ppearing in the
character of a mendicant, and I finally came to the conclusion that we
must remain at Santa Fe for a time, until I could find some employment
by which to earn sufficient means to enable us to return to our former
home. I had forgotten the fact that I possessed a warm friend in Ned
Harding, or, if I had thought of him in this connection, it was not with
any idea that he could aid me.

In this I was mistaken, as the sequel will show. On the third morning
after my return, Ned called me out under pretence of taking a walk, and
after strolling about for a time in silence, he opened his mind as
follows: "Well lad, what are ye goin' to do next? I suppose you don't
intend to stay here in this 'ere God forsaken hole, that these
yaller-bellies calls a city; the Lord forgive their ignorance; if they
could only see Lunnon, once--well, as I was a sayin', you can't stay
here, and you can't take your little girl back into the mining kentry,
very well; so what do you mean to do? let old Ned know, and don't go
round, keepin' as close as an ister, and never sayin' nothin' to
nobody." Thus admonished, I forgot my reserve, and fully explained to
him my dilemma. He listened in silence until I had finished, and then
broke forth with--"Why, Lord bless ye, lad, yer gettin' foolish,
certain, ho! ho! yer little woman has turned yer head, sure; why, you
forgot all about the mine, and I reckon there's vally enough to that to
send ye home like a nabob, if you like to travel that way."

"The mine!" I exclaimed in surprise, "why Ned, I thought we had
abandoned it altogether, you don't mean to tell me that I can realize
anything from the claim?"

"You bet, I mean just that;" said Harding, his features expanding into a
broad grin as he marked my look of utter astonishment. "Why lad, if we
were all agreed on the thing, I've got a party here that'll give us five
thousand apiece for our claim--I ain't such a fool as I look, and it
wa'nt for nothin' that I left Pete there a holdin' possession, and there
he'll stay till he hears from me--so now if you're willin' to take five
thousand for your sher, just say the word, and we'll have it settled in
no time."

Further inquiry elicited the information that during the two days
previous, while I had spent my time in unprofitable cogitation, Ned had
been "kinder prospectin' round among the speckilaters," as he termed it,
and had found parties willing and anxious to buy the claim held jointly
by