oor relations, though they didn't know
him from Adam,--was it?" He paused; several of the bystanders cleared
their throats, but said nothing. "At least," resumed Bracy, "that's what
the boys up at Red Hill, Oregon, thought, when they heard of it. Well,
as the father was in hospital with a broken leg, and the mother only a
few weeks dead, the boys thought it mighty rough on these poor kids if
they were done out of their fun because they had no one to bring them.
The boys couldn't afford to go themselves, but they got a little money
together, and then got the idea of sendin' 'em by express. Our agent at
Red Hill tumbled to the idea at once; but he wouldn't take any money in
advance, and said he would send 'em 'C. O. D.' like any other package.
And he did, and here they are! That's all! And now, gentlemen, as I've
got to deliver them personally to this Spindler, and get his receipt and
take off their checks, I reckon we must toddle. Come, Bill, help take
'em up!"

"Hold on!" said a dozen voices. A dozen hands were thrust into a dozen
pockets; I grieve to say some were regretfully withdrawn empty, for it
was a hard season in Rough and Ready. But the expressman stepped before
them, with warning, uplifted hand.

"Not a cent, boys,--not a cent! Wells, Fargo's Express Company don't
undertake to carry bullion with those kids, at least on the same
contract!" He laughed, and then looking around him, said confidentially
in a lower voice, which, however, was quite audible to the children,
"There's as much as three bags of silver in quarter and half dollars in
my treasure box in the coach that has been poured, yes, just showered
upon them, ever since they started, and have been passed over from agent
to agent and messenger to messenger,--enough to pay their passage from
here to China! It's time to say quits now. But bet your life, they are
not going to that Christmas party poor!"

He caught up the boy, as Yuba Bill lifted the little girl to his
shoulder, and both passed out. Then one by one the loungers in the
bar-room silently and awkwardly followed, and when the barkeeper turned
back from putting away his decanters and glasses, to his astonishment
the room was empty.

*****

Spindler's house, or "Spindler's Splurge," as Rough and Ready chose to
call it, stood above the settlement, on a deforested hillside, which,
however, revenged itself by producing not enough vegetation to cover
even the few stumps that were ineradicable. A