Page:Life Amongst the Modocs.djvu/148

 public."

And he went up behind the man, as he sat there on a three-legged stool, serenely leading out his ace for his opponent s Jack.

u Come down !" said the new Judge, gaily ; u come down ! I have you now ! Come down ! "

Sandy raised his hands, his great broad hands, like slabs of pine, and brought them down on top of the beaver hat like an avalanche. The hat shot down and the head shot up, till it was buried out of sight in the wrecked and ruined beaver.

The man sprung to his feet, thrust out his hands, and jumped about like a boy in " Blind-man s-buff," and Sandy walked back to the bar, cool and uncon cerned, and ordered gin and peppermint.

The man at last excavated his nose, and took a bee-line for the door, amid howls of delight from the patrons of the HowlnV Wilderness. That is the usual fate of beavers in the mines. They may be respected, but they perish for all that.

Let a member of Congress, or even of the Cabinet, go up into the mountains with a beaver, and ten to one he would have it driven down over his nose. He would have to stand it too; he would have to laugh, call it a good joke, and treat " the boys" in the bargain. After that they would call him a good fellow, give him "feet" in an extension of the a Jenny Lind" ledge, u Midnight Assassin," or " Roaring Lion," and vote for him, if he should be a candidate for office, to the last man.

I leave this question of the hat now to those wise