I didn’t want to do was to make Bartlett mad at me. He could have me run out of the hills with nothing but the shirt on my back and with
the promise of great harm if I came back.
When I arrived he asked me if I wanted a drink and I told him I didn’t drink to which he said, good.
I had sipped some cider but tonight I had to have a clear mind. I asked Bartlett if he didn’t mind could I know what his daughter’s name was.
He laughed and said sure; if you are going to marry her you should know what to call her. He went on and said, “Her name is Lucinda. I always call her Cindy but if you don’t like that you can call her what ever you want.”
Having nothing else to say I said, “That seems fair” to me.” Everything he said carried with it the fact that I had already agreed to marry her which I hadn’t promised anything.
Cindy brought in our supper and Bartlett said Cindy is as good a cook as her Ma that is when I can keep her out of the mine. The smell of that food changed my whole line of thinking. She had traded some gold to some settlers for some chickens, greens, and milk. She also served an already made apple pie. That was some feast we had that night.
After supper we went into the parlor such as it was, and while I was waiting for Bartlett I ventured over and looked into the big mirror on the wall and thought, “I ain’t what you might call purty myself.”
I had never given that any thought before and it came as a shock to me.
When Bartlett came in he wanted to talk business. He said, “I need to know what your decision is going to be? The word has got out that I offered you half interest in the mine in exchange for marrying Cindy and they are lining up to marry her on that basis.?
All the things that happened in the last couple of days like the supper tonight and my looking at myself in the mirror had caused me to look more favorable on her.
I told him I would be over the first thing in the morning and give him my answer. I said if it would be alright I would like to talk to Cindy for I never heard her say anything and I wanted to make sure she could speak.
He agreed but said, “Do not get too close to her until you make up your mind.”
Shortly, she came in and sat down. It looked as if she was ready for bed. I guess Bartlett had told her to get on in there and talk to him without giving her a chance to get dressed.
I felt a little embarrassed looking in her direction. I had to agree with him that she had a shapely shape. Looking at her bodily form made it hard to talk but I finally got started and said, “How do you feel about marrying up with me?” She said, “I don’t feel nothing.”
I wasn’t satisfied with that answer so I asked her if she didn’t want to marry me.
She said, “I don’t know if I do or don’t.”
I could see I wasn’t getting anywhere so I told her she had better get to feeling something pretty soon for whether it was me or some other man she was going to be wed, cause her father had made a promise to her Ma.
I said I would be back in the morning and she better get ready for she may be married to someone tomorrow.
As I left she spoke up and said, “If I had to, I would as soon marry you as anybody I guess.”
I said, “Okay,” and I could feel the noose of matrimony tightening around my neck.
Chapter 9 I’m a rich man
When I got back to our cabin I told Charlie what happened and he said, “For half of that mine I would marry anyone.”
I said, “I know that is the way I feel also but I would rather do the choosing instead being bought.”
Charlie said, “She can’t be all that bad. I saw her down at the creek washing herself, and from the back she looked real good.”
I said, “I’m going to sleep on it.” As usual I was up early and had breakfast. I then took off for Bartlett’s with my decision in hand.
I knocked on the door real hard and woke Bartlett up. Cindy was up cooking and was half dressed. He came and opened the door after telling Cindy to go and get dressed. He said, “Have you made up your mind yet?”
I said, “Yes, I’m going to be your new son- in-law.”
He just about broke my ribs hugging me and yelled for Cindy to come and kiss her husband to be. She still wasn’t fully dressed but she was close enough for me to give her a big kiss on the mouth.
She looked stunned for a minute and then grabbed me around the neck and proceeded to kiss my face all over. Bartlett said that’s enough of that for now. Perhaps you can save it till after the wedding.
I told them both that we were going to be like married folks right off and no messing around like I had heard about some people.
Bartlett told me that I would have to give her some time to get used to the idea and I said, “She has until the preacher get’s here to get used to the idea and then we are going to be married just like other folks.”
Cindy said, “Stop fretting Pa, that’s all alright with me, I didn’t want to get married anyway but since I am going to I want to get on with it.”
Bartlett said, “Okay if that’s the way you want it go ahead.” It took two hou
rs for the preacher to get there and fifteen minutes to do the marrying.
He just happened to have a supply of wedding rings so I bought the one Cindy picked out for herself.
The words; “I now pronounce you man and wife” seemed to be the end of a process that was meant to be for always.
The camp expected a celebration with food and drink. Due to the short time he had, Bartlett had the settlers bring in a lot of food which he paid for and he had some sprits he passed around. In the end everyone enjoyed my wedding as much or more than I did.
It was very late when the celebration was over and the bride and groom were exhausted. Cindy slept in her bed and I slept in an extra bedroom in Bartlett’s house. It didn’t seem wise to do otherwise due to the worn out state we were both in.
In the morning we were up by daylight and headed to the city. This took us two days getting to our hotel and arriving in the afternoon. Without our fast horses we could have been on the road for four days or more.